This is not a "ghost" of our past but instead a very real part of our history. The 1968 riots and MLK may be a "ghost" of "your" past but it is hardily a ghost of my and many others past. It is not in the best interest of anyone to forget or sweep issues under the rug as if they never happen. DC has changed in so many wonderful ways since 1968. However, H Street, NE and U Street, NW were front and center during the riots. I am happy to be a part of H street, NE moving forward from a very hurtful time period in history. But I don't plan to forget it happen and attempt to understand why it did happen. It is my history.
Does anyone have insight into why the fires/riots where on 14th street and H Street, while there were no fires in the "city's poorest quadrants"(as stated in the article).
Just out of curiosity, does a large fraction of the Frozen Tropics readership really spend $300/year subscribing to Roll Call? Do you get a free personal subscription as part of a Hill job? I see links to Roll Call stories posted here fairly frequently; it's always seemed odd to me to post those links publicly, given that we can't actually read the stories. It's like "hey, here's a link to a cool story that you can't read! Hahahaha!" But maybe I'm wrong about that, and most people here do subscribe to Roll Call?
Can someone, other than Anwar, please tell me how he is a positive influence on H St.? He was QUOTED in the 3/3/08 Roll Call article, "H Street: Rising Up From the Riots" as saying, "I only went into three stores that week," he said. "I did some looting at the Safeway at Eighth and C streets. All the stores had closed up, and we needed food." - He was in 7th grade. Please was food really that scarce during that time? Does that make it o.k.?
If this whole RollCall article can be posted somehow it is worth reading.
This man is a racist. Can I say that or is it racist? What if anonymous here is also African Am., does that still make it racist? Are people going to say, "Anonymous is a racist"? This man is a scam how can we get him away from H St. "improvement" when he's only concerned about his own self interest?
1) Went to have dinner at Naby's Island last night, but they were closed at 7p. Did they go out of business? Sure hope not, as they were one of my favorite H Street establishments.
2) Since Naby's was closed, we went across the street to Twelve for our second dinner since they opened. Both times we've gone, the food has been quite good and the service has been quite poor. The first time we were victims of a technical glitch--apparently the orders weren't being transmitted from the register to the kitchen. This past time, I don't know what the delay was, but our meals came out late and cold, necessitating sending most of our items back for reheating. Since service issues are easier to fix than quality issues, I have high hopes for Twelve once they get everything in order. I spoke with the owner, Bernard, when we arrived, and he informed us that he got his liquor license yesterday afternoon and should start serving drinks tonight.
I can't speak to whether there were fires in Anacostia, but please read my blog for good information (new to me, too) on the fact that there were in fact riots east of the river.
Thanks for the 12 update! I will give it a second try tonight since they now have a liquor license. My first experience with service was good. But bad service can certainly be a deal breaker!
anonymously calling someone a racist is cowardly and borderline mccarthyite.
and calling someone a racist for rioting shows you have no understanding of the meaning of the term. looting is not inherently a hate crime, you can loot from a business owned by someone of your own race and you can certainly loot for non-racial reasons.
were you assuming the stores that anwar looted were owned by white people and he had a racial motivation for looting those stores as opposed to the necessity argument he proffered?
wouldn't such a presumption be racist? you're not acting like only white people owned stores on h, are you? has that been historically established?
I do have access to Roll Call through a work connection, and the answer to your question lies in the text of the article. Hopefully I won't get into too much trouble for reprinting a few paragraphs here:
"It is a misconception, Saleem said, that the 1968 riots involved blacks destroying black-owned businesses. Although the vast majority of residents surrounding H Street were black at the time, he said, most of the businesses were owned by whites who started them in the earlier part of the century. In the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s, H Street was a shopping destination for Washingtonians, and in the 1950s, the street featured a few nightclubs that drew national acts like Mae West.
Out of the roughly 250 businesses along the corridor in 1968, Saleem could tick off by name the stores owned by blacks. There were no more than 20, he said, for many reasons, including social class and banks refusing to lend to blacks.
One black-owned business was Ross’ Upholstery, on the 500 block of H Street. Walter Ross owned it for years and passed it on to his son at his death. Rioters “didn’t touch his building,” Saleem said.
