The Dorothy Burlage Collection, which dates from 1966-1971 and measure .42 linear feet, documents the activism and activities of Southeast Neighborhood House in the Anacostia area of Washington, DC. Burlage worked for the organization during the 1960s. The collection includes newspaper clippings, newsletters, correspondence and writings focusing on community organizing, public housing, and social change. Also present are issues of Southeast News, a Southeast Neighborhood House publication.
Biographical:
Dorothy Dawson Burlage was born on September 13, 1937, in San Antonio, TX,
to Joseph Dawson and Virginia Hendrix Dawson. Burlage attended Mary Baldwin
University for one year before transferring to the University of Texas at Austin, where
she became involved in campus political movements, such as National Student
Association (NSA) and the YWCA Christian Faith and Life Community. Burlage
graduated in 1959 and moved to Illinois to become the program director of the YMCA at
the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana. During her time with the YMCA, she
collaborated with members of NSA and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) to
organize various demonstrations, rallies, and protests focused on racial equality.
Burlage also became an official member of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)
and began working with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). While
working for the YMCA, Burlage met several prominent Civil Rights activists and
workers, including Tom (1939-2016) and Casey Hayden (1937-2023), Alan Haber
(1936- ), and Ella Baker (1903-1986).
Burlage attended the Harvard Divinity School for a year and a half, before
moving to Atlanta, Georgia in the winter of 1961-1962 to pursue work with the NSA's
Southern Students Human Relations Project. Burlage was tasked with developing
educational plans for White and Black students on integrated campuses and planning
voter registration programs. During this time, Burlage met more prominent figures in the
Civil Rights movement, such as Joan Browning (1943- ), Anne Braden (1924-2006),
Constance "Connie" Curry (1933-2020) and Bob Zellner (1939- ). Soon after, Burlage
moved to Raleigh, North Carolina to take a director position with the Raleigh Citizens
Associations (RCA). Burlage worked closely with students from local Black colleges to
develop voter registration strategy.
In August of 1962, Burlage moved back to Atlanta for one year before moving to
Nashville, Tennessee, in 1963 with her husband, Robb Burlage (1937- ). For the next
two years, the couple worked with SDS and Southern Student Organizing Committee
(SSOC) to help bridge gaps between the organizations' missions and goals. By mid-1965, Burlage and her husband moved to Washington D.C. where she became a community organizer in the Anacostia neighborhood, working primarily with the Southeast Neighborhood House. She joined fellow community activists, such as Etta Horn (1928-2001), Zora Martin-Felton (1930-2022), Walter Washington (1915-2003), and John Kinard (1936-1989), to organize a strong, community-based grassroots
movement in Anacostia. The group Burlage was involved in was known as the "Target
Team" and they worked with other local groups, including "Rebels with a Cause" and
"Band of Angels." In 1966, Burlage and other community members helped Marion Barry
(1936-2014) organize a citywide bus boycott to protest fare increases. The Target Team
disbanded in 1968, feeling they had succeeded in their mission to support the
movement in Anacostia. By 1970, after her divorce and the death of her friend, Ralph
Featherstone (1939-1970), Burlage left community activism to pursue graduate studies.
Burlage received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from Harvard University, where
her political involvement shifted to focus on women and family policies. In 2023, Burlage
is a child psychologist in private practice focusing on children and adolescents.
Provenance:
Donated by Dorothy Burlage in 2017.
Restrictions:
Use of the materials requires an appointment. Please contact the archivist at ACMarchives@si.edu
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
7 Prints (11 x 15 inches; 12 pages; 7 digital images)
Type:
Archival materials
Prints
Place:
Washington D.C., United States
Date:
1980 April
Collection Restrictions:
Use of the materials requires an appointment. Please contact the archivist at acmarchives@si.edu.
Collection Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Jesse Hillard is a resident of the Marcus Garvey homes in Brooklyn, New York. She has lived there for over thirty years and witnessed all the changes it has undergone in that time. She talks about what is wrong with the community and what she thinks can fix it. Hillard also talks the failures of the New York City Housing Assocation and how they are failing tenants.
Collection Restrictions:
Use of the materials requires an appointment. Please contact the archivist to make an appointment: ACMarchives@si.edu.
Collection Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Interview created as part of the research for the Anacostia Community Museum's "A Right to the City" exhibition.
Collection Restrictions:
Use of the materials requires an appointment. Please contact the archivist to make an appointment: ACMarchives@si.edu.
Collection Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Interview created as part of the research for the Anacostia Community Museum's "A Right to the City" exhibition.
Collection Restrictions:
Use of the materials requires an appointment. Please contact the archivist to make an appointment: ACMarchives@si.edu.
Collection Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Interview created as part of the research for the Anacostia Community Museum's "A Right to the City" exhibition.
Collection Restrictions:
Use of the materials requires an appointment. Please contact the archivist to make an appointment: ACMarchives@si.edu.
Collection Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Interview created as part of the research for the Anacostia Community Museum's "A Right to the City" exhibition.
Collection Restrictions:
Use of the materials requires an appointment. Please contact the archivist to make an appointment: ACMarchives@si.edu.
Collection Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Interview created as part of the research for the Anacostia Community Museum's "A Right to the City" exhibition.
Collection Restrictions:
Use of the materials requires an appointment. Please contact the archivist to make an appointment: ACMarchives@si.edu.
Collection Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Interview created as part of the research for the Anacostia Community Museum's "A Right to the City" exhibition.
Collection Restrictions:
Use of the materials requires an appointment. Please contact the archivist to make an appointment: ACMarchives@si.edu.
Collection Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.