front page - search - community

Student documentary preserves Shaw history
(Published June 28, 2004)

By STEPHANIE BRINSON
Staff Writer

On a sunny, spring day in June, the Whitelaw apartment building stands tall in a quiet neighborhood. Children play outside on the concrete steps and an occasional car rumbles by.

To the unknowing observer, the Whitelaw may appear to be just another low- to middle-income residence in the Shaw community. But, a documentary by three junior high school students shows that it is indeed a unique symbol of black history.

"Exploring an American Phoenix – The Whitelaw Hotel: Cultural Encounters and Exchanges in Washington, D.C. from Segregation through Integration," a documentary by eighth graders Jennifer Cohen, Fiona Kohrman and Grace Tiedemann of Deal Junior High School, recently placed seventh overall for junior group documentary at the National History Day national competition.

"They did some wonderful research just using local archives," said Mark Robinson, director of public affairs for National History Day, an annual event.

The students’ film also was awarded the African-American history prize, selected from all projects that were submitted.

The competition brought together more than 2,000 participants from around the country to the University of Maryland campus, where it was held June 13-17. Projects are judged in a junior division (grades 6, 7 and 8) and a senior division (grades 9, 10, 11 and 12). Participants choose a topic in line with the competition’s annual theme and do research to present it, individually or in a group, as a documentary, exhibit, paper or performance.

"Our goal was to get to nationals," Tiedemann said. "That was the dream, and anything beyond that is just amazing."

To do that, they knew they had to find an original local topic that offered a unique story about the area in which they lived. They also knew they wanted to do something involving black history.

"We knew that our city has so much rich black history," Tiedemann said. "We knew it was a very interesting topic and there was so much to learn about it."

Keeping the competition’s theme in mind – "Exploration, Encounter, Exchange in History" – the girls rummaged through the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library’s Washingtoniana Collection and discovered the Whitelaw. With its captivating history of glitz, luxury, plight and resurrection, the three knew they had found the subject for their film.

"The Whitelaw had a great story and it really mirrored what was happening in the surrounding community," Cohen said. "We just thought it would make a really cool project."

The Whitelaw Hotel, named for the mother of its builder, John Whitelaw Lewis, served as a luxurious housing complex in the early 20th century. It attracted prominent black entertainers and public figures, who were unable to rent rooms in the city’s "white" luxury hotels because of racial discrimination. By the 1950s, the hotel started to decline and became consumed by drugs and prostitution. The property, located at 1839 13th St. NW, has since been restored and houses apartments for low- and middle-income families.

After participating in the competition last year, the girls "knew what it was going to take to make a polished presentation," said Cynthia Mostoller, who taught Kohrman and Cohen.

Last year, Kohrman and Cohen chose the 1963 March on Washington as the subject for their documentary, and Tiedemann worked with another student to create a documentary on the rights and responsibilities of the press. Both projects made it to the national competition, but missed the finals.

The National History Day competition is revered at Deal. Out of 40 students from the District of Columbia who participated in the competition, 30 were from Deal Junior High School.

Deal social studies teachers assign the project as part of the school curriculum – "a wonderful teaching device with our classes," Mostoller said.

The assignment culminates in a large school competition. Top finishers are selected for the citywide contest, where those finalists advance to nationals.

This year, Kohrman, Cohen and Tiedemann placed first, citywide.

"They were very excited," Mostoller said of the girls’ citywide showing. "I wasn’t surprised, to tell you the truth. I’ve seen the competition and I knew theirs was just a superior piece of work."

To the tunes of Duke Ellington, the documentary highlights the roller coaster history of the Whitelaw and the Shaw neighborhood. Kohrman, Cohen and Tiedemann take turns narrating the story, while black and white photographs, sketches and video clips illustrate their descriptions.

The girls agreed that one of the hardest parts about making the documentary was the editing.

"You have to take everything you’ve worked on so far and bring it all into this small video so that it flows and it tells the story," Kohrman said.

In total, Tiedemann said, they collected about four hours of interview footage, only about two minutes of which appeared in the final version.

"We had enough information and enough side stories to make an hour-long documentary," Tiedemann said.

Contest rules dictate that the documentary can be no longer than 10 minutes and must include an annotated bibliography, and primary and secondary sources.

To edit the video, the girls scanned most of the pictures they were going to use at Kohrman’s house before lugging her computer to Cohen’s kitchen, where they set up an "editing studio" on the large, circular table in the middle of the room.

The set-up included the computer, a camera on a tripod that they used to tape photographs they couldn’t scan, another camera they used to record voice-overs, a pile of about 30 manila folders holding photographs and a stack of books they used to check facts.

The meticulous editing process lasted four days and took about 40 hours, altogether. The girls deliberated over sound levels, choosing the right photographs and making precise transitions, while tuning out the typical household activities bustling around them.

"It was almost like we would be in a bubble and everyone would walk in and we were just in our own little world at the computer," Tiedemann said.

Because of the documentary’s historical and racial significance, it was selected to be shown at the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery.

Needless to say, they all got As.