Georgetown, D.C. Honors Tennis Stars, the Peters Sisters

Neighbors, old and new, came together at Rose Park in Georgetown Oct. 24 to dedicate its tennis courts to two black women who used it as young girls and as tennis stars, Margaret Peters and Roumania Peters Walker. The two-hour gathering of about 200 people for the unveiling of the Peters plaque was a unique and sentimental remembrance as well as affirmation of Georgetown’s African American roots. The Peters sisters grew up during a time of segregation — yet transcended it in achievement and love of their neighborhood.

The sisters won the doubles crown of the American Tennis Association for 15 years during the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s. Roumania Peters once bested Althea Gibson, America’s first black tennis star, and Margaret Peters played tennis with movie star Gene Kelly at Rose Park, which seemed to belong to the sisters as well as the neighborhood children, but is operated by D.C.’s Department of Parks and Recreation. Nicknamed “Pete and Repeat,” who lived at 2710 O St. NW, the dynamic duo now have supporters for their induction into the tennis hall of fame.

Among the new neighbors was Jeh Johnson, Secretary of Homeland Security, and his wife Susan DiMarco, who live across from the courts at 27th and O Streets NW. Among the old neighbors — those who grew up with Peters Sisters — was Daisy Peebles, who has lived her entire life in Washington, D.C.’s oldest neighborhood —along with the mother of Mayor Muriel Bowser, who grew up nearby, played in Rose Park and was baptized at Epiphany Catholic Church on Dumbarton Street.

David Dunning, president of Friends of Rose Park, led the ceremony and introduced a long line of speakers, all of whom together told a still-continuing story of black Georgetown. Dunning acknowledged the group’s board member David Abrams and Topher Matthews, one of the first to advocate the naming of the park’s tennis courts for the Peter Sisters.

Advisory neighborhood commissioner Monica Roache, who is a fifth generation Georgetowner, was also active in getting the courts named for the Peters sisters, who taught her tennis. She remembered their tennis accomplishments and said to them and to those black Georgetowners in attendance, “Welcome home.”

Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans, who set up the re-naming legislation for the District government, was unable to attend because of a parents’s weekend for one of the his college-age children. At-large Councilmembers Anita Bonds and Vincent Orange were on hand to speak.

Rev. Adam Park, pastor of Epiphany Catholic Church, began with a prayer affirming the dignity of each person.

Fannie Walker Weeks and James Walker, the children of Roumania Peter Walker, spoke of their mother and aunt and how they began “to beat the boys” at the tennis courts — which used to be clay — and how they would feel “appreciated and overwhelmed today.”

Mayor Bowser took note of her family’s connection to Georgetown and also that not many streets, building or tennis courts are named after women —something she’d like to change. She saluted the Peters sisters and “this shining tennis court.”

Homeland Secretary Johnson described how he met Bowser’s mother in the White House during the visit of Pope Francis and mentioned the upcoming dedication of the tennis courts. Responding to a request for her daughter, the mayor, to attend, she succinctly responded to Johnson, “She will be there.” Johnson noted his dog uses the park, too. “Everybody knows Andy,” he said. “Andy has done more to fertilize . . . he loves to give back.” In a serious remark, Johnson said that the Walkers were married in nearby Epiphany and that Margaret Peters taught in D.C. public schools, such as Western High School, now Duke Ellington School for the Arts. The Johnson family donated the plaque.

Rose Park was one of the first integrated public parks in the city and now contains the first public tennis courts named for individuals.