Chocolate City

City’s Founding

In 1791 an African American surveyor named, Benjamin Banneker was part of describing the borders for this city state of, Washington D.C. Black labor mostly built the city, both enslaved and freemen. So, from the beginning of this city-state Black people played a crucial role in defining Chocolate City. From the documented opening of the capital, Blacks were surveyed to make up a full 30% of the entire area, and the majority were enslaved until 1830 when the majority became free. (Dodson, Howard The New Negro Movement and the Making of African American Visual Arts in Washington, DC: Part 1 Page 984)

Early Administrative and Service Emphases

Uniquely, many Black people, both enslaved and free, in Washington D.C. were very prosperous in their efforts to insert themselves into the economy, and vastly improved its administrations and services. During Reconstruction, Blacks who were elected into congress temporarily formed an elite class in D.C. Many of the Black people who worked for the government earned near equal wages to their white peers. (Dodson, Howard The New Negro Movement and the Making of African American Visual Arts in Washington, DC: Part 1 Page 986)

Processes of Phases of Development

In the 1950s the public-school system was well developed for supporting the Black youths. In fact, many of the students in those segregated schools outperformed White schools. The well supported education system combined with the stable service-based economy allowed Chocolate city to become a desirable place for Black people around the nation. Howard University provided education for black people around the world. Many Africana studies classes followed Howard Universities model for Black education. However, the model was not perfect as it had origins in the founders who believed that Blacks were inferior. Later in 1918, 60% of the position holders in the university became Black. Which makes sense because it was a Black University. (Dodson, Howard The New Negro Movement and the Making of African American Visual Arts in Washington, DC: Part 1 Pages 986-989)

Significant Legislative Shifts

Plessy V. Ferguson caused Black Washingtonians to become extremely involved with the New Negro Movement because the federal government began to be segregated by President Woodrow Wilson. This was amplified by the fact that the Black Washingtonians have always been disenfranchised. Despite all of this, they took a long time to fully fight against Wilson because they wanted to keep their governmental jobs. (Dodson, Howard The New Negro Movement and the Making of African American Visual Arts in Washington, DC: Part 1 Page 991)

Major Debates and/or Contemporary Issues

Displacement of Black families remain a major reality in D.C. For example, the park at Lafayette Elementary School that replaced Black settlement became a place for a beautiful family reunion of the Pointers, the descendants of George and Elizabeth Pointer in 2015. (Washington History Vol. 28, No. 1 SPRING 2016, pages 16-31 Published by: Historical Society of Washington, D.C)

City Planning Efforts

Since 2000 the city has undergone extreme gentrification practices that exclude Black people. City planners claim that this gentrification is helping to cause better integration. However Sociological scholarship opposes that and teaches to intrude on black neighborhoods will result in more inequity. Indeed the poor Blacks tend to loose their homes as a result of this gentrification. (Helmuth, Allison Suppan Chocolate City, Rest in Peace”: White Space‐Claiming and the Exclusion of Black People in Washington, DC First published:28 August 2019 https://doi-org.libproxy.sdsu.edu/10.1111/cico.12428 Find it @ SDSU)

Policy Concerns

The recent policy concerns are to create protective measures against gentrification, police violence, and to increase resources to overcome poverty. (When Oprah Intervenes: Political Correlates of Daytime Talk Show Viewing. (Valencia, Milton J.Boston Globe; Boston, Mass. [Boston, Mass]11 Dec 2018: B.1. Full TextNewspapers)

Future Outlooks

Oprah featured a research survey in DC on the future outlook for solutions to policy concerns. The results were that in the future Tolerance, putting the youth first, and self expression will solve the current problems facing the majority of Black Washingtonians.(Glynn, CarrollJ.1 (AUTHOR) Huge, Michael1 (AUTHOR) Reineke, JasonB.1 (AUTHOR) Hardy, BruceW.2 (AUTHOR) Shanahan, James3)

Bibliography:

Dodson, Howard

The New Negro Movement and the Making of African American Visual Arts in Washington, DC: Part 1

 https://muse-jhu-edu.libproxy.sdsu.edu/article/698943/pdf 

Dodson’s main argument is that Black Washingtonians were able to have great agency despite living in a time in which slavery was prevalent and then after that systematic oppression through media, laws, and White violence. As evidence, he shows how Black people have prospered in education and that Howard University an HBCU is a very competitive school renowned worldwide. Also, he shows the accomplishments of Black people who took legislative offices and government positions. He explains that D.C. was mostly an administrative and service-oriented city and how Blacks right away excelled in this society matching and exceeding Whites. The theoretical framework is of combining all these examples of Black agency to examine how Blacks were much more than victims of circumstance. This source fits what I am doing in my story maps because in my maps I will be featuring many examples of Black agency to broaden what people may know about Black Washingtonians in D.C.

