In an article written by Historical Society Vice-President for Collections Gail Redman for “Washington History” in 2001 highlighting collections at HSW she wrote about the AOI’s archives and mentioned, in passing, “…a parallel African-American Organization – The Oldest Inhabitants, Inc. – [that] was founded in 1912, but is no longer active.” This prompted a search for former members of that organization and its records.

The quest for those records and the connection between these two organizations -- one White, one Black -- began to be realized in 2022 and continues to this day.

The Challenge

AOI President Bill Brown and Historian Nelson Rimensnyder set out to discover why these two similar but disparate organizations had a shared history, the Black organization's Letters of Incorporation a word-for-word copy of the White organization that was founded 47 years earlier.  In spite of Washington Post Columnist John Kelly's attempts to hear from descendants of the Black organization, no one came forward and it was believed any remaining records of the organization were lost to the dustbin of history.

The Quest

In what turned out to be a serendipitous discovery, while conducting research for an up-coming book, AOI Member, Author and Historian James Goode discovers 20-year's worth of records for the Oldest Inhabitants, (Colored) Incorporated in the basement of the granddaughter of who was thought to be their last presiding official. 

The Solution

While James Goode's discovery revealed that the Oldest Inhabitants (Colored), Incorporated had indeed survived beyond last known records in the early 1920's, the mystery remained unresolved as what common element existed that, at times, drew these two organizations together and their common DNA.

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