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"The owner stated that he assumed the dogs would not object, but he was afraid his white customers would," said a 1948
report on "Segregation in Washington."
Washington was largely a segregated city until the mid-1950s, a place where new students at Howard University were
"briefed on what we could and couldn’t do," recalled Russell Adams, now a professor emeritus of Afro-American Studies.
"If you go downtown, don’t try to eat," he said. "And don’t try to buy stuff you didn’t need, like shoes."
The major reason for the segregation was less geography than politics and custom. The city was ruled by Congress, and
the key committee chairman or members were often white Southerners who boasted back home about their ability to keep the
races separate. Sen. Theodore Bilbo, D Miss., a member of the Ku Klux Klan and the author of "Take Your Choice, Segregation
or Mongrelization," headed the District of Columbia panel from 1945 to 1947.
Washington didn’t have the widespread Jim Crow laws that ruled much of the Deep South; in fact, when the District
briefly had home rule after the Civil War, laws gave blacks equal rights in public places. But
the laws were forgotten and the city "operated as if there were Jim Crow laws," said Jane Freundel Levey, a historian
for Cultural Tourism DC.
Blacks could get served at lunch counters, but they had to stand and eat. At the leading department stores, clerks "turn
their backs at the approach of a Negro," the 1948 segregation report found. Most downtown hotels wouldn’t rent rooms to
blacks.
Some laws and rules separating blacks and whites were on the books. Schools were segregated. Segregation of federal
offices — as well as restrooms and cafeterias — became widespread during the Woodrow Wilson administration, starting
in 1913. In some post offices, partitions were erected to keep the races apart at work.
Housing covenants barred blacks from many neighborhoods, often squeezing them into substandard housing. A 1948
survey found that black families were nine times as likely as whites to live in a home needing major repairs, four
times as likely to lack a flushing toilet and 11 times as likely to lack running water.
The Washington Real Estate Board Code of Ethics in 1948 put its view in stark terms: "No property in a white section
should ever be sold, rented, advertised or offered to colored people." The Supreme Court that year declared such
restrictive covenants unenforceable.
The barriers began to break down in the years after World War II, but slowly
Actors’ Equity pressured its members not to perform at segregated venues, such
as the city’s historic National Theatre.
"We state now to the National Theatre — and to a public which is looking to us
to do what is just and humanitarian — that unless the situation is remedied, we
will be forced to forbid our members to play there," the group, which represents
thousands of actors and stage managers, announced in 1947.
The National Theatre, the city’s premier live stage, closed in 1948 rather than
integrate and showed movies instead. It reopened as a live theater four years later,
under new owners who were willing to desegregate.
Up the street, however, blacks still couldn’t go to many movie houses. First run
films were screened in a strip of theaters along or adjacent to F Street, then
the city’s major commercial street, while theaters on U Street, the heart of the
black community’s commercial district, showed the same films to black audiences.
Many hotels would welcome blacks only if they were from another country.
"Our visitor’s best chance (to get a hotel room) would be to wrap a turban around his head
and register under some foreign name," said the 1948 segregation report. "This maneuver was successfully
employed not long ago at one of the capital’s most fashionable hotels by an enterprising
American Negro who wanted to test the advantages of being a foreigner."
Things began to change in 1950, when 86-year-old Mary Church Terrell, a civil
rights activist, tried to get served in Thompson’s Cafeteria on 14th Street,
about two blocks from the White House.
Blacks weren’t allowed to sit and eat at most downtown lunch counters and cafeterias.
In an affidavit, Terrell recalled her experience at Thompson’s: "The manager told us that we could
not be served in the restaurant because we were colored," she said, and along with three friends she
left the restaurant and went to court. She targeted other restaurants, and in June 1953, Terrell won
a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that segregated eating places in Washington were unconstitutional because
the "lost laws" of the Reconstruction era were still in force.
Still, blacks were often made to feel unwelcome.
