A Chevy Chase woman who joined students from Howard University to protest a “whites only” admission policy at Glen Echo Park in 1960 received the 2016 Humanitarian Award at Montgomery County’s Martin Luther King Jr. celebration Monday.
Esther Delaplaine, 92, was a resident in the Bannockburn neighborhood in the summer of 1960 when civil rights protests came to the county and began to focus on Glen Echo Park, which was operated by a private company that refused to allow blacks to enter.
She helped to organize other mothers in Bannockburn to form a support group for members of the D.C. Nonviolent Action Group, which was mostly made up of students from Howard and other local colleges, who were picketing the park.
“Ms. Delaplaine is a humble, behind-the-scenes champion for the civil rights movement here in Montgomery County and beyond,” said James Stowe, the director of the county’s Office of Human Rights who presented Delaplaine with the award. “Esther coordinated participation to make sure picketers were available and for three months arranged for food and drink to sustain the picketers. For her efforts, she endured heckling from non-sympathetic whites and members of the brown-clad Nazi party, who counter-protested their efforts.”
The next summer the park ended its white-only policy, which had been in place since the park opened in 1898. The company that ran the park later closed it in 1968 after attendance declined. It was reopened in 1971 and is now operated by the National Park Service as an arts center.
Delaplaine’s efforts also led to the county enacting a law that made it illegal to ban any individual from public places based on their race. She continues to fight for equality and currently assists families of individuals in prison, Stowe said.
Stowe and County Executive Ike Leggett presented Delaplaine with the award at the event in The Music Center at Strathmore in North Bethesda. The annual event included music performances, dances and other award presentations in honor of the late civil rights leader.