Rather, it was the white-owned businesses that were targeted. And after the mayhem began, Saleem said, some whites began destroying their own businesses, hoping to reap insurance compensation.
“I don’t remember seeing one firebomb being thrown,” Saleem said. “If it was a business in decline, people burnt their own businesses. People want to put it all on African-Americans, but it was both. Everybody was taking advantage of the situation.”"
I don't know if these comments could be classified as racist or not, but I thought they should be seen by everyone before the name-calling and bickering gets out of hand.
I'm not 'name-calling'. I'm saying that offering the presumption that *every* business on H St was white-owned absent historical evidence would be a racist presumption. Even the anecdotal evidence you cite shows that *some* of the businesses were owned by people other than white businesspersons. So, that doesn't refute anything I said. Absolute race-based presumptions absent evidence (or sourcing) are inherently racist.
Further, Anwar does not admit to personally targeting white-owned businesses, he just states that other people targeted white owned businesses. To presume otherwise is a logical leap without a source. Unless there's another part of the article you aren't quoting...I have no subscription to Roll Call to verify...
Facts with a verifiable source...relying on them is better than assuming.
Sorry - should have been more clear about who I was referring to. I was not accusing you of 'name-calling'...you were the 'bickering' part.
Anonymous was the name-caller.
And I wasn't suggesting that Anwar was a racist based on that excerpt - I was simply trying to put the text out in the public so folks knew what was being discussed and could draw their own conclusions.
I would, however, say that the text I quoted answers your question about the ownership of stores. Saleem is pretty clear in his assertion that the majority of businesses on H Street were not black-owned, and he points to a specific example of one of the few black-owned businesses that was not looted or burned...his words make the conclusion that this was because it was a black-owned business a fairly reasonable one to draw.
I was not trying to refute anything you said - in fact, I agree that anonymous's comment is inflammatory and without support. Sorry if you felt attacked by anything I wrote...that was certainly not my intention.
Ugh Twelve- What is up with the picnic style tables and chairs? Feel like I'm going to play bingo- instead of going to a lounge...This place could have really been layed out and really be a sexy cool place....It feels like a rec hall to me....
Off topic but I just noticed that the Sticky Rice website looks like it's being updated. It show's a menu now and mentions they'll be opening Spring of 08. Do you have any more info on the exact date??
Mike, thanks for the information in Roll Call. I always thought that most of the businesses on H were historically black owned. I wonder if anyone has info about who owned the businesses on 14th. I think it is interesting that the fires and looting were targeted to white businesses on H(which is the conclusion I drew from the article).
I have heard many times over the years that H was a great retail street, does anyone know who the clientele were? Black and white? Just black?
Folks don't assume anyone was "targeted". Greed is a huge motivator, a lot of people were caught up in the moment, there no police enforcement to stop looting. yes they were angry, but many people just wanted the free cigs, liquor, shoes, TVs... Don't forget kids died in the fires on H. I doubt that a 9 year kid has much more going on than whats in it for me.
The neighborhood was very diverse through much of the early 20th century. Black, Jewish, Irish, German...but like most cities people with the means to move started moving to the burbs in the 50s and early 60s. The riots caused most of the white business-owners to split. Chuck Levin's Music store (in Wheaton now) began on H. The Heritage Trail meetings have been very educational.
I didn't see the Roll Call article, but it's a bit disheartening to discover that a person on the H Street payroll (our tax dollars!) Admits to looting capital hill as a teenager! Now maybe he turned himself in and suffered some consequences at the time, but I doubt it.
Tom, this is a harsh judgement. You should read more closely, Anwar looted because there was no other source of food. I seem to remember reading about the great H Street famine when I was in high school.
Twelve still has the old Cluck-U furniture downstairs, albeit covered in white tablecloths with candles. But if you go upstairs, it is a very cool and chic spot. I'm looking forward to checking it out.
Went to XII tonight and wanted to share my thoughts. First - the people running it are very welcoming to all patrons. Second, the food was good and reasonably priced (not great but good bar food). Third comment - the second floor lounge is very impressive and has a tremendous amount of potential. Lastly, the downstairs leaves quite a bit to be desired from a design standpoint. The main walkway is down the middle of the dining room - feels a bit too much like a cafeteria. I agree with an earlier post that the need to dim the lights.
