Local historian, writer and artist Dianne Dale is a fourth-generation Anacostian and a long-time advocate for and leader in her community. A graduate of Howard University, where she earned a BA and two masters degrees, she was a founding member of the Organization for Anacostia Rowing and Sculling (OARS), which brought rowing as a sport to the Anacostia River. She helped develop a rowing program for local at-risk teens, which she expanded as project coordinator for the “I Have A Dream” Johnson Dreamers scholarship program at Johnson Jr. High school. Dale is also a founding member of the Anacostia Garden Club. A consummate artist and maker, she has demonstrated gardening, quilting, and stained glass making at venues in Washington, D.C., and in 2014, she was appointed to serve on the city’s African American Commission.
Dale was an early member of the Anacostia Historical Society and a board member of the Anacostia Neighborhood Museum in its formative years. She published an illustrated history of Anacostia, The Village that Shaped Us, and commented that “Everybody has a story, and so we need to record the stories…our story’s being told by other people…and that’s dangerous.” As early as 1977, the Anacostia Neighborhood Museum’s Board of Directors voted to include her portrait in “Phil Ratner’s Washington,” an exhibition honoring current and former Anacostia residents who contributed to the civic life of the community.