Carolivia Herron remembered going to Woolworth’s lunch counter as a little girl,
and the server immediately asked her if she wanted some watermelon. No,
Herron replied, she wanted a grilled cheese sandwich.
Change came slowly. A black woman who wanted to try on a hat in a department store would be given a hairnet first;
whites wouldn’t. Blacks weren’t allowed in fitting rooms and usually couldn’t try on shoes.
Blacks and whites attended separate, and supposedly equal, schools until the Supreme Court’s May 1954 Brown v.
Board of Education decision. Patricia Tyson went to the all-black four-room Military Road School, five miles from the
White House.
Teachers would signal the start of class by ringing a handbell, but students were in
awe of what Tyson recalled was an "electric bell" up the road at the white school.
The racial barriers gradually collapsed, though two glaring exceptions remained.
Glen Echo Park was the region’s premier amusement park, where people could
take the long streetcar ride on a hot summer day, swim in the Crystal Pool and
dance the night away. Blacks were excluded until 1961.
Sports stadiums weren’t officially segregated, and baseball’s Washington
Senators got its first black player in 1954, seven years after the sport was integrated.
The owner, though, was seen as cool to black players.
The Senators moved to Minnesota for the 1961 season, and in 1978, owner Calvin Griffith reportedly told a local
Lions Club he chose that location "when we found out that you only had 15,000 blacks here." And, he said, "We came
here because you’ve got good, hard-working white people here."
Football’s Washington Redskins didn’t have a black player until 1962, and the team’s fight song, "Hail to the
Redskins," included a line urging the players to "fight for old Dixie."
Today, fans are urged to "fight for old D.C."
Black Americans in Public Office
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
1954 -
First black woman to hold the office; national security adviser under President George W. Bush;
advised George H.W. Bush on Soviet Union.
Army General and Secretary of State Colin Powell
1937 -
Highest ranking black officer in U.S. history; first black secretary
of state; chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff during Persian Gulf War
United Nations diplomat Ralph Bunche
1904 - 1971
First black awarded Nobel Peace Prize, in 1950 for having mediated Arab-Israeli truce, and first to
head a U.S. State Department division
Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall
1908 - 1993
Supreme Court's first black justice, 1967-1991; as an NAACP lawyer, won Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, the 1954
Supreme Court case that overturned “separate but equal” schools.
Rep. Shirley Chisholm, D-N.Y.
1924 - 2005
First female black presidential candidate, in 1972; first black woman in House of Representatives
Rep. Barbara Jordan, D-Texas
1936 - 1996
First black elected to House of Representatives from South since Reconstruction; member of committee
that held 1974 Watergate hearings
Sen. Hiram Revels, R-Miss.
1827 - 1901
First black U.S. senator, elected in 1870 during South's Reconstruction
Rep. Adam Clayton Powell Jr., D-N.Y.
1908 - 1972
Lone voice of black protest in House of Representatives for years; elected in 1945 by Harlem district
Sen. Edward Brooke, R-Mass.
1919 -
First black elected to the Senate by popular vote; served in the Senate 1967-1979; awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom,
2004 Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
Robert C. Weaver
1907 - 1997
Nation's first black cabinet member, serving under President Lyndon Johnson 1966-1968
McClatchy-Tribune
SOURCES: COLUMBIA ENCYCLOPEDIA, CONGRESSIONAL QUARTERLY
Barack Obama Presidential Inauguration Articles
Top 43 Hits - Memorable Lines from Past Presidential Inaugurals
On January 20, 2009 Barack Obama will stand before Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and swear the
oath prescribed in Article II, Section 1, of the Constitution as the 44th President of the United States.
After taking the oath President Obama will give an inaugural address. Since George Washington's first
inaugural address, many memorable words have been spoken and are among the most enduring and frequently
quoted.
America Receives a Leading Man for the Dramas Ahead
Garrison Keillor
When President Obama takes his hand off the Bible and walks to the Capitol lectern, he carries real power in his pocket,
maybe more than any president since FDR, and some of it he has earned and some is a gift.