My problem isn't so much with the riots themselves, in that a lot of that anger was quite justifiable.
My problem is what happened after MLK - essentially a mockery of MLK's dream.
MLK didn't advocate what DC became - a dysfunctional city with multiple generations of people on welfare, with the schools completely dysfunctional, with violence at stunningly high levels, with hatred of others that were not the new black majority barely disguised at best, with most of the city a slum, with entire sections of retail and residential boarded up.
All while being presented with stunning opportunities, like an entire city government run by blacks, a federal government which was at least partially committed to creating employment for blacks, with a city with truly astonishing benefits. Not every 'impoverished area' has the benefits of a world-class metro system, the seat of government of the most powerful nation on earth, and a local economy that is artificially strong pretty much forever because of legions of federal jobs.
MLK's dream wasn't not realized in DC simply because of racism, even though only a fool would say racism isn't alive and well today. MLK's dream, at least in DC, was hijacked by the generation of black leaders that came after him, and their decades of pandering and refusal to seriously address real problems in their constituency.
How may black people in DC are the victims of violence from the KKK or other racist groups? Maybe a dozen a year?
How many black people in DC are the victims of violence at the hands of other black people? How many thousands per year?
How many black people in DC are denied a right to live where they choose because racist whites won't let them? I'd venture to say it's pretty rare.
How many black people in DC are being displaced because for 40 years they never bought their own property, instead assuming someone else (often the taxpayer at large) would take care of them forever? It happens every day.
The same pathologies exist to some extent (some would argue with less acceptance of violence as a cultural norm) in poor, undereducated white communities (for instance, in certain Appalachian areas).
Yes, we should continue to fight racism. But, honestly, the biggest problem blacks in DC face is not the racist white man, and blaming everything on the white man is a losers game that unfortunately is played daily in DC. The biggest detriment to urban blacks (generally but certainly not exclusively) in DC is their own political philosophy (a welfare state without end, glorification of shallow materialism in lieu of actually working hard for a solid if boring future, a glorification of violence and glamorization of 'thug culture', a sense of welfare state entitlement), which, after 40 years, is showing just how tired and counterproductive it always was.
It surely deeply saddens those many respectable blacks, especially the hard-working older generations that fought so hard against very real racism and classism, and it would truly make MLK roll over in his grave.
This is the true legacy of H Street NE, after the riots. Sad, but we're being dishonest if we don't admit it. H Street didn't lie in ruins for 40 years because of some racist plot. It lay in ruins because of the stunning crime in the area and because of the failed entitlement mentality and racially and socially divisive policies of several generations of leaders and led alike, which did little but guarantee that the neighborhood would continue on in poverty, crime, lethargy, and stupor.
Heelman, Prehaps you read "Ten Blocks From the White House" Anatomy of the Washington Riots of 1969. Te was written by Washington Post writers in 1969. It states that DC was next to Mississippi in highest infant mortality, "Washington scool system was classic of neglect", one one of every ninth grader graduated from high school even then, one of every four families lived below the poverty line...
There were never any good ole days with the white overseers bud, so don't blame Barry for ruining the city.
Well said Hillman. This is not an easy issue to tackle, but at some point people have to stop blaming others with sophistic accusations of racism and take responsibility for their own futures (and their neighborhoods). I've always wondered how is it that Vietnamese and Chinese immigrants can come to the U.S. with nothing, and within a generation their kids are going to MIT, but many in the african american community cannot do the same (even with affirmative action)? I think this is a legitimate question -- and I think the answer is one community puts a heavy emphasis on education and the other does not (indeed, if you are too educated black person you may be seen as "acting white"). It has very little, if anything to do with white people (or other races) discriminating against blacks.
P.S. -- I, for one, do blame Marion Barry for running the city into the ground. If ever there was a poster child for the D.C. welfare state its crackhead Barry.
I remember being in Hong Kong on business in the early 90's and picking up The South China Morning POst outside my hotel door. An entire front page was devoted to Washington DC/Barry and what a disaster this city was. Very embarrassing.
Until all are willing to confront the real issues that exist now(after 40 years) and stop silencing those with cries of racism when they expect the same standards of everyone, I don't know how we can move forward.
