DC is 60% black!?

[Beefalow and the Consumer]

So my question is how the heck did DC get such a concentrated, large black population?

Washington, DC is geographically restricted, so most of the actual "city" is in Maryland and Virginia.  Only the inner city is DC proper.  If you took inner city Philadelphia, Chicago, or Detroit, and made them their own cities, they would also be predominantly black.

[Beefalow and the Consumer]

Washington, DC is geographically restricted, so most of the actual "city" is in Maryland and Virginia.  Only the inner city is DC proper.  If you took inner city Philadelphia, Chicago, or Detroit, and made them their own cities, they would also be predominantly black.

Good point. Going slightly off topic I noticed this the other day

Yep, that's exactly what I thought.  Blacks are moving further east into the MD suburbs, while NW DC is "gentrifying."

The really sad thing is, back in 1998 I visited some former neighbors in central PG county (the county due east of DC), who complained how the neighborhood was "going downhill with all of the blacks moving in."  I wanted smack them upside the head.  Amazing that those sort of attitudes still persist.

Having grown up in a majority-black area (although we moved out to white Bowie for a few years), I just sort of take the racial equality thing for granted.

[Beefalow and the Consumer]

Although the black population in the District is very well-distributed, the white population is concentrated on the west side, expecially SW. 

There isn't much residential in SW.  It's mostly government buildings and corporate headquarters.  Georgetown is north of the mall, so I think of that as being in NW.

[Beefalow and the Consumer]

Washington, DC is geographically restricted, so most of the actual "city" is in Maryland and Virginia.  Only the inner city is DC proper.  If you took inner city Philadelphia, Chicago, or Detroit, and made them their own cities, they would also be predominantly black.

Good point. Going slightly off topic I noticed this the other day

Just for fun, compare and contrast to where I live now