The Spatial Configuration and Social Meaning of Micro-Segregation: A Mixed-Methods Case Study of Southwest Washington, D.C., 1910-1950

Carolyn Swope, Columbia University

This presentation analyzes the form and meaning of segregation in the pre-urban renewal Southwest neighborhood in Washington, DC – a racially mixed neighborhood in which Black and white residents often lived in close proximity. Traditionally, neighborhood-level diversity in this period, including Southwest’s, has been interpreted as relatively benign, even as facilitating social ties and equalizing resource access across lines of difference. While a growing body of research using historical GIS has revealed that in fact segregation existed on a smaller scale at this time, scholarship has little explored the experience and social meaning of this type of segregation. Using 1910 and 1950 Census data, I map the race of each head of household to develop a granular picture of segregation at a very fine scale. I find evidence of segregation both on the scale of entire sub-areas, and on a micro-scale, e.g., Black residents within a block and white residents on the exterior. I then draw on qualitative archival evidence (including oral histories and neighborhood organization records) to examine how this form of segregation was experienced by residents. I show that, while there were some limited interactions across racial lines, overall residents understood the neighborhood as segregated, and white residents were eager to leave and/or to displace their Black neighbors. In particular, I examine how a local settlement house advocated for “slum” clearance of an adjacent inhabited Black alley and the reconstruction of the area as a housing development for working-class white residents. The presence of these different communities in technical proximity to one another, then, did not equate to a meaningfully integrated community, or to benefits for marginalized residents.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 47. Spaces of Marginalization