Thanks, Hillman for articlualting all this so well.
I sent the Post article to my Uncle who was in the DC Guards during the riots. Here is his email back to me:
Dear Nephew,
Thank you for this; much appreciated. An interesting article—some memories, some rationalizing, some preaching. His motives aside for writing a self serving article (“I was there! I was there”), here are some thoughts from someone who was around-- before, during and after.
- The” hometown of his adulthood”? Too bad he wasn’t around in the hometown of our childhood. Anacostia was beautiful. The quaint houses, the annual azaleas, the River where I caught my first fish, the Anacostia Theater!, and so much more. The No. 11 Precinct House was run by Captain Murphy, husband of Mrs. Murphy who taught at Assumption grade school (seen Assumption lately?). The police officers were the fathers of our schoolmates and our friends. The flats were where we played the annual Turkey Bowl. Mrs. Chaney, Mrs. Soldano, the Thomas J Padgett Sr. family, the Robert Kirby family, and on and on, were from Anacostia , and ALL of Us were from Southeast and Southwest. Wilkins’ one or two sentence blame on poverty just does not tell the truth and the real story of what happened to Anacostia.
- He “was stunned and a bit annoyed” to see National Guardsmen protecting lives and property? I’ll wager he would have been a bit more than annoyed if he had been ordered to that shopping center “armed” to protect himself and others (as he would have been trained and obligated to do), especially if he had been sent out without any ammunition, and especially if the television reporters made a special effort to tell the public so. One half block from Camp Simms, at the corner of Alabama Avenue and Southern Avenue (maybe 10 minutes from the heart of Anacostia), stood a small shopping center. Somebody should ask Wilkins what happened to that shopping center, or perhaps ask him what he would have done if he were one of the Guardsmen that night who were assigned to standing guard at that shopping center with orders to “not interfere” with the teenage thugs who pushed shopping carts full of stolen property (not food) within a few feet of the Guardsmen, yelling and taunting us with “Shoot me, Whitey; shoot me, Whitey”.
- He “looked down at Anacostia…and saw no fires”? The crime wave lasted 12 days. Where was he on days 2 through 12? The shopping center I stood “guard” over was burned to the ground, but only after every store was looted down to the fixtures.
- DC “still feels the loss…of the Poor People’s Campaign”? The criminals, thugs and low lifes who looted and burned our Nation’s Capital didn’t give a damn about MKL, much less civil rights wannabees like Wilkins and all his name-dropped acquaintances and fellow bureaucrats. For an insightful answer as to what is really going on with the “poor people”, see the attached article by John Blake, CNN.
Ah yes, memories. You can fool a lot of people sitting in the bleachers, particularly with the power of the pen. You can’t hide the truth from the guys with the dirty jerseys.
45 comments:
anybody have any H street riot photos to share? I recall seeing one but most photos I see are not from NE.
There are some in this post...
http://prorev.com/2008/03/fire-april-4-1968.htm#comments
http://www.rollcall.com/issues/53_114/ath/22783-1.html
Follow the link to an interesting Roll Call article specific to H Street then and now. Lack of Paps mention makes me a bit sad.
yay. woohoo.
anwar saleem brings to the present, the ghosts of the past.
give him a big hand.
woohoo!
with this dork, we get two steps forward, three steps back.
sorry, i just don't like people that have a vendetta, as opposed to a cause.
L
O
S
E
R
!
This is not a "ghost" of our past but instead a very real part of our history. The 1968 riots and MLK may be a "ghost" of "your" past but it is hardily a ghost of my and many others past. It is not in the best interest of anyone to forget or sweep issues under the rug as if they never happen. DC has changed in so many wonderful ways since 1968. However, H Street, NE and U Street, NW were front and center during the riots. I am happy to be a part of H street, NE moving forward from a very hurtful time period in history. But I don't plan to forget it happen and attempt to understand why it did happen. It is my history.
Does anyone have insight into why the fires/riots where on 14th street and H Street, while there were no fires in the "city's poorest quadrants"(as stated in the article).
Roll Call?
