The 575 African American students at Birney Elementary School are proud to be known as the Beavers. Their school’s colors are blue and yellow. The school’s motto is “To be ready for tomorrow, you must prepare today.” Birney educates students from preschool to the 6th grade.

The school was named after James Gillespie Birney who fought against slavery. In 1843, he freed the enslaved Africans that he received when he married. Because he worked to end slavery, his life was threatened and his printing shop was burned in Ohio.

Photo by Steven Cummings

Birney Elementary School is located at 2501 Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, SE. The first Birney Elementary School was built in 1889 and had four rooms. The new brick building, which had 26 rooms, opened in 1959. The school is in the Barry Farms section of Anacostia, also called Hillsdale.

Birney’s mission is to “foster a positive teaching-learning environment, enabling each student to progress at his/her own level. . . .” Special programs at Birney include Heads Up, Spelling Bee, Drum Corps, Project Excite, Beveridge and Diamond Environmental Science for 6th graders, and a plant growing program with Hands On DC.

Birney is a school of distinction, which has been visited by First Lady Laura Bush and Virginia Governor Mark Warner. It also has state-of-the-art computer workstations donated by Verizon.

The principal of Birney Elementary School is LeRoy M. Owens, and the assistant principal is Charles C. Webb Jr.

Information provided by Birney Elementary School

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