D.C. will join national parks across the country this weekend in honoring four centuries of African American history with a bell ringing.
The ceremony is set to take place on Aug. 25, 400 years to the day that the first ship of enslaved Africans arrived in Hampton, Virginia, then occupied by the British. The National Park Service has asked that parks nationwide ring bells for four minutes (one minute for each century of African American history) at 3 p.m. Eastern time.
Additionally, national park sites around D.C. will be honoring the day with special events, per a release from NPS.
- Carter G. Woodson Home: DC Strings will perform at 2:40, followed by the bell ringing and a tour of the Logan Circle site.
- Fort Washington Park: At the historic fort in Prince George’s County, visitors will participate in a moment of reflection and bell ringing.
- Frederick Douglass National Historic Site: In addition to the bell ringing, the site in Southeast D.C. will host a house tour and a group reading of Douglass’ 1852 speech “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?”
- Georgetown Waterfront Park: This commemoration starts at 2 p.m., with speakers and a wreath laying at the meditation labyrinth at 33rd and Water streets NW. Georgetown churches will also ring their bells at 3 p.m.
- Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens: After the 3 p.m. bell ringing, the park will host an art class for families and beginner artists.
- Lincoln Park: A violinist will perform before the 3 p.m. bell ringing. Afterwards, the park will lead a tour and discussion of civil rights leader and educator Mary McLeod Bethune, who is immortalized in a statue there.
- Mary McLeod Bethune Council House: The bell ringing at 3 p.m. will be followed by a tour of the house near Logan Circle.
- Monocacy National Battlefield: Before this Frederick site was host to a Civil War battle, it was home to six farms where enslaved people worked and lived. The site will honor them and the African Americans who enlisted in the war by reading their names alongside the bell ringing.
- National Mall: The Washington Ringing Society will ring the bells in the Old Post Office clock tower at 3 p.m. (The building, meanwhile, shares space with the Trump International Hotel, which is operated by President Donald Trump’s son, Donald Jr.)
- Netherlands Carillon: The event at this site in Arlington Ridge Park begins at 2 p.m. In addition to the bell ringing (at which visitors are encouraged to bring their own bells), the carillon will play African American hymns.
- Oxon Hill Farm: The farm and former plantation in Maryland will host a bell ringing at 3 p.m.
- Peirce Mill: The Rock Creek Park site will ring bells at 3 p.m., to remember enslaved people who worked on the estate.
- Prince William Forest Park: Starting at 2:30 p.m., local historians will be on hand at this park near Quantico, Va., to discuss African American history. The bell ringing at 3 p.m. will be followed by remarks.
Lori McCue