20 feb 1968 & willie j hardy

#OTD-ish Monday 20 February 1968 Willie J. Hardy (5046 Benning Rd, SE) continued discussions with fellow activists about the ongoing closed-door meetings sponsored by the Justice Department for the International Association of Chiefs of Police about "preventing and controlling racial disorders." 

Just four weeks prior, on Saturday 20 January, Hardy tried to attend one of the meetings held at the Airlie House in Warrenton, Virginia. According to the Washington Post, she drove to Airlie and demanded to participate in the meeting that included 20+ white male police chiefs and white Attorney General Ramsey Clark. She was refused. Mayor-Commissioner Walter Washington and white police chief John B. Layton were scheduled to attended the following week's session. 

In 1968, Hardy was executive director of the Metropolitan Community Aid Council, an organization she founded to provide "emergency shelter, clothing, services...and job placement" to Washingtonians. She was also a member of the Black United Front.  

Please comment below. Did you know Willie J. Hardy in 1968? Were you a volunteer with or recipient of the Metropolitan Community Aid Council? Were you a member of the Black United Front? Do you remember reading about/discussing governmental preparations re uprisings? You may comment privately here.

Photo source: Courtesy DC Public Library Special Collections, 1968.
Rhonda Y. Williams, Concrete Demands: The Search for Black Power in the 20th Century 2015.
John Fialka, "Police Racial Session Bars Uninvited Woman Guest, Washington Post 20 January 1968.
"U.S. Gains Know-How to Foil Riots," Washington Post 20 January 1968.