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Washington, D.C.
3 articles on Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C
Source: Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present: From the Age of Segregation to the Twenty-first Century
Word Count: 2764 Includes: African American Population in Washington. | Ongoing Segregation. | Entrepreneurship. | Politics. | Education. | Culture. | BibliographyThe population of the District of Columbia is characterized by the duality of both its long-time residents and its more transient citizens, often brought there by government-related employment. This duality is also reflected in the coexistence of the “official” Washington on Capitol Hill and the National Mall and the neighborhoods that make up the local community, and also in Washington politics, which must strive for a balance of federal and local interests.During the last four decades of the twentieth century, Washington's black community reached majority status, with African Americans constituting almost three-quarters of the 550,000 District residents. The roots of this community date back to the first settlements in the region. Its members, both enslaved and free, formed what many historians consider the most cohesive black community in any southern ...
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Source: Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619-1895: From the Colonial Period to the Age of Frederick Douglass
Word Count: 3157 Includes: BibliographyConstruction on the nation's capital began in the late 1790s. From the beginning African Americans were involved in the process, as most of the physical labor was done by blacks. Many were slaves rented, at five dollars a week, from Maryland masters. To finish the project slaves were often required to work on Sunday, and many were allowed to earn an extra bit of money that they could keep for their Sunday labors. Free blacks were paid about a dollar a day for their labor. Blacks, slave and free, worked on the construction of Congress, the president's mansion (later called the White House), and the Treasury Building. In 1791, as the capital was being laid out, the chief architect, Major Andrew Ellicott, hired Benjamin Banneker, a free black, to be his surveryor. Banneker worked on the project ...
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Source: Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience, Second Edition
Word Count: 2028Capital of the United States and the only major city whose citizens—the majority of whom are black—lack the authority to govern fully their own affairs. Established in 1790 under the direction of President George Washington and named in his honor, Washington, D.C., was created to meet the constitutional mandate for the establishment of a federal district. (Washington originally intended the city's name to be “District of Columbia” in honor of Christopher Columbus.) Established as a unique entity, separate from states, Washington, D.C., ironically has been hampered by its nether position, both in terms of race and voting rights. Located between Maryland, a state in the Union, and Virginia, which joined the Confederacy during the American Civil War (1861–1865), Washington has struggled throughout much of ...
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