Week III: The National Archives
March 24, 2023
“Mom, thank you for naming me KYRIE. I am grateful you hid me from the world long enough until I was ready to overstand who I AM. My roots and ancestors lead me back to AFRAKA and I am damn proud to overstand all of the KNOWLEDGE that was left behind for Application.🤞🏾♾” – Kyrie Irving
What’s up, ladies, gentlemen, people, and everything in between? Today, I will be writing about week three of my senior project.
This week, the topic was decided to be focused on searching the national archives. If you’ve been reading my blogs so far, I’ve been focusing on the controversial Three Sisters Bridge in Washington D.C. The Three Sisters Bridge was supposed to run over the Three Sisters Island, but the bridge was heavily opposed by some people in D.C. due to destroying their communities and environmental pollution into the river. As suggested by my senior project advisor, I decided to search the National Archives for possibly more information relating to the Three Sisters Bridge. So far, all my research has been focused on the Washington Post historical database to see what I could find on people’s opinions on the bridge. This time, searching through the National Archive would be a different experience.
https://catalog.archives.gov/search?page=1&q=three%20sisters%20bridge
After going through the archives, I found 427 pages of sources (a lot!). After some discussion, I decided to choose the files from Record Group 65 (FBI) at the College Park location. Three are listed on the website. Their descriptions all start with WFO.
All that was left was to write the email to the National Archives, and that’s exactly what I did.
Dear National Archives, I am Arthur Hu, and I am working on a project for my school focused on investigating freeway revolts in Washington D.C, most notably on the Three Sisters Bridge. I am working with Dr. Thomas Zeller of the University of Maryland. The project is for my senior year at BASIS Independent Mclean.
I was searching the National Archives to see what information was available, and I saw the files from Record Group 65 (FBI) at the College Park location. These files are WFO, [Washington, DC] – 157-2679-v.1 [Classification – Civil Unrest] — Demonstrations Against Construction of Three Sisters Bridge, Washington, D.C; WFO, [Washington, DC] – 157-2679-v.2 [Classification – Civil Unrest] — Demonstrations Against Construction of Three Sisters Bridge, Washington, D.C; and WFO, [Washington, DC] – 157-614-v.4 [Classification – Civil Unrest] — Marion Barry — Demonstration Protesting Construction of Three Sisters Island Bridge. Links to these files will be provided below.
All three files have their access possibly restricted. I was wondering if it would be possible for me to visit the archives somehow and access the physical records. Having access to these files would be invaluable, as they could provide a different perspective on the Three Sisters Bridge protests in the 60s and 70s. If you would like to contact me back, please respond back to this email.
Thank you.
Links:
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/5421842
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/5421843
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/5421006