A street in Washington, D.C., where the acclaimed 20th-century painter Alma Thomas lived and worked for over seven decades was renamed "Alma Thomas Way" on Monday. The new signs now mark the block between 15th and Church streets and 15th and Q streets, near the red brick home at 1530 15th Street, NW, where Thomas maintained a studio in her kitchen. The renaming follows a bill introduced by D.C. council member Christina Henderson in May 2024, approved unanimously by the council, and signed into law by Mayor Muriel Bowser in October. A ceremony with about 30 attendees, including Thomas's grand nephew Charles Thomas Lewis and Susan Talley of the Friends of Alma Thomas group, commemorated the event.
This honor matters because Alma Thomas was a trailblazing Black female artist who broke multiple barriers: she was the first student to earn a fine arts degree from Howard University (1924), a founding vice president of the pioneering Black-owned Barnett-Aden Gallery, and the first Black woman to receive a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art (1972). Her vibrant abstractions are also in the White House's permanent collection. The street renaming not only celebrates her legacy but also serves as a counterpoint to recent political efforts to dismantle Black Lives Matter Plaza in the city, underscoring the ongoing importance of recognizing local Black heroes and their contributions to American culture.