Just out of curiosity, does a large fraction of the Frozen Tropics readership really spend $300/year subscribing to Roll Call? Do you get a free personal subscription as part of a Hill job? I see links to Roll Call stories posted here fairly frequently; it's always seemed odd to me to post those links publicly, given that we can't actually read the stories. It's like "hey, here's a link to a cool story that you can't read! Hahahaha!" But maybe I'm wrong about that, and most people here do subscribe to Roll Call?
Can someone, other than Anwar, please tell me how he is a positive influence on H St.? He was QUOTED in the 3/3/08 Roll Call article, "H Street: Rising Up From the Riots" as saying, "I only went into three stores that week," he said. "I did some
looting at the Safeway at Eighth and C streets. All the stores had
closed up, and we needed food." - He was in 7th grade. Please was food really that scarce during that time? Does that make it o.k.?
If this whole RollCall article can be posted somehow it is worth reading.
This man is a racist. Can I say that or is it racist? What if anonymous here is also African Am., does that still make it racist? Are people going to say, "Anonymous is a racist"? This man is a scam how can we get him away from H St. "improvement" when he's only concerned about his own self interest?
Off-topic, but two items of note:
1) Went to have dinner at Naby's Island last night, but they were closed at 7p. Did they go out of business? Sure hope not, as they were one of my favorite H Street establishments.
2) Since Naby's was closed, we went across the street to Twelve for our second dinner since they opened. Both times we've gone, the food has been quite good and the service has been quite poor. The first time we were victims of a technical glitch--apparently the orders weren't being transmitted from the register to the kitchen. This past time, I don't know what the delay was, but our meals came out late and cold, necessitating sending most of our items back for reheating. Since service issues are easier to fix than quality issues, I have high hopes for Twelve once they get everything in order. I spoke with the owner, Bernard, when we arrived, and he informed us that he got his liquor license yesterday afternoon and should start serving drinks tonight.
I can't speak to whether there were fires in Anacostia, but please read my blog for good information (new to me, too) on the fact that there were in fact riots east of the river.
anacostianow.blogspot.com
Thanks for the 12 update! I will give it a second try tonight since they now have a liquor license. My first experience with service was good. But bad service can certainly be a deal breaker!
anon @ 9:38
anonymously calling someone a racist is cowardly and borderline mccarthyite.
and calling someone a racist for rioting shows you have no understanding of the meaning of the term. looting is not inherently a hate crime, you can loot from a business owned by someone of your own race and you can certainly loot for non-racial reasons.
were you assuming the stores that anwar looted were owned by white people and he had a racial motivation for looting those stores as opposed to the necessity argument he proffered?
wouldn't such a presumption be racist? you're not acting like only white people owned stores on h, are you? has that been historically established?
Soul Searcher-
I do have access to Roll Call through a work connection, and the answer to your question lies in the text of the article. Hopefully I won't get into too much trouble for reprinting a few paragraphs here:
"It is a misconception, Saleem said, that the 1968 riots involved blacks destroying black-owned businesses. Although the vast majority of residents surrounding H Street were black at the time, he said, most of the businesses were owned by whites who started them in the earlier part of the century. In the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s, H Street was a shopping destination for Washingtonians, and in the 1950s, the street featured a few nightclubs that drew national acts like Mae West.
Out of the roughly 250 businesses along the corridor in 1968, Saleem could tick off by name the stores owned by blacks. There were no more than 20, he said, for many reasons, including social class and banks refusing to lend to blacks.
One black-owned business was Ross’ Upholstery, on the 500 block of H Street. Walter Ross owned it for years and passed it on to his son at his death. Rioters “didn’t touch his building,” Saleem said.
Rather, it was the white-owned businesses that were targeted. And after the mayhem began, Saleem said, some whites began destroying their own businesses, hoping to reap insurance compensation.
“I don’t remember seeing one firebomb being thrown,” Saleem said. “If it was a business in decline, people burnt their own businesses. People want to put it all on African-Americans, but it was both. Everybody was taking advantage of the situation.”"
I don't know if these comments could be classified as racist or not, but I thought they should be seen by everyone before the name-calling and bickering gets out of hand.
Well, I don't what you people are so worked up about...I have fond memories of looting Brooks Brothers the day Reagan was shot...
