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Contrary to widespread current belief, Washington D.C. has not always been a “Chocolate City”— that is, majority black. A century ago, the city was 75 percent white. In 1940, it was still 72 percent white.
Not until the 1950s did the city turn brown. Between 1950 and 1960, Washington, D.C. went from 65 percent white to 45 percent white as the white population fled rising crime and headed for the burgeoning suburbs in Maryland and Northern Virginia.
By 1970, the white population had dropped again, from 45 percent to 27 percent. This was largely due to the riots after the assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968. The anarchy helped convince whites the time had come to seek safer communities devoid of color to raise their children.
D.C. suffered an estimated $27 million in damage ($198.3 million today) ...
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