After the announcement that Police Officers of Breonna Taylor would not be charged for her murder, protesters marched through several neighborhoods in Northwest, D.C. bringing awareness to the police brutality on Black and Brown people.

Dee Dwyer / DCist/WAMU

This year has been a year like no other: from a pandemic that ground life as we knew it to a halt, to a new and sweeping era of racial justice protests, the D.C. region has been the epicenter of many of 2020’s most memorable and poignant moments.

Take a look back with us at some of these moments and the stories behind them:

U.S. Park police stand separating a group of Black Lives Matter demonstrators and pro-Trump demonstrators on the National Mall as fireworks explode on July 4th.

Black Lives Matter protesters and pro-Trump demonstrators clashed near the Washington Monument on the Fourth of July. Tyrone Turner / DCist/WAMU

Extracurricular Activities: Double Dutch instructor, Robin Ebb, gives her student, Maddison, directions on how to confidently jump into the rope.

Some adults in wards 7 and 8 created memorable summer experiences for kids in a summer like no other, even as their communities were impacted disproportionately by the pandemic. Dee Dwyer / DCist/WAMU

Health personnel staff a COVID-19 testing site at FedEx Field in Prince Georges County, Md., in March 2020. D.C., Maryland and Virginia instituted sweeping shutdowns across the region and increased their push for coronavirus testing.

A health care professional stands outside a coronavirus testing site at FedEx Field in Prince Georges County, Md., in March 2020. Tyrone Turner / DCist/WAMU

Activists Kian Kelley-Chung, Bethelehem Yirga, Ty Hobson-Powell, and Rahim stand on Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, D.C. They have worked as organizers on the front lines of the latest wave of racial justice protests in the District.

Kelley-Chung, Yirga, Hobson-Powell, and Rahim have helped lead the Black Lives Matter protests in D.C. this year. But they’ve also had to pause to assess the toll that work has taken on them. Dee Dwyer / DCist/WAMU

Jenn McLucas (facing camera) embraces resident Nichole Schuster after the first graduation ceremony at Brooke’s House in January 2020. McLucas serves as the clinical director for the long-term addiction treatment facility in Hagerstown, Md.

Brooke’s House opened last summer. The women residents go through six months of intense counseling as they navigate the program of sobriety and medical-assisted treatment. Tyrone Turner / DCist/WAMU

Elvera Partrick stands in her hallway in her ball gown, prepared to represent D.C. in a senior pageant.

Patrick sees the pageants as a way to celebrate womanhood and sisterhood. Dee Dwyer / DCist/WAMU

Surrounded by loved ones, Pastor Michelle Thomas grieves at the stone marking her son’s grave at the African American Burial Ground for the Enslaved at Belmont near Leesburg, Va. Her son, Fitz Alexander Campbell Thomas, 16, died in June and is the first free African American to be buried at the site.

Thomas led a community effort to gain custody of the grounds and clear the overgrowth and trees that obscured the old fieldstones. Her work sparked new interest in other abandoned African American graveyards, setting an example for preservationists across Virginia. Tyrone Turner / DCist/WAMU

Ayanna Gregory, a singer-songwriter and activist, honors the memories of prominent Black ancestors and people killed by police.

Gregory led the ceremony where families lit candles and placed them on an altar with photos of their loved ones, amethyst rocks, sage, and oils. Tyrone Turner / DCist/WAMU

D.C. mourned two national political icons who died in 2020: civil rights icon and longtime Congressman John Lewis and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Thousands came to the steps of the U.S. Capitol and the Supreme Court to pay their respects to both Lewis and Ginsburg. In this photo, Evangelist Mary Clement of Silver Spring, Md., waves an American flag as she looks up at Lewis’s casket.

The public viewing of Lewis’s casket saw a long line of people wrapping around the blocks leading up to the front steps of the U.S. Capitol. Tyrone Turner / DCist/WAMU

Charles Gussom Jr., assistant director of Martha’s Table, community council member Joe Houston and volunteer Dominic Rowe stand outside a mural of abolitionist Frederick Douglass. They passed out grocery bags to underserved communities in Southeast, D.C. during the pandemic.

Martha’s Table distributed groceries in Wards 7 and 8 through a total of 10 grab-and-go grocery sites it opened during the coronavirus pandemic. Dee Dwyer / DCist/WAMU

Crowds flocked to Black Lives Matter Plaza on Nov. 7 as Joseph Biden and Kamala Harris were declared victors of the 2020 presidential election. In this photo, D.C. residents Tessa Velasquez and Yera Park embrace during celebrations of Biden and Harris’ victory in downtown D.C.

Thousands of people poured into downtown D.C. after news broke that Joseph Biden had won the presidency, marking a jubilant end to five consecutive days of anxious demonstrations near the White House. Tyrone Turner / DCist/WAMU

For more stories from the past year, check out our Year End 2020 coverage. 

Filed Under: Year End 2020,