Man aims to attract tourists to Southeast DC with black history tours

A local man is hoping to change the way people think about Southeast D.C. by giving African American history tours starting off in the Anacostia neighborhood of the District.

Donald Folden, the founder of Capital Buddy Tours, has launched two tours in the city - one about the Underground Railroad in D.C. and one about D.C. black history.

"There are no daily African-American tours in D.C. and we have a lot of rich African-American history that is just dying on the vine," he said. "I want to set myself apart and start over here in Anacostia."

The tour explores the historic black neighborhoods of the District of Columbia, especially in Southeast.

"This area has a dangerous stigma and I think it's time to start attracting tourists to come over in Southeast because it is not as bad as people are saying it really is," said Folden.

"I learned about this tour because I took the DC Underground Railroad tour a few weeks ago and I learned so much stuff that I had never heard, never learned in school," said one tour-goer. "When I saw this tour come up, and today is the first day, I wanted to be on it so I signed up."

Folden hopes to provide a tour that is informative while celebrating black history in the nation's capital.

"This is not a woe is me tour," he said. "Yes, there is some painful, ugly history that we share, but what we celebrate is triumphs and the successes of black people in Washington D.C. That is what we try to highlight."