In 1968, seven-year-old Kelvin Tyrone Mock died while playing in an illegal trash dump in his neighborhood in Washington, DC’s Ward 7. The illegal garbage dump caught fire. Kelvin's friends managed to escape, but Kelvin perished in the burning trash.

Why was there an illegal trash dump in Kelvin’s neighborhood, and why were he and his friends playing in it?

In 1968, Washington, DC was still a segregated city. Ward 7 was—and still is—a predominantly Black, impoverished, under resourced section of DC. Those segregation policies allowed the National Park Service and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to let the then federally controlled, District of Columbia government dump the garbage it collected along a stretch of land along the Anacostia River in the Kenilworth neighborhood of DC's Ward 7—Kelvin’s neighborhood—which was then set ablaze regularly for more than 25 years.

Young Kelvin and his friends were playing in that illegal dump because it was the only open-air space around for them to play and explore.

Kelvin T. Mock's story went untold for over 50 years until I interviewed pioneering DC climate activist, Dennis Chestnut in 2022 for my award-winning documentary film short, "East of the River".

Kelvin T. Mock’s death by burning in the in that illegal dump in Ward 7 sparked an environmental justice movement. That movement resulted in stopping the policy of open-air burning of waste. That alone immediately improved the health of Ward 7 residents who had been forced to breathe in the toxic fumes every time dump fire smoke wafted into their homes, their schools and their churches, staining their clothes and covering everything with hazardous soot. Ultimately, the movement started by Kelvin T. Mock’s death forced the closing of the illegal dump, It was later capped with topsoil, planted over and designated "Kenilworth Park".

We wish to change that park’s name to "Kelvin T. Mock Park", in honor of the little boy whose horrific death by burning in that illegal dump started the DC environmental justice movement that continues through today.