Lately, it seems like a day doesn’t go by without another news article about gentrification in the Washington area. While the focus in 2012 is on how the city is becoming whiter, sixty years ago the buzz was about the growing black population in Washington and its role in the upcoming presidential election between Republican candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower the Democratic candidate Adlai Stevenson.
The map below, published in the Baltimore Sun on November 2, 1952 (two days before the election), illustrates the city of Washington’s changing demographics from 1930 to 1950. The accompanying text is below the image.
“Segregation … in Washington, D.C. has become an issue in the current political campaign, and abolishment of segregation has been promised by both parties. This map, based on a District of Columbia census tract[s], shows the white and non-white areas. The solid black areas denote a population of over 50% non-white since [the] 1930 census; the checked portions show the same percentage since the 1940 census, and the lined parts indicate the same percentage since the 1950 census. Each dot represents housing for 100 non-whites in predominantly white areas.”
"The territory comprising Park View extends from Gresham Street north to Rock Creek Church Road, and from Georgia Avenue to the Soldiers' Home grounds, including the triangle bounded by Park Road, Georgia Avenue, and New Hampshire Avenue" (from Directory and History of Park View, 1921.)