I'm not 'name-calling'. I'm saying that offering the presumption that *every* business on H St was white-owned absent historical evidence would be a racist presumption. Even the anecdotal evidence you cite shows that *some* of the businesses were owned by people other than white businesspersons. So, that doesn't refute anything I said. Absolute race-based presumptions absent evidence (or sourcing) are inherently racist.
Further, Anwar does not admit to personally targeting white-owned businesses, he just states that other people targeted white owned businesses. To presume otherwise is a logical leap without a source. Unless there's another part of the article you aren't quoting...I have no subscription to Roll Call to verify...
Facts with a verifiable source...relying on them is better than assuming.
Soul Searcher -
Sorry - should have been more clear about who I was referring to. I was not accusing you of 'name-calling'...you were the 'bickering' part.
Anonymous was the name-caller.
And I wasn't suggesting that Anwar was a racist based on that excerpt - I was simply trying to put the text out in the public so folks knew what was being discussed and could draw their own conclusions.
I would, however, say that the text I quoted answers your question about the ownership of stores. Saleem is pretty clear in his assertion that the majority of businesses on H Street were not black-owned, and he points to a specific example of one of the few black-owned businesses that was not looted or burned...his words make the conclusion that this was because it was a black-owned business a fairly reasonable one to draw.
I was not trying to refute anything you said - in fact, I agree that anonymous's comment is inflammatory and without support. Sorry if you felt attacked by anything I wrote...that was certainly not my intention.
Ugh Twelve- What is up with the picnic style tables and chairs? Feel like I'm going to play bingo- instead of going to a lounge...This place could have really been layed out and really be a sexy cool place....It feels like a rec hall to me....
Off topic but I just noticed that the Sticky Rice website looks like it's being updated. It show's a menu now and mentions they'll be opening Spring of 08. Do you have any more info on the exact date??
www.stickyricedc.com
Mike, thanks for the information in Roll Call. I always thought that most of the businesses on H were historically black owned. I wonder if anyone has info about who owned the businesses on 14th. I think it is interesting that the fires and looting were targeted to white businesses on H(which is the conclusion I drew from the article).
I have heard many times over the years that H was a great retail street, does anyone know who the clientele were? Black and white? Just black?
Soul Searcher-
You're a douchebag.
Folks don't assume anyone was "targeted". Greed is a huge motivator, a lot of people were caught up in the moment, there no police enforcement to stop looting. yes they were angry, but many people just wanted the free cigs, liquor, shoes, TVs... Don't forget kids died in the fires on H. I doubt that a 9 year kid has much more going on than whats in it for me.
Anonymous is a douchebag.
Peace on H street.
Peace in the middle east.
Peace on Earth good will to men.
Thats what MLK would want.
So we can't call Anwar a racist without being called one back? That makes no sense to me, but what do I know, I'm an ignorant racist.
As far as I'm concerned Anwar is STILL looting white (and black) owned business on H St.
The neighborhood was very diverse through much of the early 20th century. Black, Jewish, Irish, German...but like most cities people with the means to move started moving to the burbs in the 50s and early 60s. The riots caused most of the white business-owners to split. Chuck Levin's Music store (in Wheaton now) began on H. The Heritage Trail meetings have been very educational.
anon @ 2:31
reading comprehension: please utilize the skill.
i didn't call someone a racist for calling anwar a racist, that would be illogical.
read what i wrote again, slowly, without emotion.
anon @ 1:39: Try maturity.
anon @ 1:08: thanks for the sticky rice update
I didn't see the Roll Call article, but it's a bit disheartening to discover that a person on the H Street payroll (our tax dollars!) Admits to looting capital hill as a teenager! Now maybe he turned himself in and suffered some consequences at the time, but I doubt it.
It's sorta ironic, no?
Tom, this is a harsh judgement. You should read more closely, Anwar looted because there was no other source of food. I seem to remember reading about the great H Street famine when I was in high school.
sometimes looting is ok? guess it's okay for someone to steal from your house...oh, but only if they REALLY need the stuff --- otherwise it's wrong.
"what???" -- try reading the entire post, and not merely the poster's name.
Hope that helps.
