Topics for Research
Housing in D.C for African Americans
Slavery was first abolished in D.C, where as the rest of the slaves were not emancipated for months later. Not only is this a very interesting idea in itself, but also what it led to. Because slaves were free here first, it became a congregating place for African Americans throughout the country, and added to the black population of D.C. After the massive flux of population, D.C. began segregating itself, and even today we can see that African Americans are largely restricted in where they can live. If it is either by how expensive housing is, or just by the information they receive, housing is largely restricted to the lower income housing in East side of D.C, away from all the monuments and affluent parts like the Northwest region. To start my research I would first begin looking into the population increases after slaves were first freed, and then see if there were any particular laws or ordinances created to restrict where African Americans can live. Also, I would want to look at maps at how housing has developed.
Murder Capitol
For many years Washington D.C was the murder capitol of America. In the 1980’s and early 90’s, the crack epidemic hurt the nation’s capital and hit it hard. Just like many other cities with high African American populations and a low level of income, it plagued the city. Due to the amount of drugs and cash floating around, it became an open invite for gangs to begin to establish themselves as a corner stone of the social like and street life of those with lower incomes. Due to this, D.C underwent gentrification to remove the bad parts and replace them with more affluent areas. While it helped the city over all and led to the first population increase in decades, it didn’t solve the problem of those who had the problem. It really just pushed them aside. I first used wiki to get a bit of back story, and then I would begin looking into specifically the rates of murder and also how is has decreased since the 90’s.
Riots
Riots have formed a central identity of the African American community of D.C. Started after the death of Martin Luther King Jr, they voiced their dissent with how the district was being run and how they had no voice. The riots highlighted a long seeded problem building up, not just a single instance. Due to the riots many of the white and more wealthy people living in the district to leave and started a downward spiral of the district. not only were there riots after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr, but also in the early 90’s after the story of Rodney King made national headlines. It once again became the launching point for a bigger problem and not just one as simply as Rodney King being beat. I would start by looking at the problems leading up to and the 60’s riot and also the 90’s riots and begin mapping out a series of escalating and deescalating tension in the district with it coming to a head in each of the riots. 
One Response to 'Topics for Research'
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on February 23rd, 2014 at 3:22 am
Kyle,
You’ve come up with some interesting research topics here. There are a few things you need to work on developing before you get to your primary research question. First, in regards to the housing topic, this is a great idea, but your topic doesn’t adequately historicize the problem. For example, you don’t give any dates, which leaves the reader confused. Also, you draw a line from slavery to present day housing without any in between. Trying to make that kind of historical link will take way too much work for a project like this. You could try talking about racially segregated housing during the 19th century, or maybe during the Civil Rights period. Was the housing segregated by law, or not? Ask these sorts of questions.
And also, while the murder capital is an interesting idea, I have to put the kibosh on it – the 1980s and 90s aren’t technically considered history, they’re current events. If you can trace the roots of this phenomenon into later history, though, you have a great project.
So far I’d say your race riot idea is the strongest one. Begin working on your research tactics. What databases would you use to find secondary sources? To find primary sources? What keyword searches would you use? Would you look to any physical locations for primary sources? Answer these questions to begin the research process.
– Claire