Halls Hill Segregation Wall

This wall is a reminder of racial segregation in the historically African American community of Hall's Hill. During construction of the Woodlawn Village subdivision in the 1930s, a wall of various materials and heights was built here to separate blacks from the adjacent white neighborhood. The only through-street in Hall's Hill at that time was N. Edison St. During the late 1950s, children from Hall's Hill removed a small section of the wall to create a passage to a nearby creek. In 1966, Arlington County removed a larger section of the wall, allowing full access to and from Hall's Hill. Sections of the wall still stand today.

In Hall’s Hill, a formerly segregated African American community dating to 1866, you can take a History Walking Tour featuring a Segregation Wall, which once separated Black and white neighborhoods. You can pay your respects at Calloway Cemetery, a historic resting place for 19th-century freed enslaved people. You can stop at Fire Station 8, the first Black-staffed and -operated fire station south of the Mason-Dixon line, dating to 1918. And you can admire the John M. Langston Mural, which pays tribute to Virginia’s first Black congressman. The artist included depictions of Freedman's Village, the segregation of the Hall's Hill neighborhood and the integration of public schools in the work.