Anon @ 12:42,
Twelve still has the old Cluck-U furniture downstairs, albeit covered in white tablecloths with candles. But if you go upstairs, it is a very cool and chic spot. I'm looking forward to checking it out.
So admitting to a crime in your past makes you a bad person? We better not vote for Obama...he smoked crack you know. Holy crap...was that racist?
Seriouly though please point to one concrete racist thing that Anwar was done (other than the looting, which was more juvenile than racist).
Where were people on this blog who love H street NE so much during the National Marathon? Anwar was the only one there hanging a banner for H street.
Went to XII tonight and wanted to share my thoughts. First - the people running it are very welcoming to all patrons. Second, the food was good and reasonably priced (not great but good bar food). Third comment - the second floor lounge is very impressive and has a tremendous amount of potential. Lastly, the downstairs leaves quite a bit to be desired from a design standpoint. The main walkway is down the middle of the dining room - feels a bit too much like a cafeteria. I agree with an earlier post that the need to dim the lights.
My problem isn't so much with the riots themselves, in that a lot of that anger was quite justifiable.
My problem is what happened after MLK - essentially a mockery of MLK's dream.
MLK didn't advocate what DC became - a dysfunctional city with multiple generations of people on welfare, with the schools completely dysfunctional, with violence at stunningly high levels, with hatred of others that were not the new black majority barely disguised at best, with most of the city a slum, with entire sections of retail and residential boarded up.
All while being presented with stunning opportunities, like an entire city government run by blacks, a federal government which was at least partially committed to creating employment for blacks, with a city with truly astonishing benefits. Not every 'impoverished area' has the benefits of a world-class metro system, the seat of government of the most powerful nation on earth, and a local economy that is artificially strong pretty much forever because of legions of federal jobs.
MLK's dream wasn't not realized in DC simply because of racism, even though only a fool would say racism isn't alive and well today. MLK's dream, at least in DC, was hijacked by the generation of black leaders that came after him, and their decades of pandering and refusal to seriously address real problems in their constituency.
How may black people in DC are the victims of violence from the KKK or other racist groups? Maybe a dozen a year?
How many black people in DC are the victims of violence at the hands of other black people? How many thousands per year?
How many black people in DC are denied a right to live where they choose because racist whites won't let them? I'd venture to say it's pretty rare.
How many black people in DC are being displaced because for 40 years they never bought their own property, instead assuming someone else (often the taxpayer at large) would take care of them forever? It happens every day.
The same pathologies exist to some extent (some would argue with less acceptance of violence as a cultural norm) in poor, undereducated white communities (for instance, in certain Appalachian areas).
Yes, we should continue to fight racism. But, honestly, the biggest problem blacks in DC face is not the racist white man, and blaming everything on the white man is a losers game that unfortunately is played daily in DC. The biggest detriment to urban blacks (generally but certainly not exclusively) in DC is their own political philosophy (a welfare state without end, glorification of shallow materialism in lieu of actually working hard for a solid if boring future, a glorification of violence and glamorization of 'thug culture', a sense of welfare state entitlement), which, after 40 years, is showing just how tired and counterproductive it always was.
It surely deeply saddens those many respectable blacks, especially the hard-working older generations that fought so hard against very real racism and classism, and it would truly make MLK roll over in his grave.
This is the true legacy of H Street NE, after the riots. Sad, but we're being dishonest if we don't admit it. H Street didn't lie in ruins for 40 years because of some racist plot. It lay in ruins because of the stunning crime in the area and because of the failed entitlement mentality and racially and socially divisive policies of several generations of leaders and led alike, which did little but guarantee that the neighborhood would continue on in poverty, crime, lethargy, and stupor.
Heelman,
Prehaps you read "Ten Blocks From the White House" Anatomy of the Washington Riots of 1969. Te was written by Washington Post writers in 1969. It states that DC was next to Mississippi in highest infant mortality, "Washington scool system was classic of neglect", one one of every ninth grader graduated from high school even then, one of every four families lived below the poverty line...
There were never any good ole days with the white overseers bud, so don't blame Barry for ruining the city.
Be careful Hillman. Remember, white people can't possibly know what goes on racially in this city. How dare you be so informed:)
Three cheers for Hillman. Very well said...
Thanks for your comment- well thought and well said Hillman.
