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June 30, 2011 | 2:22 PM | By

Feeling Grief Over Displacement

 

karen H. / Flickr

During the 1960s, about 23,000 residents were displaced from Southwest to make room for urban renewal. Old, decaying housing was demolished to make way for new apartments for middle and upper income families, with some public housing units included.

Five years later, researchers asked: what happened to those thousands of poor residents who left? Sociology In My Neighborhood points us to the study, which focused in on 98 families who, unlike the majority of those who were evicted, did receive help relocating. These 98 families reported, five years after they left Southwest, living in housing physically better than where they used to live, but:

For those interviewed, poverty continued… and they then suffered “from another set of problems created by their removal from what was once their homes” because they lost not only their homes but also “a functioning social system.” Some became sick with grief, like that experienced by a death in the family, which was a common reaction to such relocations. Seventy percent of those interviewed had visited SW after redevelopment, and “a significant number..talked about crying and feeling sick” when they visited.

The redevelopment of the 1950s and 1960s was very different than what’s occurring in D.C. today — there is no leveling of entire neighborhoods, which may have contributed to the scale of trauma felt by people displaced by urban renewal decades ago. But D.C. is in flux. Market forces are causing rents and housing prices to increase, and some of those who can’t afford to live here anymore are leaving. Do they feel the same, or differently, as displaced residents felt decades ago?

FILED UNDER: History, The People, Gentrification, Redevelopment, Southwest
June 23, 2011 | 10:29 AM | By

DCentric Picks: ‘The Gentrification of Chocolate City’

Looking for an event that relates to race or class in D.C.? DCentric will be regularly posting event listings we believe will be of interest to our readers.  If you have an event you think we should feature, email dcentric@wamu.org.

Flickr: Carlos Martinez

What: The Thursday Network‘s general body meeting tonight is on the theme “The Gentrification of Chocolate City: Reality versus Perception.”

Where: NPR Building, 635 Massachusetts Ave. NW.

When: 6:45 p.m., Thursday.

Cost: Admission and parking is free.

Why you should go: Attend if you can’t get enough of elevated discussions about gentrification, or if you just want to get a sense current and future development in D.C. Panelists include Jalal Greene, former director of D.C. Department of Housing and Community Development, and  Veronica Davis, Ward 7 activist and Nspiregreen partner.

Other events to consider: Joy DeGruy, author of Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome, will discuss the “unique kind of stressors African Americans are trying to cope with,” coping mechanisms they’ve developed and special challenges faced by children and youth. She begins her talk at 5 p.m., Sunday at RFD Washington (810 7th St. NW).

FILED UNDER: Around the City, Culture, History, DCentric Picks, Gentrification
June 14, 2011 | 11:59 AM | By

Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Nearing Dedication

Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial will be ready for dedication in August.

Work on the Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial is almost complete, and the dedication is set for Aug. 28.

WUSA9 spoke with the chief sculptor, Lei Yi Xin of China, as he finished chiseling the 28-foot-sculpture by the Tidal Basin:

Speaking in Mandarin, Lei says this project is the most significant in his lifetime: “Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is a such a significant person in history. He is not only an American hero. He is also our world’s hero. It is also a huge significance that I am working on a project in the capital of the United States.”

Lei says he admires Dr. King for his fight for equality among people of all races.

The work is even more impressive considering that Lei did much of the sculpting from memory.

Some of you may remember the controversy surrounding the memorial, including the selection of Lei as the sculptor and criticism that King’s face was too harsh and confrontational. WUSA9 reports that “four separate faces were constructed and presented to Dr. King’s children. The family ultimately chose one of the faces, which was actually the original face of the sculpture.”

FILED UNDER: History, Martin Luther King, Memorials
May 5, 2011 | 3:56 PM | By

Geronimo’s Great-Grandson On Bin Laden Code Name

F. A. Rinehart/Getty Images

Chief Geronimo of the Apache tribe of Native Americans photographed in captivity in 1898.

Geronimo’s great-grandson slammed the U.S. government Thursday for giving Osama bin Laden “Geronimo” as a code name.

Harlyn Geronimo submitted testimony to the Senate Commission on Indian Affairs for its hearing today on racist stereotypes of Native Americans. In his statement, he demanded that President Barack Obama or Defense Secretary Robert Gates give:

a full explanation of how this disgraceful use of my great grandfather’s name occurred, a full apology for the grievous insult after all that Native Americans have suffered and the (removing) from all the records of the U.S. government this use of the name Geronimo. Leaving only for history the fact this insult to Native Americans occurred in all its pity.

