Muslims At The Mayfair

"Swank," the old Washington Evening Star called it. Forty years ago, Mayfair Mansions in Washington was one of the nation's most desirable housing developments for middle-class blacks. Today it looks more like a wartime concentration camp, with nondescript red barracks buildings and desolate open areas of dirt and patchy grass.

The war analogy is apt because two years ago Mayfair Mansions was invaded by an army of drug dealers who threatened to take over the place. Gangs operated freely behind closed doors as well as in the open, in abandoned apartments and in deserted courtyards. Hallways were littered with syringes, burned...

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