Washington, DC is “a city where the American dream and the American nightmare, pass each other daily, on the street and do not speak,” wrote an anonymous American some time back. Today she could be speaking about the plight of many in the nation’s capital: African Americans, Latin Americans, the homeless, many of them veterans, and others who had not benefited from the American Dream, in this city. In fact, DC is only capital city in the world where voters do not select their own voting representative to the national Congress. In this course, we will explore the “other Washington” not just the City of grand monuments and the Capital of the nation. We will study the city where Duke Ellington was born, and where Frederick Douglass died. We will look first at Washington DC, as a city of slaves, and then as a city of freedmen and women and home to the Freedman’s Bureau. Then we will look at how the city and its population developed over the 20th and into the 21st Century. We will explore issues or race, class, sex, the riots of 1835, 1919 and 1968, education, gentrification and political activity. We will study the migration of Blacks from the American South, Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America, (some who came to work and others to attend Howard University and other schools) all who brought something special to the make up of Washington, DC. We will look at the recent gentrification and demographics of the city. We will, from time to time, have very special guests and will make visits to important cites. Please Google our guests in advance of their visit.

See below for full syllabus:

History Course on Race Inequality – Georgetown University 2016