The Atlantic's Holy Week Podcast LIVE!

Our celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Home Rule

Bringing the Atlantic Magazine's, Vann Newkirk and the Holy Week Podcast to the stage as Newkirk interviews DC residents on the uprising of 1968 and its connection to the Home Rule movement.

“The story we are often given transforms King’s death from a tragedy into a sort of redemption. The final chapter of a victorious movement for justice. But that story is wrong.”

The Atlantic magazine's recent podcast Holy Week, reported by senior editor Vann R. Newkirk II, tells the story of the uprisings that followed the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968––one of the most fiery, disruptive, and contentious weeks in American history––and how those seven days diverted the course of a social revolution. April 4, 1968, is remembered by many as the end of the civil-rights movement, and a time of loss.

Holy Week tells a new story: a story that completely changes how we understand the entire trajectory of modern America. It also tells the story of Washington, D.C., where much of this history took place, with dozens of original interviews and rarely heard archival material.

Now, The Atlantic and the MLK Library are partnering to bring Holy Week to the stage. Join us for a timely conversation about this moment in D.C. and American history––with the people who lived it and who animate the Holy Week podcast. Vann will lead a discussion with activists, movement leaders, and residents who watched their city burn and whose lives were forever changed.

Learn more about the panelists below and register to reserve your seat.

For reasonable accommodations, please contact the Center for Accessibility at 202-727-2142 or DCPLaccess@dc.gov. For ASL or tactile interpretation, please allow at least seven (7) days notice.

Vann Newkirk

Vann R. Newkirk II is a senior editor at the Atlantic, and the host and co-creator of narrative podcasts Floodlines and Holy Week. For years, Newkirk has covered voting rights, democracy, and environmental justice, with a focus on how race and class shape the country's and the world's fundamental structures, in print and audio. Newkirk is a 2022 Andrew Carnegie fellow, and was a 2020 James Beard Award Finalist, a 2020 11th Hour Fellow at New America, and a 2018 recipient of the American Society of Magazine Editors's ASME Next Award. In 2021, Newkirk received the Peabody Award for Floodlines.

Meet the Panelists

Vanessa Dixon

Vanessa Lawson Dixon was born and raised in the District of Columbia. She witnessed and  participated in the 1968 D.C. riots as a 12-year-old, and her older brother, Vincent Lawson, went missing during the uprising. Dixon retired 10 years ago after 40 years of federal service in the FAA Washington headquarters, and her family’s 1968 story has been the subject of several local news features. 

Dixon has been a resident of Prince George's County, Maryland for the past 43 years. She is passionate about caring for the vulnerable seniors and elderly in her neighborhood, and is a neighborhood advocate and longtime member of the Peppermill Village Civic Association. She is a proud mother of a successful daughter and two awesome sons; and Grandma of 8 sweet grandchildren.

Tony Gittens, Founder and Director
Washington, DC International Film Festival

Anthony (Tony) Gittens is Founder and Director of the Washington, DC International Film Festival, now in its 38th year. Tony served as Executive Director of the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, the official cultural agency of the District of Columbia.

In recognition of his contributions, Tony has been presented with numerous acknowledgements, including Officer in the Order of Arts and Letters, French Ministry of Culture; the Mayor's Award for Excellence in Service to the Arts and Professor Emeritus of the University of the District of Columbia. He was profiled in the PBS Eyes on the Prize television series for his contributions to the Civil Rights Movement. 

Frank Smith, Ph.D.

Frank Smith, Jr., is a commentator, civil rights activist, politician, and speaker. Smith attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, where he was a founding member of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Smith left Morehouse during his senior year to play a role in the Civil Rights Movement. From 1962 until 1968, Smith worked with SNCC organizing and registering African Americans voters in Mississippi and Alabama. He is noted for his involvement and leadership role in planning and executing protests and marches in Greenwood, Mississippi, during the Freedom Summer of 1964.

In 1968, Smith moved to Washington, D.C., when he accepted a job as a researcher for the Institute for Policy Studies, focusing on education and planning issues. Smith became involved in local community issues and was elected to serve as an Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner (ANC). In 1978, Smith unsuccessfully ran for the District of Columbia City Council, but the following year he was elected to public office and served one term on the D.C. Board of Education. In 1980, Smith earned his Ph.D. degree from the Union Institute in Ohio.

In 1982, Smith was elected to the District of Columbia City Council where he represented one of the most racially, ethnically, and economically diverse wards in the city. Smith was subsequently elected to serve four terms on the Council, remaining there until 1998. During his tenure on the Council, Smith supported legislation creating subsidies for housing down payments, a lottery system for disposing of condemned and surplus housing and establishing tax incentives for new business development.

In 1998, Smith became chairman of the board and chief executive officer for the organization which worked to establish the African American Civil War Memorial and an accompanying museum. It is the only national memorial to the colored troops who fought in the Civil War and one of the most unique memorials in Washington, D.C.

Smith has received numerous awards for his civic, community and political leadership.

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