THE RISE OF GENTRIFICATION IN D.C. AND HOW IT AFFECTS BLACK HISTORY Jordyn Habib Doodles by Lily Conti Washington, D.C. is one of the worst cities in the United States for gentrification. The capital of the United States is now losing much of its Black culture. Areas such as Logan Circle, Shaw, Columbia Heights, and Capitol Hill are all pivotal examples of neighborhoods that have lost most of their Black heritage. Gentrification does not just make the city more white, but it often dissolves the city of its Black history.
Black History throughout Neighborhoods Each neighborhood in D.C. has its own subset of culture. Logan Circle for example was once the epicenter of Black Washington. According to the Jason Martin Group, notable figures of the Harlem Renaissance helped Logan Circle become an example area of Black affluence; these figures include Duke Ellington and Langston Hughes.” However, this area was heavily impacted by the war on drugs, and the 1968 riots, which followed the assasination of Martin Luther King Jr., which caused crime to become a commonality. After years of struggling to grapple with the war in drugs, the gentrification process began. Another area known for celebrating Blak culture is the U Street area. Neighboring a prestigious HBCU Howard University, and home to the infamous Ben’s Chilli
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Jordyn Habib
Bowl, U Street was previously given the title of “Black Broadway’’ due to the immense amount of Black businesses such as the nightclubs that were prevalent in the area. The owner of Ben’s Chili Bowl, Virginia Ali, recalled to Equal Times, that when she came to D.C. she realized, “how prominent and classy the Black community was. We had our own banks, Howard University, two state-ofthe-art movie houses, without mentioning all the businesses, doctors, lawyers and architects we had.”
Washington was previously a haven for Black culture and Black excellence. U Street is located in Shaw which has a history of its own. This neighborhood is historically Black, dating all the way back to the Civil War with many Union army camps housing newly freed slaves that made it to Washington. Shaw is also home to the former house of Dr. Carter G. Woodson who has been named the “father of Black History’’ after the first Black man in history to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard. Unfortunately, this area, similar to Logan Circle, was greatly impacted by the 1968 riots and the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Aside from the neighborhoods having a distinct history and culture, D.C. has its own Black culture with go-go music serving as a symbolic culmination of it. Its creation can be traced to Chuck Brown
