This 1962 aerial photograph shows the location of the segregation wall that was built to keep Black people out of Woodlawn Village when it was developed in the 1930s. Click on the photo for more information about the wall.
Our work to create a more equitable, sustainable, inclusive, and affordable Arlington has taken on a renewed urgency. The past year and a half have been traumatic for people across the country, particularly Black and Brown Americans who have been not only disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 crisis but who have seen evidence, time and time again, of the continued existence of racism and injustice in our nation.
It is no secret that the history of segregation, discrimination, and unequal access to housing is connected to both of these current crises.
AHS invites you to revisit conversations the Alliance for Housing Solutions has had on the intersection of race and housing at our Leckey Forums in 2018 (the Legacy of Discrimination and Segregation in Arlington) and 2019 (Lessons for Arlington from Minneapolis), and to watch our seven-minute video, Race and Housing in Arlington, to learn about the County’s history of segregation and discrimination in housing.
We also invite you to review the suggested resource list we have compiled with help from our coalition of friends and advocates. Educating ourselves about the truth of our past is an important first step toward action—and we will have to turn words into action to stop this pattern from repeating itself over and over again.
Thank you for joining us in the important work of making Arlington a place where people of all walks of life are truly welcome and can afford to live.
Sincerely,
The Alliance for Housing Solutions
Resource List
Arlington’s Black History
My Halls Hill Family: More than a Neighborhood, Wilma Jones
Bridge Builders of Nauck/Green Valley: Past and Present, Dr. Alfred Taylor Jr.
A Guide to the African-American Heritage of Arlington County VA, Arlington Historic Preservation Office
Built By the People Themselves – African American Community Development in Arlington, Virginia, from the Civil War through Civil Rights, Dr. Lindsey Bestebreurtje
Arlington County’s Racial History Timelines, Arlington County
Integration of Wakefield High School, Arlington Historical Society
Housing Segregation & Discrimination
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America, Richard Rothstein (Also, watch the video of his May 3, 2018 talk at the Arlington Public Library.)
Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
Segregation by Design: Local Politics and Inequality in American Cities, Jessica Trounstine
The Racial Origins of Zoning in American Cities, Christopher Silver
Timeline of 100 Years of Racist Housing Policy that Created a Separate and Unequal America, Shareable
Housing Segregation in Everything, NPR’s Code Switch
Zoning and Segregation in Virginia: Part 1 – Why Virginia Needs a Study of Zoning Laws and Their Connection to Segregation, McGuireWoods
Systemic Inequality: Displacement, Exclusion, and Segregation: How America’s Housing System Undermines Wealth Building in Communities of Color, Center for American Progress
A ‘Forgotten History’ of How the U.S. Government Segregated America, National Public Radio
New in 2022: Zoning and Segregation in Virginia: Part 2 – Expanding Housing Choices for the Future of Virginia, McGuireWoods
US History
Separate and Unequal: The Kerner Commission and the Unraveling of American Liberalism, Steven Gillon
The 1619 Project, Nikole Hannah-Jones at the New York Times
The Case for Reparations, Ta-Nehisi Coates
13th, Netflix
Code Switch, National Public Radio
Slavery in America, Equal Justice Initiative
From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century, The University of North Carolina Press
New in 2022: Racial Equity in Virginia (Toolkit), Housing Forward Virginia
Racism and White Privilege
How to be an Anti-Racist and Stamped from the Beginning, Ibram Kendi
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander
White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son, Tim Wise
White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism, Robin Diangelo
Putting Racism on the Table, Tamara Copeland and the Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers
Daughters of the Dream, Tamara Copeland
The Sum of Us, Heather McGhee
Me and White Supremacy, Layla F. Saad
Unheard Histories: Understanding Racism in Our Communities, a three-part webinar series from Temple Rodef Shalom
New in 2022: Changing Power Dynamics among Researchers, Local Governments, and Community Members, Urban Institute