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The nation's capital is hardly a showplace of racial equality. The city is developing a two-track society in which a transient group of white politicians and professionals pays scant heed to the more permanent population that is 70% black. The city has a well-established black middle class, but unskilled blacks must compete for menial and clerical jobs in the Government and private business, since there is little industry. Predictably, there are not enough jobs to go around; the unemployment rate for young blacks is about 50%. Many who do not make it in the white world find employment in the underground economy of vice, drugs and crime, which is all too visible just a few blocks from the White House.
A pleasant city by day, Washington has areas that by night are a dangerous wasteland—for both blacks and whites. Says Frank Smith, a black member of the D.C. school board: "I represent places in a ward where I wouldn't walk the street at night without a police escort." In some black neighborhoods, motorists stopping at traffic lights are besieged by peddlers offering a virtual supermarket of drugs. White Washington was shocked last February when 4,000 blacks attended the wake of a black drug dealer who had been accused of killing a white policeman, then later shot by police. Some poor blacks regarded the well-known dealer with sympathy as a man trying to stand up to the system and the police.
Ironically, the process of upgrading blighted downtown neighborhoods has hurt the blacks. Whites are buying houses from blacks and redeveloping them—the process is called "gentrification"—and pushing blacks into even worse areas, where they double up in already inadequate housing.
If greater political power can alleviate black problems, Washington's experience does not prove it. The District finally gained home rule in 1975, lifting control from generally unsympathetic Congressmen. In 1978 the District elected as mayor Marion Barry, a black civil rights activist in the '60s. Barry's budget must be approved by Congress, but many blacks still feel that he and his mainly middle-class black administrators could do more for the poor. Although the community protested, three health clinics in black neighborhoods were closed. They were badly needed: Washington has unusually high rates of venereal disease, tuberculosis and infant mortality.
As in so many large cities, the Washington public school system is woefully inadequate. School Board Member Smith thinks that school administrators have blamed their failures for too long on ghetto conditions and the problems of black family life. Declares Smith: "We've got to stop apologizing for the pedigree, background and families of these kids and educate them. I tell these youngsters their only chance is public education. It's either that or Lorton (the local prison)."
Says Leroy Hubbard, a black social worker: "Things will bottom out before they get any better in this city. There will be a lot more crime, a lot more unemployment and things running rampant before something will be done."
DETROIT: ILLUSION OF PROGRESS