Newspapers / Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.) / Jan. 15, 2009, edition 1 / Page 35
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Ws TUMmorNwn A changing Washington Obama's new home was slow to integrate By David Lichtman HcClatcky Nrwtpaprr \ Nor too long ago. Barack Obama j would have found when he moved his family to Washington \ that his daughters couldn't attend the same schools white children could They couldn't try on clothes or shoes at most local department stores, or eat at j downtown lunch counters Or see a play at the National Theatre or a movie just a block or two from the White House If a family pet died, it would have to Members of the 1043 Cardoso High School Victory Corps In Washington stand at attention. Washington didn't begin desegregation until the 1950s. be buried at a blacks-only cemetery. "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 wntil 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 pro fessor 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 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 4 "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 pre mier 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 races separate Sen Theodore Bilbo. D-Miss . a member pf the Ku Klux Klan aiul the author of "Take Your Choice. Segregation or Mongrelization." headed the Difttrict of Columbia panel from 1 945 to 1947 Washington No property in a white section should ever be sold, rented, adver tised or offered to colored people." ? 1948 Wmshtngton Real Estate Board Code of Ethics theaters along 'or adja vent to F Street, then the city'* 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 set a hotel uian i nave inc ?intipit?u mn laws thai 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 his torian 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 Wood row Wilson administra tion. starting in I9I.V In some post offices, partitions were erected to keep the races apart at work Housing covenants barred blacks from many neighborhoods, often squeeriag them into substandard hous* ing 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 1 1 times as likely to lack running water The Washington Real Estate Board Code of Ethics in 194* put it* view in stark terms "No property in a white section should ever be sold, rented, advertised or ofTered to colored people " The Supreme Court that year declared such restrictive covenants unenforce able p y The barriers began to break ^ room) would be to wrap a turban around his head and register under some for eign 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 want ed to test the advantages of being a for eigner." Things began K> iharigr 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 moat 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 target ed 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 were still in force Still, blacks were often made to feel unwelcome Carol! via Nerron remembered going to Wool worth'* lunch counter as a little girl, and the server immediate!* ir asked her if she wanted some watermel on No. Herroh replied, she wanted a grilled cheese sandwich Change came slowly. A black woman who wanted to try on a hat in a depart ment 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. Patncia 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 col lapsed. though two glaring exceptions remained. Olen Echo Park was the region's pre mier 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 spoil 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 Qtiffith reportedly told a local Lions Club he chose that location "when we found out that you ortly had 15,00<) 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. "Harl to the Redskins." included a line urging the players to "fight for old Dixie W Today, fans are urged to ,lfight for Black Americans in public office Some celebrated black government officials in U.S. history. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice 1954 First black woman to hold the of fice; national security adviser un der 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 Mack awarded Notoal Peace Prize, in 1950 for having mediat ed Arab- Israeli truce, and first to head a U S State Department di vision Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall 19O0 1993 Supreme Court # first black justice. 1967-1991 ; as an NAACP lawyer, won Brown v Board of Education of Topeka, the 1 954 Supreme Court case that overturned "separate but equal" schools Rep. Shirley Chlsholm, D-N.Y. 1924-200S First female black presidential candidate, m 1972. first black woman in House of Representatives Rep. Barbara Jordan, D-Texas 1936 1996 ; First black eiecie<1 to House of Representetives from South since Reconstruction , member of com mittee that held 1074 Watergate hearings Smn. Hiram Revals, R-MIm. 1827 ? 1901 First black U S senator elected in 1870 during South s Recon struction R*p. Adam Clayton Powall Jr., D-N.Y. 1908- 1972 Loo# vote* of black protest in Houm of RapraaantaMva# for years; eteded In 1945 by Herlem d??tncl San. Edward Brook#, R-Mati. 1919 Ftrst btach etected to !t>e Senate by popular vote; served m the Senate 1967-1979; awarded the Preeidential Medal of Free dom. 2004 Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Robert C. Waavar 1907-1997 Nation's flrat btaok cabinet member, serving under President Lyndon Johnaon 1000-1900 MrTJon-kv TYttmnr tovx i ? eoivMit iiwmo#i?i? coMMMKMui oumti?i? IS h? 1 1 it ?i 1 1 1< ? * ? OTE '08 f" " \ WHITE HOUSE BOUND ft i iit?> t> w *' f ? MT.; 3#f?i ,??'J v. * m ?W? Hvit <*?? ***??> I tlf ?**>* tUMUHJ* 1 'LM A* rfu *# MMfi* ** ~ ; 12 Greeley. Colorado FIT h??4? fit m 'T gfefefeti# JL Taipei. Taiwan ?u* tarld^i oummcm TfH NOUNTAJNTOP AV I W?l <U?U? AN AMJUUt AA MOMM** ' jKMU TOMUUi AUX? HMJ* umtm *>?? U?WM Mi Newark . NJ. -i
Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.)
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Jan. 15, 2009, edition 1
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