Harold L. Ickes
Harold L. Ickes was the longest serving Secretary of the Interior to date, holding the post for 13 years from 1933 until 1946. He supported civil rights for African Americans, desegregating the Department of the Interior, including the National Parks, during his time in office. He helped facilitate <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/76">Marian Anderson’s</a> 1939 <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/101">concert at the Lincoln Memorial</a> on Easter Sunday, arranged after the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to allow the African American opera singer to perform in their segregated concert hall.
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=39&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Harold+L.+Ickes">Harold L. Ickes</a>
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. <a href="http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2007684151/resource/">View original photograph</a>.
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1920-1949">1920-1949</a>
Eleanor Roosevelt
As First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt championed equal opportunity for all races and for women, often communicating the opinions of civil rights leaders to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his administration. Roosevelt resigned from Daughters of American Revolution in 1939 when they refused to allow <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/76">Marian Anderson</a> to sing in Constitution Hall because she was African American; she then helped organize Anderson's <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/101">concert at the Lincoln Memorial</a>. Roosevelt was also an ally to <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/97">A. Philip Randolph</a>, particularly in the early 1940s when <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/329">civil rights leaders were protesting discrimination in the defense industry</a>. Roosevelt encouraged her husband to meet with Randolph and others in 1940, and again in 1941.
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=39&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Eleanor+Roosevelt">Eleanor Roosevelt</a>
Franklin D. Roosevelt Library. <a href="http://research.archives.gov/description/195319">View original photograph</a>.
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1920-1949">1920-1949</a>
Commissioners for the District of Columbia
In 1791, <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/152">President Washington</a> appointed Thomas Johnson, Daniel Carroll, and David Stuart commissioners to supervise the planning, design, and construction of the new capital city and surrounding federal district. They oversaw the survey and land acquisition of the district, and were responsible for approving a modified version of <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/82">Pierre Charles L'Enfant's</a> city plan.
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=39&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Commissioners+for+the+District+of+Columbia">Commissioners for the District of Columbia</a>
George Washington Papers, Library of Congress. <a href="http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=mgw4&fileName=gwpage105.db&recNum=1139&tempFile=./temp/~ammem_s5rR&filecode=mgw&next_filecode=mgw&prev_filecode=mgw&itemnum=20&ndocs=100">View original document</a>.
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Pre-1800s">Pre-1800s</a>
Thomas Jefferson
<p class="p1">Thomas Jefferson worked with President <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/152">George Washington</a> to advocate that the nation's capitol be situated on the banks of the <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/424">Potomac</a>. His sketch of a layout for the federal city is the oldest known plan of Washington, DC, and he shared his ideas with many of the early planners and architects of the city, including<a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/80"> L'Enfant</a>, <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/108">Hoban</a>, and <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/80">Latrobe</a>. He was the first president to serve entirely in Washington, DC, and he used the <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/20">Ellipse</a> and <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/66">White House</a> grounds for some of his scientific and agricultural experiments during his time in office.</p>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=39&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Thomas+Jefferson">Thomas Jefferson</a>
Image from the Independence National Historical Park Collection, via National Portrait Gallery.
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1800-1829">1800-1829</a>
George Washington
Authorized by The Residence Act of 1790 to select a site along the Potomac to be the home of the new national government, <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/36">President George Washington</a> was heavily involved in the planning and development of the new federal city. He chose the area which is now Washington, DC, as the site, insisting that its southern boundary include the city of Alexandria, which was a part of the District of Columbia until 1846. In 1791, he appointed <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/82">Pierre L'Enfant</a> to create a plan for laying out the streets and major buildings. Although L'Enfant technically answered to the <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/308">Commissioners</a> for the Territory, he sent all of his reports to President Washington.
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=39&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=George+Washington">George Washington</a>
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. <a href="http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2003677109/">View original image</a>.
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Pre-1800s">Pre-1800s</a>
Jeannette Rankin
Jeanette Rankin was the first woman member of Congress. Rankin served two nonconsecutive terms in 1916 and again in 1940, giving her the unique ability to vote against US entry into war for both World War I and World War II. Rankin continued her activism for women's rights and pacifism for her entire life. In 1968, at age 87, Rankin led a march on Washington of women's peace organizations who protested US involvement in the Vietnam War. Five thousand women descended on the National Mall, voicing their protest on the opening day of the 1968 Congressional session.
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=39&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Jeannette+Rankin">Jeannette Rankin</a>
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. <a href="http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/cph/item/2004672791/">View original image</a>.
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1890-1919">1890-1919</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1920-1949">1920-1949</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1950-1979">1950-1979</a>
Alexander Robey Shepherd
<p class="p1">As a member of the DC Board of Public Works and later as Governor of the District of Columbia, Alexander Robey "Boss" Shepherd managed a number of public works programs in the 1870s. He oversaw the project to fill in the part of the <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/201">Washington City Canal</a> which ran along present-day Constitution Avenue. A statue honoring Shepherd can be found just off the Mall at the intersection of 14th Street and Pennsylvania, Avenue, NW.</p>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=39&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Alexander+Robey+Shepherd">Alexander Robey Shepherd</a>
<p class="p1">William Tindall, "Governor Alexander R. Shepherd's Photograph," <em>Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Washington, D.C.</em> , Vol. 24, (1922), facing page 192. <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/40067165">View original image.</a></p>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1860-1889">1860-1889</a>
Hillel Kook
Hillel Kook was a Jewish activist and member of the Revisionist Zionist movement who was also known by the alias Peter Bergson. He lived in the United States during World War II and led the Emergency Committee to Save the Jewish People of Europe. In October 1943, Kook organized a <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/278">march on Washington</a> of nearly 500 Orthodox Rabbis in support of the Allied Forces, but also calling for more aid for European Jews. The <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/238">rabbis gathered at the Lincoln Memorial</a> and at the <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/59">Capitol</a>, giving addresses and offering prayers at both locations. President Roosevelt declined to meet with the group.
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=39&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Hillel+Kook">Hillel Kook</a>
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. <a href="http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2012648157/">View original photograph.</a>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1920-1949">1920-1949</a>
James A. Garfield
<p class="p1">President James Garfield was <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/347">shot twice in the back</a> by an assassin, <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/410">Charles Guiteau</a>, only five months after taking the oath of office. The attack took place at the <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/42">Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station</a> on Sixth Street. Garfield survived the attack but was extremely ill for two months. He finally died in September, 1881.</p>
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=39&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=James+A.+Garfield">James A. Garfield</a>
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. <a href="http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/brhc/item/brh2003000342/PP/">View original photograph</a>.
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1860-1889">1860-1889</a>
John Lewis
John Lewis was a civil rights activist who helped plan the <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/190">March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom</a> in 1963. At age 23, Lewis was the youngest speaker at the March. His strongly-worded speech criticized lawmakers and the President for not doing enough within their powers to stop racial discrimination and the attacks on non-violent protesters across the American south. Other speakers and organizers objected to parts of Lewis’s speech, and he reluctantly cut the most confrontational phrases. Even with these changes, Lewis’s speech was still a rousing call to action.
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=39&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=John+Lewis">John Lewis</a>
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. <a href="http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2003688130/">View original photograph</a>.
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1950-1979">1950-1979</a>