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Denay Wilkerson and her son Cairo, 2, ride the newly restored Smithsonian National Carousel on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., on Thursday. Valerie Plesch for NPR hide caption
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Valerie Plesch for NPR
The Smithsonian Institution's carousel is back open for business Friday after being closed for nearly three years for restoration and refurbishments.
Brightly painted ponies have been going round and round, delighting children, for centuries. But the joys they bring haven't always been accessible to everyone.
The ribbon-cutting at the Smithsonian National Carousel nodded to this fact.
Baltimore County police officers lift a white demonstrator into a patrol wagon on July 4, 1963. The man was arrested after he and some 400 other demonstrators protested the whites-only policy of Gwynn Oak Amusement Park in suburban Woodlawn, Md. Other demonstrators who had been arrested and escorted from the park sit in the background. William A. Smith/AP hide caption
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William A. Smith/AP
The first to ride the reopened carousel was a group of African American adults who arrived from Baltimore. In the 1960s, when many of them were kids, they were among the first to desegregate the carousel when it was located at Gwynn Oak Amusement Park outside of Baltimore.
"My family, we used to go there all the time once they let us in," said Janice Chance, who was 13 when she first rode the carousel in 1966. Chance's son was a Marine who died in Afghanistan in 2008. She said to have the carousel back on the National Mall means a lot to her and the many others who fought for "the freedoms of this country."
"We are together, we're having fun, but we remember the struggle and how we got here," said Chance.
Desegregating Gwynn Oak Amusement Park took several years of protests by Black and white activists: It was finally integrated on Aug. 28, 1963, the same day that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr gave his "I Have A Dream" speech on the National Mall.
Sharon Langley, 63, stands next to her "Freedom Riders" horse that she rode when she was 11 months-old. Langley was the first African American to desegregate the original carousel in Baltimore on Aug. 28, 1963, the same day that Dr. Martin Luther King gave his "I Have a Dream" speech. Valerie Plesch for NPR hide caption
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Valerie Plesch for NPR
"So while that was occurring in D.C., quiet activism with little people was occurring on the same date," said Sharon Langley, who was the first Black child to ride the carousel that day. She was just 11 months old. Years later, Langley co-wrote a children's book about it. This week, she rode again, on a horse called Freedom Rider — after the desegregating riders. She believes it's fitting the carousel should be "with all the monuments of freedom… This is a monument for children to come and enjoy, ride and experience the pursuit of happiness."
After Hurricane Agnes devastated Gwynn Oak's rides and buildings, the park closed in 1973 and the carousel went into storage. Shortly after, then Smithsonian Secretary S. Dillon Ripley decided it was time to replace the aging carousel on the National Mall. "As Ripley's original carousel began to show its age, the Smithsonian began looking for a suitably grand replacement," Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch III wrote in Smithsonian Magazine. "Gwynn Oak's hand-carved beauty, an emblem of the struggle for civil rights, fit the bill."
Children play in bubbles outside the restored carousel. Valerie Plesch for NPR hide caption
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Valerie Plesch for NPR
With 54 horses, a sea monster, a pig and two chariots, the restored Gwynn Oak carousel stands again in front of the Smithsonian's Arts and Industries Building.
Left: One of the Smithsonian National Carousel's 56 restored horses. Right: A new ADA-compliant chariot featuring Washington, D.C., landmarks. Valerie Plesch for NPR hide caption
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Valerie Plesch for NPR
Its Civil Rights history might've been lost on the kids rushing onto the platform to mount their favorite horses at the ribbon-cutting this week. Seven-year-old Lucas Platt from Virginia gives the carousel high marks. "It's actually one of the fastest carousels I've really been on," he said. "Usually they're much slower than this. It's great. I really like it. Nothing bad about it."
