thumb|right|Map of Washington, D.C., with Sursum Corda highlighted in red

Sursum Corda (Latin: "lift up your hearts") is a small neighborhood located in Washington, D.C. It is located in the city’s Northeast and Northwest quadrants. The irregularly shaped neighborhood is bounded by New Jersey Avenue NW, New York Avenue NW & NE, Massachusetts Avenue NW & NE, First Street NW, N Street NW, Florida Avenue NE, Delaware Avenue NE, 2nd Street NE, and the train tracks (both Amtrak/freight and Metro) at NoMa-Gallaudet-U station.

The neighborhood draws its name from the Sursum Corda Co-operative Apartments, a 199-unit low-income housing complex constructed in 1968. The area became a notorious open-air drug market plagued by violence and poverty in the 1980s. After a notorious 2004 murder in the neighborhood, demolition and complete renovation of the low-income housing in Sursum Corda was announced in 2007. Little of the redevelopment happened, although extensive demolition occurred.

History

Residential neighborhoods north of Massachusetts Avenue underwent a prolonged decay in the first half of the 20th century. Controversial urban renewal plans of the 1950s and 1960s called for massive demolition of the area, part of it comprising the old Irish American neighborhood of Swampoodle. However, they were only partially executed.

Sursum Corda Co-operative

Various Masonic and religious organizations took advantage of loan programs of the recently created U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to build housing for some of the displaced households. A group of Catholic activists from the nearby Gonzaga College High School and the parish of St. Aloysius conceived of a new urban village to house some of the households displaced by the demolitions. They also received support from the D.C. Public Housing Authority and the then-Senator from New York, Robert F. Kennedy.

The leading organizer and founder of the Cooperative was Eugene L. Stewart, an alumnus of Georgetown University. In 1965, Stewart was approached as a member of the Georgetown Alumni Association and asked if the Association would become involved by sponsoring a low income housing project. The idea presented to him was for students and alumni to assist with tutoring the poor and their children in the community. Stewart presented the ideas to the Alumni Board of Governors, but the plan was rejected. He formed Sursum Corda, Inc. and oversaw the construction of the Sursum Corda Cooperative.

Local landmarks include the Walker-Jones Education Campus (preschool through eighth-grade) on New Jersey Avenue NW between Pierce and L Streets NW and its associated athletic field and basketball courts; the K Street Farm (a good farm managed by Walker-Jones teachers) on the northwest corner of K Street NW and New Jersey Avenue NW; and the Northwest One Neighborhood Library (built in 2009).

Neighborhood redevelopment

On January 23, 2004, 14-year-old Jahkema "Princess" Hansen was murdered in the Sursum Corda Co-operative. Hansen was involved with 28-year-old Marquette Ward, a known drug dealer. On January 18, 2004, Ward shot and killed 21-year-old Mario J. Evans in a hallway at the Temple Court Apartments for refusing to sell him a discounted drug. Hansen and an 18-year-old girl witnessed the murder. Ward, worried that Hansen would talk to the police, paid 22-year-old Franklin Thompson $8,000 to kill Hansen. While Hansen ate dinner at a friend's apartment in the Sursum Corda Co-op on January 23, Thompson burst into the apartment and opened fire, wounding a 12-year-old girl. Hansen fled through the apartment. Thompson chased her and shot her twice in the head. Thompson and Ward were both convicted of first-degree murder in 2006.

Northwest One project

Determined to change the Sursum Corda neighborhood, the government of the District of Columbia announced a plan to tear down the Sursum Corda Co-op, the Golden Rule housing and retail complex, the Temple Court Apartments,