TOWARDS RACIAL JUSTICE
As part of the DC History Center’s ongoing mission to offer enlightening connections with the past, this Context for Today compilation looks at segregation and housing discrimination in DC history. We are asking: what are the practices that have defined the racial composition of DC’s neighborhoods? What forces limit the ability of people of color to build wealth and enjoy the fruits of American society?
In the early 20th century, racially restrictive covenants helped establish White and Black DC neighborhoods and barred Black home ownership in much of the city. Banks and the federal government combined to impose what is known as “redlining.” In this system, banks, real estate firms, and government lenders valued homes and whole neighborhoods based on the race of who lived there. (For some cities, neighborhoods deemed inferior were shown on maps outlined in red in order to discourage investment there.) This practice served to entrench segregation and the racial wealth gap. “Slum clearance” and urban renewal flipped the racial makeup of neighborhoods and enriched developers by displacing long-standing Black communities. The association of Whiteness with higher property values persists today as does the relative lack of wealth in communities of people of color.
This selection of videos, articles, books, and websites illuminate the issues and efforts to move towards a more just society.
Drawing Lines: How Race Shaped DC’s Housing Landscape (Video)
On January 27, 2021, historian Sarah Jane Shoenfeld and social impact designer April De Simone discussed the structural racism behind housing policy, from the early 20th century to today, and the effects of these policies on our city and on the lives of Washingtonians. View the video here.
RESOURCES REFERENCED IN THE “DRAWING LINES” PROGRAM
The major source is Mapping Segregation in Washington DC . Produced by Sarah Jane Shoenfeld and Mara Cherkasky of Prologue DC, this website presents years of deep research into the covenants that segregated housing here and the lawsuits that resulted from challenges to them. Using “story maps” organized by particular events, such as “How Racially Restricted Housing Shaped Ward 4,” or “FHA Insured Housing,” the text and interactive maps document the evidence, mechanisms, and impact of segregation in DC. Readers can see whether individual properties were racially restricted by covenants (deemed unenforceable by the Supreme Court in 1948). The project is ongoing and not all neighborhoods are researched yet, but readers with houses in many neighborhoods will find their records embedded in the maps. In addition, these resources were cited during their talk:
Research in Mapping Segregation’s stories and maps
Downloadable Census data for DC housing by blocks (used for Mapping Segregation)
Washingtonians’ roles in neighborhood change are considered in Anacostia Community Museum’s online exhibit, A Right to the City
A look at the reach of gentrification nationally today (including DC)
Shoenfeld essay on the impact of historic housing policies on present-day displacement/gentrification, including the current Comprehensive Plan
Prologue DC’s discovery of the Federal Housing Administration’s residential grading maps, including a residential grading map of DC
Neil Flanagan on the removal of the mixed race community Reno City to build White schools and recent oral histories from those affected, produced by students at Wilson High School
Anne Hollmuller on the removal of the African American community in East Arlington to build roads for the Pentagon
Click here if you would like to volunteer to enter covenant data as Mapping Segregation DC continues to study the entire city.
Recommended Reading
“The Case for Reparations” by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Atlantic, 2014. In this now-classic essay, Coates lays out the system and impact of racist housing policy.
“For Black homeowners, a common conundrum with appraisals,” by Troy McMullen, Washington Post, Jan. 21, 2021. Another reminder that race-based real estate inequities are very much still a part of American life.
Redlining and Neighborhood Health, by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, 2021. And another reminder: data showing that low-income and minority communities, once cut off from lending and investment, are at higher risk for poor outcomes from COVID-19.
Riots Long Ago, Luxury Living Today, by Emily Badger and Quoctrung Bui, New York Times, July 10, 2020. Washington’s redeveloped riot corridors are examined.
“Unfinished Business in a Divided City,” by Mara Cherkasky, Washington History 32-1, 2 (2020). Where people lives matters in every aspect of their lives.
“A Strictly White Residential Section”: The Rise and Demise of Racially Restrictive Covenants in Bloomingdale, by Sarah Jane Shoenfeld and Mara Cherkasky, Washington History 29-1 (2017). How restrictive covenants worked and eventually were defeated in a DC neighborhood.
“Teachable Moment: ‘Blockbusting’ and Racial Turnover in Mid-Century D.C.,” by Sarah Jane Shoenfeld, Washington History 30-2 (2018). The racist tactics used by real estate brokers to promote and profit from White flight and the lack of Black housing options.
“Free Black People of Washington County, D.C.: George Pointer and His Descendants,” by Barbara Boyle Torrey and Clara Myrick Green, Washington History 28-1 (2016). How one African American family settled and thrived in upper Northwest DC until forced to move for the construction of Lafayette Elementary School.
” ‘For Sale to Colored’: Racial Change on S Street, N.W,” by Mara Cherkasky, Washington History 8-2 (1996). Oral histories and lawsuits testify to how prominent Black families overturned restrictive covenants near Dupont Circle.
“Models of Beauty and Predictability: The Creation of Wesley Heights and Spring Valley,” by Diane Shaw Wasch, Washington History 1-2 (1989), describes White flight of the 1920s.
Federal Subsidy and the Suburban Dream: The First Quarter-Century of Government Intervention in the Housing Market, by Kenneth T. Jackson, Records of the Columbia Historical Society 50 (1980). How the Great Depression spurred federal interventions in housing, including the development of redlining.
“Creating a Commons in the Capital: The Emergence of Limited-Equity Housing Cooperatives in Washington, D.C.,” by Amanda Huron, Washington History 26-2 (2014). Innovative paths to affordable apartments in DC.
Black in Place: The Spatial Aesthetics of Race in a Post-Chocolate City, by Brandi Thompson Summers (UNC Press 2019), a theoretical framework for understanding how blackness is aestheticized and deployed to organize landscapes and raise capital with a focus on H Street NE.
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein (Liveright 2017), the ground-breaking primer on how federal policies led to segregated cities and economic inequality.
Chocolate City: A History of Race and Democracy in the Nation’s Capital by Chris Myers Asch and George Derek Musgrove (UNC Press 2017). This essential source on DC history looks closely at how racist housing practices shaped DC.
Housing Washington: Two Centuries of Residential Development and Planning in the National Capital Area, edited by Richard Longstreth (Chicago: Center for American Places, 2010)
A series of essays, many of which critique housing projects designed for low- and middle-income Washingtonians.
From Our Collections
Please note: once the Kiplinger Research Library reopens with remote reference services, researchers will have access to these key collections. Click the links for more details from our catalog.
Building History Resources, a guide to maps, documents, photographs, and other sources on DC’s built environment in the Kiplinger Research Library
Plater T. Gedney real estate records collection MS 0808
Garnet W. Jex “Southwest Redevelopment” slide collection SP 0020
Feiss “Southwest Redevelopment” slide collection SP 0011
Experiment in planning : citizen-government teamwork in planning for the renewal of Adams-Morgan P 1080
Build Your Library
And check out these local bookstores: Mahogany Books, Loyalty Bookstores, Sankofa, Wisdom Book Center, Harambee Books, Second Story Books, Politics and Prose