A Langston for Langston, But Not That One

Carver Langston has a new mural! The narrative features an abstract sort of geometric nature theme, switches to a sunglasses-decked woman representing Northeast DC, transitions to a male historical figure, then to a montage of pencils, an image of hands on a typewriter, then finally returning to the geometric nature theme to cap it all off. It's lovely, bold, colorful, and we deserve more murals like this in Carver Langston. But there's just one thing about this one...

As you may know, on paper, Carver Langston is really two neighborhoods. Carver is the triangular shaped part of the neighborhood north of Maryland Ave NE, going up to the Arboretum. Langston is the part of the neighborhood south of Maryland, going down to Benning Road.

Carver's namesake is a person most of us learned about in elementary school, George Washington Carver. Carver was one of America's top intellectuals and inventors of the early 20th century.

Langston takes its name from the Langston Terrace Dwellings (c. 1938), one of the first federally funded housing communities in the United States. And in turn the Dwellings were named after John Mercer Langston. Langston is a remarkable figure. Among the long list of accomplishments are Dean (and founder) of Howard University Law School, Vice President of Howard U, U.S. Ambassador to Haiti, and the first black person to represent Virginia in the U.S. House of Representatives (overcoming a nefarious, racist ex-Confederate from his own political party as well as election fraud from the other party). Here's a photo of John Mercer Langston:

But he's not the Langston pictured on the mural. That distinction belongs to Langston Hughes. Hughes was one of America's top writers in the early and mid 20th century, including poetry, novels, and popular essays. Hughes was born James Mercer Langston Hughes, and is on the John Mercer Langston family tree. However, they are absolutely two very different people from different eras.

As the mural was progressing last fall, I biked by daily to and from work, trying to catch up with the artist, Aniekan Udofia. We first met back last summer when we got to talking one day about his epic mural at Ben's Chili Bowl.

I had to ask about the figure just being completed on the new mural, clearly resembling Langston Hughes. I kind of guessed what had happened, but wanted to be respectful and acknowledge that I knew nothing about the origin story of this artwork.

My best understanding is the artist received a commission from Flats at Atlas apartment building and somehow they ended up on Langston Hughes as the main historical character. And that was that. By the time any discrepancy was noticed (apparently the day I mentioned it to the artist), the commission was well on the way to delivery. Now we have a great mural of Langston Hughes. 

I LOVE THE MURAL! Hughes is obviously worth acknowledging and is famously the inspiration for the name of a DC restaurant empire. I believe it was just an honest mistake associating Langston with Langston, and momentum carried it forward. I'm not mad though. We have a mural by one of the DC area's top muralists. The mural is located on the south side of the Flats at Atlas apartment building, 1600 Maryland Ave NE. Take the X2 bus or DC Streetcar to 15th Street and walk towards the CVS store.

And yes, we still have a proper painting of John Mercer Langston. It's on 19th Street NE near Bennett Place. You just have to look down!