At History Unboxed®, we are constantly reminded that history is all around us. Living near DC, I’m reminded by the grand monuments and well-known historic sites. But there is a merry-go-round that sits in the middle of the National Mall, flanked by the Smithsonian museums and the Washington Monument, with a hidden history as a symbol of the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

In the Jim Crow era, many amusement parks had whites-only admissions policies. Only white children were allowed to ride on ferris wheels or roller coasters. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. himself reflected on the pain of this experience in his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”, April 16, 1963:

“When you suddenly find your tongue twisted, and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can’t go to the amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her little eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see the depressing clouds of inferiority begin to form in her little mental sky … then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait.”

A school bus full of white and Black protestors, July 4, 1963.

Gwynn Oak Park in Baltimore, Maryland was no exception. Throughout the 1950s, it was targeted for protests due to its racist admissions policies. On July 4, 1963, the most famous protest occurred; nearly 300 people from across Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC, traveled to demonstrate at Gwynn Oak Park. Tiny baby Sharon Langley, held by her father Charles, became the first Black child to ride the merry-go-round there. (She wrote her own children’s book about it too.) Almost two months later on August 28, 1963, Dr. King gave his “I Have a Dream” speech on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, and the Gwynn Oak Park policy was finally changed to integrate the park and allow both Black and white visitors.

Young visitors ride the Smithsonian Carousel, 1988.

The park closed in the 1970s, but the carousel found a new home; a short walk from where Dr. King gave his most famous speech, the Gwynn Oak Park carousel was installed in 1981. While it is currently removed and undergoing renovations, it should be back in place for the United States’ 250th birthday celebration in 2026.

There were many similar protests around the country at other amusement parks including at Glen Echo Park, Maryland. There may have even been some near you!

Marvous Saunders prior to his arrest for violating the park’s “whites only” policy, June 30, 1960.