Don't Take that Oath, Barack
Mark Bazer
Personally, I'm hoping for a new piece of presidential trivia come Inauguration Day. I'm hoping Barack Obama becomes the
first person elected president to refuse to take the Oath of Office. In other words, I hope he turns down the job.
Don't get me wrong — I like and admire Obama. But that said, and for all Obama's clearly evident wisdom and sound judgment, I just don't
know if president of the United States is the ideal job for him.
Riding on the Wings of Change
Amy Dickinson
Our new president is offering us more than the promise of change. With his historic election, he offered us the
optimistic idea that we can do what we must do. In my experience studying the human condition, we only change
when there is no alternative. And now, there is no alternative. Our national challenges trickle down into our
households. We have family members at war, our jobs aren't secure, our retirement savings seem to be disappearing
and our material lifestyle is under assault.
America in Shock
Nathan Gardels
As we head into 2009, America is in shock. It is not because of the unusual sight of the first black president
taking up residence in the White House. Barack Obama's profile, after all, is familiar to the diverse
population of today's ethnically and racially hybrid America. America is in shock because our economic
and financial landscape is suddenly unrecognizable.
Great Expectations
Cal Thomas
With Barack Obama, it is the reverse. Perhaps because of his
eloquence, lithe body, handsome face and beautiful family (and because he is not George W. Bush),
expectations are so high that they are beyond the reach of any mortal. Perhaps that is why Obama
has been disparagingly referred to as "the messiah" and "the one."
Awaiting the Transformational Presidency
Arianna Huffington
President-elect Barack Obama is obsessed with Lincoln, who changed the country both by changing government policy and by
using the bully pulpit to help us change ourselves.
Europeans Love 'Alabama'
Rick Steves
With a new political era dawning in America, the world is paying attention. I remember the first time my Italian
friends expressed a curiosity and enthusiasm about some black politician named "Alabama." Now everyone knows
Obama's name, and we have a president whom people around the world want to look up to.
Is This the End of Black
Leonard Pitts
Those who claim we live in a post-racial America are guilty of no sin greater than wishful thinking. But
that doesn't make them any less incorrect. Not simply because people are still being pulled over for driving
black but, more fundamentally, because Obama's victory does not mean what some of us think it does. I don't
mean to suggest it does not embody breathtaking progress — it does.
A New Way of Being on this Planet
Robert Koehler
Something has to change about how we conduct our business and live our lives . . . no, that's putting it too mildly. A spiritual
awakening has to occur, the shock and awe of awareness as we look unblinking at the state of the world as it really is.
As the Decider, The True Barack Obama will Become Clear
Jonah Goldberg
Over the interminably long campaign, Obama's positions "evolved" to suit his political needs. This is hardly
extraordinary. Pretty much every successful presidential candidate embarks on a similar ideological migration
Special Inaugural Crossword Puzzle
Can you solve this special inaugural crossword with your mom, dad or your favorite grown-up?
Yes, you can! Kids solve the across clues while adults tackle the down ones.
Reviewing Presidential Inaugural History
The inauguration of the first black president will long be remembered as a momentous day in history, but many past
inaugurals also have had their memorable moments. Inaugurals are a mixture of pomp, festival and gravity, the
American equivalent of a coronation. Their rituals are laden with symbols of national purpose, continuity and
unity. For 220 years, they have marked the peaceful transfer of power, a feat few other countries have achieved.
Obama Presidential Inauguration Schedule & Events
With all of the excitement surrounding the event, it’s easy to forget there have been many inaugurations before it. Over
the years, the inauguration has become highly formalized, with the day’s scheduled events taking on almost ritualistic
significance. A look at the Obama Inauguration schedule, events from past inaugurals and how & when certain inaugural
events became part of Inauguration Day.
Obama Inauguration Facts, Trivia and Information for Kids
Parade, luncheon, ball. Being inaugurated sounds like fun. But what exactly is an
inauguration? What happens? Here are answers to your most pressing questions. Plus Inauguration Trivia, Presidential
Pets and the Obama Girls
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