By Michele N-K Collison

Every Easter Monday, Iris Braxton’s dad would shine up his taxicab, load Braxton, her mother, sisters, brothers and other neighborhood kids inside, and head across town to the National Zoo of the Smithsonian Institutions. In the trunk would be the makings for a 1950s picnic feast: fried chicken, cakes, and iced tea.

“We lived for Easter Monday,” said Washingtonian Iris Braxton. “It was magic to go to this place to see animals and hills. Everyone was so happy.”

According to the zoo web site, nationalzoo.si.edu, “Easter Monday has been a Washington-area multicultural tradition for many years,” welcoming thousands of area families free of charge.

A young Washingtonian enjoys the tradition of Easter Monday at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. Photo by Meghan Murphy, National Zoo of the Smithsonian Institutions.

This year’s event will be held Monday, April 13, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., rain or shine, and include the Easter egg hunt, a chance to meet the Easter Bunny, organized games and activities, arts and crafts, arcade games, and Double-Dutch jumping rope throughout the Zoo. A special highlight is an exhibition and lecture featuring “The Peace Quilt,” created to honor and continue the legacy of civil rights activist Rosa Parks.

Some say that Easter Monday began in the 1890s because African Americans were barred from participating in the White House Easter Egg Roll. Since that time, the Monday after Easter Sunday has been a Washington, DC tradition, an unofficial holiday providing rest and recreation for many Washington, DC families.

Officials at the National Zoo say it is “hard to pin down” just when the tradition began—and why. Others say the tradition began because many blacks, employed as domestics, had to work on Easter Sunday. “You didn’t get that day off,” Braxton said. “People’s parents took off so they could take their kids to the zoo.”

Preparation could be intense. Braxton recalled shopping at one of Washington’s department stores – Morton’s or Lansburgh’s – for an Easter dress, hat, gloves and a handkerchief, “because every lady had to have a handkerchief.”

Braxton enjoyed her new outfits, but hated wearing them to Easter Monday at the Zoo. “You had to be a statue,” she said. “If you got dirty, you were going to get a whipping. |

Jackie Jones shares keen memories of Easter Monday at the Zoo. Her father would pick her up in his “money-green” 1950 Ford and wind his way through Washington to get to the zoo, where they visited the same exhibits each year: the elephants, the apes and the aviary.

“My family never made a big deal about it being a day for black folks,” Jones said. “It all just seemed normal to see lots of us there. I can remember seeing other children participate in an Easter egg hunt or some impromptu games, but my interest was in seeing the animals.”

It was years later, Jones said, “when I understood the concept of ‘colored day’ – yes, I’m old enough to remember that – and then African-American day” at the zoo.

Color-Coded Easter Egg Rolls?

For many Washingtonians, Easter Monday is synonymous with the annual White House Easter Egg Roll, which includes a race with children pushing an egg through the grass with a long-handled club; White House personalities in Easter Bunny costumes; and more.

The White House Easter Egg Roll is reported to have been started in 1814 by Dolley Madison on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol. After Congress passed a law making it illegal to use the Capitol grounds as a children’s playground, President Rutherford B. Hayes and First Lady Lucy Hayes moved the event to the White House lawn.

Following a hiatus during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency, the tradition was revived by First Lady Mamie Eisenhower, who is said to have “opened the Easter Egg Roll to African-American children for the first time,” according to Blogged.com.

“In 1953, Mamie Eisenhower asked why black children were looking through the gates at the white children rolling eggs inside, and the following year she insisted that blacks be included,”  according to an April 10, 2006, article in The New York Times.

In another story, “The New York Times reported that a photo of blacks at the 1898 Easter egg roll is at the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum in Washington. However, the article also noted that few blacks attended the event (until well into the 20th century) because the reception waiting for them was usually chilly,” according to the article, “A History of the White House Easter Egg Roll,” in American Affairs.

“I don’t know where this myth came from that black families couldn’t go to the White House,” said Washington author Carolivia Herron, who attended the White House Easter Egg Roll in the 1950s with her schoolteacher mother and two cousins. “And it wasn’t because we were passing either. I’m brown and have nappy hair,” Herron emphasized.

“My mother would take us shopping at this children’s specialty store on Minnesota Avenue. She’d buy me an Easter outfit with a pretty hat and Easter basket, and she would take me and my cousins to the White House. The only requirement for entry was that you had to have a child in tow.

“There would be white people at the gates begging my mother to [let them] borrow one of us so they could get in,” Herron said, laughing at the memory. Once inside, Herron said she quickly tired of games like the Easter Egg Roll. “I just walked around the beautiful gardens; I walked around like I lived in this beautiful place.”

This year’s White House Easter Egg Roll will also be held Monday, April 13, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the South Lawn, featuring performers and special guests. For the first time, tickets were distributed online “so that more children and families from across the United States have the opportunity to experience this event,” according to WhiteHouse.gov, which reports that “The White House Easter Egg Roll dates back to 1878 and is … designed to encourage children and their families to come outdoors and celebrate the start of the spring season.”

Powerful Traditions

Whether or not it evolved as a response to racial bias or segregation, Easter Monday at the National Zoo is as viable and popular as its White House counterpart.

Iris Braxton continued her family tradition by taking her son, Eric, to Easter Monday at the zoo when he was growing up in the 1970s. “That’s all we knew how to do with our kids is what mama and daddy did with us,” said Braxton. “Those family traditions stuck.”

The Rev. Susan Newman, who grew up in Washington’s Adams-Morgan neighborhood, said she and her sister always looked forward to their Easter Monday celebrations. The preceding Sunday, when Newman and her sister would have to recite poetry or sing with the children’s choir at their church, “was an exiting time filled with beautiful dresses in pastel colors, patent leather shoes, with a matching purse, hat and gloves.”

But even more cherished was Easter Monday, “where ice cream, food and an Easter egg hunt were awaiting us at the National Zoo.” After those festivities, Newman’s family joined others in Rock Creek Park for a cookout.

“As the sun began to set, we’d return home, full of cotton candy, hot dogs, and jelly beans,” Newman recalled. “Our Easter Monday finery was wrinkled and worn, but our hearts were full of joy and gladness.”

Michele N-K Collison is a Washington, DC native, journalist and author of It’s All Good Hair: The Guide to Styling and Grooming Black Children’s Hair.

• Read more about Easter Monday from the National Zoo
  
• Learn more about this year’s White House Easter Egg Roll