As we pointed out yesterday, some Native Americans feel particularly insulted by this code name given that indigenous Americans serve in the military at disproportionately high rates. Harlyn Geronimo is himself a veteran, having been a soldier in the Vietnam War. What’s more, so is his father, who Harlyn says served during World War II and was on Omaha Beach during D-Day.

See more of Haryln’s testimony below:

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: History, Geronimo, Harlyn Geronimo, Military, Osama bin Laden
May 5, 2011 | 1:41 PM | By

In Photos: Mount Pleasant 20 Years After the Riots

The Mount Pleasant riots began on May 5, 1991 after a police officer shot a Salvadoran immigrant. Last week’s Metro Connection took a look at what happened during those two tumultuous days, and today’s Kojo Nnamdi show featured a discussion around the legacy of the riots for D.C.’s Latino community.

The riots, which also spilled over into Columbia Heights, left a lasting mark a neighborhood that has changed dramatically in the past 20 years. We take a look at Mount Pleasant today:

FILED UNDER: Around the City, History, Kojo, Metro Connection, Mount Pleasant riots
May 4, 2011 | 2:04 PM | By

Bin Laden and Geronimo: What Makes an American Enemy?

Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Apache leader Geronimo

Osama bin Laden’s U.S. militarily code name was Geronimo, who was a 19th-century Apache leader. The Washington Post reports:

In a triumphant moment for the United States, the moniker has left a sour taste among many Native Americans.

“I was celebrating that we had gotten this guy and feeling so much a part of America,” Tom Holm, a former Marine, a member of the Creek/Cherokee Nations and a retired professor of American Indian studies at the University of Arizona, said by phone Tuesday. “And then this ‘Geronimo EKIA’ thing comes up. I just said, ‘Why pick on us?’ Robert E. Lee killed more Americans than Geronimo ever did, and Hitler would seem to be evil personified, but the code name for bin Laden is Geronimo?”

Geronimo fought neighboring Mexicans and spent 10 years eluding U.S. troops as he revolted against white settlement in Apache territory. He is considered a hero by many Native Americans. So is it appropriate to equate this Native American figure with America’s number one enemy? Holm’s comments are even more poignant given the over-representation of Native Americans in the military; in 2007, they made up .73 percent of the U.S. population but 2.86 percent of the new recruits.

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: History, Geronimo, Osama bin Laden, Racial slurs, Redskins
May 4, 2011 | 10:30 AM | By

Osama bin Laden is Dead: D.C’s South Asian Muslims React

Flickr: Chris.M.G.

Locals celebrate in front of the White House, Sunday night.

Afshan Khoja, a Muslim of Pakistani descent who lives in the DC area, was in tears after President Obama announced the death of Osama bin Laden.

“It wasn’t because I was happy about bin Laden’s death, it was because suddenly all the things that September 11th have done to me, my religion and my country, came back to me: The fear of being asked questions while traveling; the immediate requirement to defend my religion not only when people asked why Muslims hate America, but also when terrorists did anything that could remotely be associated with Muslims; the feeling that somehow, I’ll always be ‘the other’ in America.”

Mou Khan, a Bangladeshi-American, also found herself reflecting on September 11th, after learning of bin Laden’s death.

“I remember exactly where I was when I first heard that a plane had struck one of the towers of the World Trade Center. My memories are deeply personal, like when a schoolmate I didn’t know called me a terrorist…now, confronted with the news that Osama bin Laden, the man behind the tragedy, has been killed, I find myself conflicted.
Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: History, Immigrants, Islam, Race and Ethnicity
May 2, 2011 | 11:00 AM | By

Changing D.C: Shaw Highlighted

The Shaw neighborhood gave birth to Black Broadway said Rebecca Sheir in her exploration of Shaw’s past as a hub of black culture and history on Metro Connection. Sheir spoke with Alex Padro, an Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner, who said:

The neighborhood from its earliest days was very strongly African-American, as a result of a number of Union army camps that were located here to accommodate what were called “contraband,” or escaped slaves, or former slaves that had managed to make their way to the District of Columbia.

… We had schools, churches, hospitals, a university, all established and constructed in close proximity to be able to serve that large African-American population.

