DC By the Book

Excerpt: Mrs. P. pointed her pipe west. “’Cross the river, they knocked down homes of two hundred Negro families to put up that Pentagon. And more Negroes was kicked out when they took more space for Arlington Cemetery. Black homes been busted up all over this city, for offices and highways and homes for white folk. Like in Foggy Bottom where I lived for nineteen years. Kicked out so the gubmint could build theyself some buildings and such. Same thing over in Georgetown, blacks just been shooed out. And we ain’t got nary a thing back from them. Didn’t build us nothin’. Jus’ about every new home goin’ up is restricted.” Judith did not know this term or idea. "Restricted?" -- "Girl, whites only. Can't sell to no black folks; it's the law." ---------- Designed by James Renwick, architect of the Smithsonian Castle and the Corcoran Gallery of Art, this church was built in 1886 for DC’s first black Episcopal congregation. In an era when hospitals and other public institutions were segregated, St. Mary’s clinic and social programs were essential to Foggy Bottom’s growing black community. By 1939, there were five other black churches in the neighborhood, serving parishioners who lived in tiny alley dwellings and amidst the factories along the Potomac. By 1950, the area west of 23rd Street was largely African American, many living without electricity or indoor plumbing. Housing was hard to come by elsewhere and much of DC’s newer housing stock came with racially restrictive deeds prohibiting black occupancy.