Well said Hillman. This is not an easy issue to tackle, but at some point people have to stop blaming others with sophistic accusations of racism and take responsibility for their own futures (and their neighborhoods). I've always wondered how is it that Vietnamese and Chinese immigrants can come to the U.S. with nothing, and within a generation their kids are going to MIT, but many in the african american community cannot do the same (even with affirmative action)? I think this is a legitimate question -- and I think the answer is one community puts a heavy emphasis on education and the other does not (indeed, if you are too educated black person you may be seen as "acting white"). It has very little, if anything to do with white people (or other races) discriminating against blacks.
P.S. -- I, for one, do blame Marion Barry for running the city into the ground. If ever there was a poster child for the D.C. welfare state its crackhead Barry.
Very thoughtful post, Hillman.
I remember being in Hong Kong on business in the early 90's and picking up The South China Morning POst outside my hotel door. An entire front page was devoted to Washington DC/Barry and what a disaster this city was. Very embarrassing.
Until all are willing to confront the real issues that exist now(after 40 years) and stop silencing those with cries of racism when they expect the same standards of everyone, I don't know how we can move forward.
Thanks, Hillman for articlualting all this so well.
There is no shortage of embarassed white men. Barry hasn't been Mayor for a very long time. How about blaming Boss Shepard?
Watch the videos from the previous post under YouTube. Quite sobering. These videos were part of a series '68-'88.
I sent the Post article to my Uncle who was in the DC Guards during the riots. Here is his email back to me:
Dear Nephew,
Thank you for this; much appreciated. An interesting article—some memories, some rationalizing, some preaching. His motives aside for writing a self serving article (“I was there! I was there”), here are some thoughts from someone who was around-- before, during and after.
- The” hometown of his adulthood”? Too bad he wasn’t around in the hometown of our childhood. Anacostia was beautiful. The quaint houses, the annual azaleas, the River where I caught my first fish, the Anacostia Theater!, and so much more. The No. 11 Precinct House was run by Captain Murphy, husband of Mrs. Murphy who taught at Assumption grade school (seen Assumption lately?). The police officers were the fathers of our schoolmates and our friends. The flats were where we played the annual Turkey Bowl. Mrs. Chaney, Mrs. Soldano, the Thomas J Padgett Sr. family, the Robert Kirby family, and on and on, were from Anacostia , and ALL of Us were from Southeast and Southwest. Wilkins’ one or two sentence blame on poverty just does not tell the truth and the real story of what happened to Anacostia.
- He “was stunned and a bit annoyed” to see National Guardsmen protecting lives and property? I’ll wager he would have been a bit more than annoyed if he had been ordered to that shopping center “armed” to protect himself and others (as he would have been trained and obligated to do), especially if he had been sent out without any ammunition, and especially if the television reporters made a special effort to tell the public so. One half block from Camp Simms, at the corner of Alabama Avenue and Southern Avenue (maybe 10 minutes from the heart of Anacostia), stood a small shopping center. Somebody should ask Wilkins what happened to that shopping center, or perhaps ask him what he would have done if he were one of the Guardsmen that night who were assigned to standing guard at that shopping center with orders to “not interfere” with the teenage thugs who pushed shopping carts full of stolen property (not food) within a few feet of the Guardsmen, yelling and taunting us with “Shoot me, Whitey; shoot me, Whitey”.
- He “looked down at Anacostia…and saw no fires”? The crime wave lasted 12 days. Where was he on days 2 through 12? The shopping center I stood “guard” over was burned to the ground, but only after every store was looted down to the fixtures.
- DC “still feels the loss…of the Poor People’s Campaign”? The criminals, thugs and low lifes who looted and burned our Nation’s Capital didn’t give a damn about MKL, much less civil rights wannabees like Wilkins and all his name-dropped acquaintances and fellow bureaucrats. For an insightful answer as to what is really going on with the “poor people”, see the attached article by John Blake, CNN.
Ah yes, memories. You can fool a lot of people sitting in the bleachers, particularly with the power of the pen. You can’t hide the truth from the guys with the dirty jerseys.
many of you may find this interesting if you havent seen it before.
http://www.victoriansecrets.net/dcdrank.html
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