[7] In 1898, officials with the United States Army Corps of Engineers and the District of Columbia convinced the United States Congress that the Anacostia River should be dredged to create a more commercially viable channel that would enhance the local economy as well as provide land where factories or warehouses might be built.

[4][6][9] The material dredged from the river would be used to build up the flats and turn them into dry land, eliminating the public health dangers they caused.

[6] In 1901, the McMillan Commission (a body established by the United States Senate to advise the Congress and District of Columbia on ways to improve the parks, monuments, memorials, and infrastructure of the city as well as plan for urban renewal, economic growth, and expansion of the federal government) concluded that commercial land was not needed and proposed turning the reclaimed flats into parkland.

[10][11] The D.C. government agreed in 1905,[12] the United States Commission of Fine Arts (a federal advisory agency with review authority over the design and aesthetics of projects within Washington, D.C.) and the Army Corps of Engineers concurred in 1914, and the National Capital Park and Planning Commission signed on (belatedly) to the park plan in 1928.

[17] Noted D.C. real estate developer Charles Sager began constructing homes on the vacant land that is now Kingman Park in 1927.

[2][3] Sager found that white homebuyers were not interested in living in the area, so he focused on selling homes to African Americans.

[25] Young Elementary School opened on October 1, 1931, (delayed a month due to construction backlogs), and graduated its first class in January 1932.

[20] Constructed adjacent to Young Elementary School, the new junior high was named for Hugh M. Browne, a Howard University professor and prominent educator.

[29] Most of the area's first residents were middle class African American families whose head of household worked for the federal government.

[31] Despite this problem with RFK Stadium, the Kingman Park neighborhood is notably stable, with many families having owned the same home for several generations.

[34] The Kingman Park Civic Association sued, claiming the city's action violated the federal Voting Rights Act.

[39][40][41] But protests from Kingman Park and other residents of Capitol Hill forced the District of Columbia to reduce the number of lanes on the Barney Circle Freeway to two from four.

[44] But construction was delayed yet again when the Kingman Park Civic Association, Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, Anacostia Watershed Society, Citizens Committee to Stop It Again, D.C. Federation of Civic Associations, and other organizations threatened to sue unless the city scaled back the freeway even further.

[46][47] The groups claimed that federal and city officials had covered up how much hazardous waste lay under the construction sites; that the roads and bridge would add pollution, traffic, and noise to existing neighborhoods; that construction and runoff from the roadway would pollute the Anacostia River; that the road would destroy much-needed city parkland; and that the freeway would only benefit out-of-state commuters and affluent Capitol Hill residents while harming the poorer, African American neighborhoods in Anacostia.

[32][49] Residents were angered that their concerns over existing parking and traffic problems at the stadium had not been addressed, and they began lobbying city and federal officials, picketing, and protesting at public meetings.

[51] In part because of the opposition of Kingman Park residents (who flooded Congress with visits and lobbying efforts), the Redskins organization was unable to obtain federal approval for the plan and moved to Maryland.

[53] Children's Island was cancelled in 1999 when the District of Columbia Financial Control Board voted to kill the development as too costly.

[54] In Kingman Park Civic Association v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 84 F.Supp.2d 1 (D. D.C. 1999), the EPA agreed to a timetable under which all communities adjacent to the river would be forced to treat their sewage or suffer significant fines and penalties.

The dispute began in 2002, when D.C. officials approved a proposal to utilize RFK Stadium's parking lots for an American Le Mans Series racing event to be held that year.

Kingman Park residents were upset about the noise, smoke, and debris the fireworks would cause, as well as the possibility of fire in their neighborhood.