Time To Say Goodbye To DC Or RFK Stadium

The DC or RFK land parcel could house another NFL stadium in the future.

Washington’s D. C. Stadium, which opened in 1961 and has not been used since 2017, is being torn down. The demolition process has started and the parcel of land, which is owned by Washington, D. C., could eventually be used to house a football facility or perhaps affordable housing. But that is a decision that will be made sometime in the future. It should be remembered that D. C. Stadium had a role in America’s civil rights movement in 1962. The National Football League’s Washington owner George Preston Marshall was a well-known racist and he refused to hire a Negro player for his football team. But Marshall had a chance to improve the bottom line by moving to a new stadium. It literally took the federal government to force Marshall’s hand.

The federal government had decided to build a multi-purpose stadium in Washington. Major League Baseball’s Washington Senators and the NFL team would be able to use the facility. But there was the Marshall white-only policy. President John F. Kennedy’s Interior Department played a major role in changing Marshall’s stance. Kennedy’s Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall told Marshall there was a law that prohibited discrimination in federal facilities. D. C. Stadium was a federal facility. Udall gave Marshall an ultimatum, hire Negro players or find somewhere else to play.
Cleveland traded Bobby Mitchell to Washington in a deal for a top draft pick that was initiated by the White House. Cleveland got the NFL rights to Syracuse University running back Ernie Davis. Marshall got a 30-year lease only after selecting Davis and making the Mitchell deal. Marshall was the last owner in the National Football League to desegregate his team. D. C. Stadium’s life is over but it was a place where the civil rights movement made some history.

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DC or RFK Stadium is facing the wrecking ball.