Home to Lafayette Elementary, Lafayette Park in Chevy Chase, DC has been a neighborhood staple for nearly a century. Yet, its true history was buried under development until recently, when it was renamed Lafayette-Pointer Park to honor Captain George Pointer—a formerly enslaved man who became an engineer and played a crucial role in shaping the region. The renaming recognizes both Pointer’s contributions and the painful displacement of Black families like his.

Born into slavery in 1773, Pointer worked on George Washington’s Potomac Company project, earning enough by age 19 to buy his freedom. He then contributed to the construction of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal, and later purchased two acres in what is now Chevy Chase, where his family lived for nearly 80 years. The house was passed down among generations until 1911, when the federal government seized the land via eminent domain to build Lafayette School, an all-white institution. The family was forced to sell the house for far below its value—a common injustice against Black landowners at the time.

For years, the Pointer’s family story was erased. In the early 2000s however, historians Barbara Boyle Torrey and Clara Myrick Green uncovered an 1829 letter from Pointer detailing his canal work. This discovery led them to James Fisher, a seventh-generation descendant who had no idea his ancestors once owned the land beneath Lafayette Park. In 2015, Fisher and his partner Tanya Hardy held a family reunion there, raising awareness about their lost history.

Momentum for change grew in 2020 when Lafayette Elementary students learned of the Pointer family’s displacement. Inspired, members of the S.P.A.R.K. Club (Students Planning A Revolution of Kindness) launched a letter-writing campaign urging officials to rename the park and install historical markers. Their efforts, alongside local activists like Tim Hannapel, led to over 550 petition signatures and the successful renaming of the park.

For Fisher, the renaming is a meaningful yet bittersweet recognition of his family’s legacy. The Pointer family’s story is just one example of many Black communities displaced in the name of progress. While the renaming is a step forward, it also raises deeper questions about justice and historical accountability.