Source: JEWEL SAMAD / Getty
The free gathering, which dates back to the 1890s, almost as far as the White House Easter Egg Roll. Oral history says that black domestic workers were required to work on Easter Sunday, so Monday was the day of family celebration. And since the White House in those segregated days either didn’t allow or strongly discouraged African-Americans at its egg roll, the District’s black residents created their own.
The city’s trolleys offered discount fares on Easter Monday, and children rode free, so the zoo became a hugely popular venue with picnics, its own Easter egg roll on the Great Meadow, live music and in later years, a visit from the “Easter panda.”
In the 1960s, the zoo administration began offering organized events, too. This year check out the activities scheduled at the Smithsonian Nation Zoo here: http://nationalzoo.si.edu/ActivitiesAndEvents/Celebrations/Easter/