Helmuth, Allison Suppan

Chocolate City, Rest in Peace”: White Space‐Claiming and the Exclusion of Black People in Washington, DC

First published:28 August 2019 https://doi-org.libproxy.sdsu.edu/10.1111/cico.12428

Find it @ SDSU

 https://onlinelibrary-wiley-com.libproxy.sdsu.edu/doi/full/10.1111/cico.12428 

Helmuth in her journal article follows the story of the Pointer family from 1773 and beyond to illustrate an example of the gentrification of Washington D.C. Her central argument is that although Black people bought their homes and left them to their descendants and fought in the civil war in D.C., land in Washington D.C. has been systematically stolen from Black people through a combination of building projects, and red-lining. She discovers a striking rise in the free Black population in Washington D.C. Also, She uncovers many photos of Black building structures and homes that no longer exist. She uses maps to show the location of key points such as civil wars battles in D.C., location of Black homes and the locations of the various structures, site, parks, and institution that has replaced Black home. She sites many historians including Fedrick Douglas as evidence to construct her story. She connects all these articles by following the pointer family and their friends with photos of their homes and a letter from pointer asking the CEO to save his home. This journal confirms my thoughts on D.C. having undergone gentrification that displaced many Black people.

Helmuth, Allison Suppan for the Historical Society of Washington

D.C Washington History

Vol. 28, No. 1 (SPRING 2016), pp. 16-31 (16 pages)

 https://www-jstor-org.libproxy.sdsu.edu/stable/43799315?seq=14#metadata_info_tab_contents 

This other article by Helmuth focuses on the methods employed to systematically displace Black residents in D.C. Her central argument is that White people are actively employing tactics to lay hold to historically Black spaces. She finds that White residents use phycological, physical, and social means to create anti-Black areas. Her method is to investigate the processes that exclude Black people from certain areas. Her theoretical framework is to perform intense interviews and to physically investigate these areas to construct build the theory of the systematic displacement of African Americans through processes such as gentrification. This is further evidence to back my essential argument in policy concerns that D.C. gentrification has displaced many Black people from Chocolate City.

The Library of Congress

Photograph

 https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/naacp/the-new-negro-movement.html 

This photo of James Weldon Johnson in the early 20th century is part of an NAACP exhibit. This exhibit is countering anyone who says that Black people were not actively fighting for freedom during this era. This photo among others illustrates this point because it is a photo of a very influential man at this time. While living at a time in which White violence and Jim Crow were prevalent he chose to join the fight for justice by being a lawyer, songwriter, and part of the U.S. counsel among many other means of gaining more justice for Black people. A simple photograph of this powerful individual a great counter to the belief that Black people were not fighting for justice for Black people at this time. Also, I will include this photo in my story map because I think it is important to show the strong characters of Black individuals in D.C.

Hunter, Marcus Anthony &

Robinson, Zandria F.

The Sociology of Urban Black America

 https://app.perusall.com/courses/afras-421-black-urban-experience/the-sociology-of-urban-black-america-by-hunter-and-robinson?assignmentId=M3ZixnNeHxRnnqC7L&part=1 

The essential argument in this article is that asset-based framework being featured in Black urban sociology is the most beneficial because through looking at aspects such as Black agency we gain a more full picture of the social problems in the Black community. She refers to the great migration as an example of Black agency. She references Wells who said, “Tell my people to move west”, as a powerful leader who helped motivate people. She also paints how the deficit framework in sociology will often paint Black women as being emasculated, and deceitful like the welfare queen. She then highlights the benefits of the deficit frame as calling attention for government action. However, she said the asset frame is needed to call attention to why Black lives matter. Through looking at the pros and cons of each framework she finds that the asset framework is much more beneficial to the Black community in sociology. This relates to my story map because I will be using the asset framework to show Black agency in D.C.

Carroll, Karanja Keita, Ph.D.

Africana Studies and Research Methodology:Revisiting the Centrality of Afrikan Worldview

 https://app.perusall.com/courses/afras-421-black-urban-experience/africana-studies-and-research-methodology-by-carroll?assignmentId=hSv5AcJTop3T534Sc&part=1 

In this essay, Karanja is essentially arguing that Black studies that do not center the Afrikan worldview, the goal of increasing Black life opportunities, and fails to analyze Black experiences are fake Africana studies. Through contrasting the hypothetical axiology, epistemology, logic, cosmology, ontology, and Ideology of Black people as a whole versus White people as a whole Karanja concludes that Black studies and White studies can never be the same thing. In my story map, I wholeheartedly plan to show the Afrikan viewpoint as much as possible. I obtained a photo for my cover from  https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0a/We_The_People_at_the_US_Capitol_(Washington%2C_DC)_(5377939426).jpg