Courtesy of: Rebecca Sheir

This historic building in Shaw is among many that are being renovated and reconstructed in the neighborhood.

Listen to the entire segment, as Padro and others explain what happened to Shaw after housing laws changed, the 1968 riots and the new convention center was built where parking lots and dilapidated buildings once sat. In the latest Census, the U Street corridor reported no longer having a majority black population, and Shaw now has a number of luxury housing options.

Now add this to the mix: a major development at 9th and O Streets, NW just cleared a major hurdle. The Department of Housing and Urban Development recently approved a $117 million loan for CityMarket at O, a major retail and housing project featuring a Giant, luxury and market rate housing and a Wolfgang Puck restaurant.

How much more will Shaw change?

FILED UNDER: Around the City, History, Development, Metro Connection, Shaw
April 28, 2011 | 11:39 AM | By

“Blackness that is uniquely and indisputably American”

Flickr: Natalie Woo

Billboard from 2009 along California's Interstate 5 freeway.

More on race and perception, though this time, the issue is not what people see– it’s what they know about President Obama’s ancestry. In “For Birthers, Obama’s Not Black Enough“, Melissa Harris-Perry wonders if the President’s lack of connection to “the historical variation of blackness that is uniquely and indisputably American” is part of what makes him suspect to those who doubt his citizenship:

The American slave system disrupted the ability of enslaved Africans to retain or pass along their ethnic identities. Igbo, Ashanti, Akan, Yoruba and Hausa became interchangeable units for sale. While slaves nurtured fragments of cultural, religious and familial traditions, much of the specificity of their African experience was surrendered to an imagined and indistinct notion of “Africa.” Moreover, the law did not initially recognize slaves or their US-born children as American. So enslaved Africans were women and men literally without a country, defined solely in terms of their labor value. Their descendants eventually achieved citizenship, but to be an American black, a Negro, is to be a rejected child who nonetheless clings to her abusive father because she knows no other parent. To be a black American descended from slaves is to lack, if not a birth certificate, then at least a known genealogy—to have only a vague sense of where one comes from, of who one’s ancestors were and of where one belongs.

In this sense, Obama is not very black. He is not a Negro. As a black man, President Obama’s confident and clear knowledge of his lineage is precisely the thing that makes his American identity dubious. Unlike most black people, he has easy access to both his American and his African selves.

FILED UNDER: History, Immigrants, Multiracial, Obama, Racial identity
April 15, 2011 | 3:31 PM | By

Emancipation Without Representation

Flickr: Elvert Barnes

From the DC Emancipation Day Voting Rights March 2007

Tomorrow is Emancipation Day in the District; for most, that means an extra weekend for tax preparation, but it’s worth considering why tax day was delayed this year (and every year when the holiday falls on a Saturday). On April 16th, 1862, slavery ended in the District nine months before President Lincoln would go on to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.

The District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act freed almost 3,000 enslaved people while compensating their former masters for the loss of their human property– the only example of compensation by our federal government to former slave-owners.

From the National Archives:

The act brought to a conclusion decades of agitation aimed at ending what antislavery advocates called “the national shame” of slavery in the nation’s capital. It provided for immediate emancipation, compensation to former owners who were loyal to the Union of up to $300 for each freed slave, voluntary colonization of former slaves to locations outside the United States, and payments of up to $100 for each person choosing emigration. Over the next 9 months, the Board of Commissioners appointed to administer the act approved 930 petitions, completely or in part, from former owners for the freedom of 2,989 former slaves.

The act fundamentally altered D.C., where previously, all free and enslaved black residents had to adhere to a strict 10pm curfew or face arrest and torture.

No longer downtrodden, the first freed slaves in the country created the city we know today:

Escaped slaves from Maryland, Virginia, and beyond—as many as 40,000—poured in, colonizing the neighborhoods and building the institutions that would form the foundations of today’s black community.

Less than a decade after the Civil War, an African-American newspaper—hailing the participation of blacks in local government, the passage of civil-rights laws, the founding of Howard University, and the establishment of thriving (though segregated) public schools—would declare: “Probably to a greater extent than elsewhere in the country is the equality of citizens in the matter of public rights accorded in the District of Columbia.” The sounds of the curfew bell and the slave auctioneer’s hammer were fading memories.

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: History, D.C. Statehood, Voting Rights