Save the Date: Monday, April 16th

Monday, April 16th is Emancipation Day in the District. DC residents who were enslaved were the first freed by the federal government on this date in 1862, nine months earlier than the rest of the country. Many interesting events have been organized to commemorate the 150th anniversary of this great day, including Northwestern University History Professor Kate Masur's talk "Runaway Slaves and the Origins of Emancipation in Washington, DC" at 4pm on Thursday at GWU's Gelman Library. Her talk promises to be fascinating. Here is some interesting information below from H-DC:

Civil War Washington, DC: Looking for Emancipation in the Shadow of Liberty Written by Jen J., Museum Educator 4/6/12

April marks the sesquicentennial of the passage of the District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act. Abraham Lincoln passed the law on April 16, 1862 nine months before he issued the Emancipation Proclamation. The Act freed 3,100 slaves in the District of Columbia and represents the federal government’s first attempt to free individuals enslaved in the United States.

Many Americans are unfamiliar with the Capital’s long history of slavery and quests for emancipation. Most envision Washington, DC as the seat American democracy and the spiritual embodiment of the Nation’s founding ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Yet, as historian John Hope Franklin stated, for almost a century Washington, DC was "the very seat and center of the slave trade."

Since the federal district’s creation in 1790, slavery and the slave trade flourished in the Capital. The city’s geographic location along the Potomac River made the sale and shipment of slaves relatively easy and extremely profitable. As a result, pens for holding the enslaved were common sights throughout the district and were visible from the Capitol and the White House. In addition, slaves were commonly seen working on docks and in hotels, homes, and restaurants.

The Compensated Emancipation Act ended this firmly rooted system of slavery in Washington, DC. The Act would ultimately affect the Civil War, alter Washington, D.C. society, and influence abolitionists’ quests for freedom throughout the United States. The Act’s success demonstrated that emancipation was something that could become a reality.

Why do the poor still live here? (II)

The percentage of households living below the poverty line in Ward 6 by ANC:

• ANC 6A: 16%
• ANC 6B: 11%
• ANC 6C: 24%
• ANC 6D: 20%

Are the ANC commissioners and Ward 6 Council Member Wells representing these households, their needs, their opinions, and their demands?

Why do the poor still live here?

Through my research, I realized that gentrification and the restoration movement on Capitol Hill started much earlier than scholars have usually assumed. While scholars (like Suleiman Osman who writes about Brooklyn) have asserted that it began in the 1970s, the restoration movement began around 1948 on Capitol Hill and had many connections with similar, though slightly earlier, trends in Georgetown. Yet, if gentrification has been going on for over 60 years, why would 18% of Ward 6 households be living in poverty?

Let's take a look at the poverty levels in Ward 6, the area within the blue line (Now, this map is based on the Ward 6 map from last year, so it isn't as up to date as it could be. Also, the blue line outlining Ward 6 isn't as perfect as it should be, but there you have it):



The white areas are federal land, such as the Capitol building. There are clearly red areas with over 40% of the households earning less than $30,000 per year. But there are households making less than $30,000 across Ward 6 (darker and lighter shades of pink).

We can ask how these households retained some form of housing in Ward 6 (a future posting), but it is more significant to ask why these residents are making less than $30,000 per year. As the glorious sociologist Saskia Sassen has shown, global cities like Washington, DC require both 1) highly educated and highly paid professionals working within the business, governmental, and financial services industries and 2) low-wage service workers, who serve these industries and these professionals. Washington, DC like other global cities has lost much of its traditional working class, but it still has a working class. These people are the working poor serving the professional workers. Many of those making less than $30,000 are either the retired poor or the working poor.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics data on DC-area wages, a household with one breadwinner can easily be in poverty working the following jobs, but, since many people working these jobs make an hourly wage and not the full-time salaries listed below, households with two breadwinners also could be making less than $30,000:

• Barber/Salon Shampooers $19,390
• Fast-Food Cook $19,660
• Dishwasher $20,600
• Cashiers $21,780
• Food Preparation Workers $22,510
• Child Care Workers $23,980
• Janitor $25,480
• Hotel Desk Clerk $26,190
• Tellers $28,410

These low-wage service workers are absolutely integral to global cities. Yet, the presence of high-salary professionals does not lead to higher wages for those in these low-wage jobs. In fact, wages for these jobs have stagnated for decades. Global cities demand such workers, which is one reason why the poor still live in Ward 6.

P.S. I continue this discussion in the next post.