MEDFORD MAIL TRIBUNE. MEDFORD. OREGON
MONDAY. FEBRUARY 25, 1963
Washington, D.C., May Still Have Time To Head Off Race Troubles
noie: nasningion, I wnicn wasmncion has ex.
D.C., it a city in trouble. This Derienced in many years. It
is the first oi three dispatches threw a profound scare into
reporting on the racial ten
lions, rising crime rate, school
problems . and governmental
confusion that have contribut
ed to what President Kennedy
calls "a very bad situation" in
the capital city that belongs to
all Americans.
By LOUIS CASSELS
Washington - IUPI -Last
Thanksgiving Day, more than
50,000 football fans crowded
into the District of Columbia's
new stadium to watch two
high school teams battle for
the city championship.
One team represented a
predominantly white Catholic
school, the other a predomi
nantly Negro public school.
During the closing minutes
of the game, which the Catho
lic school won, 20-7, a fight
broke out on the playing field.
Tension quickly spread to the
crowd in the stands. Sensing
trouble, many parents bun
dled up their children and
headed for the exits. But it
, was too late. Violence erupted
in the stadium the moment
the game was over. Roaming
gangs of Negro youths attack
ed white spectators in the
stands, at the exits and in the
streets outside the stadium.
More than 300 persons were
injured before police were
able to restore order.
The stadium melee was the
nearest thing to a race riot
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residents of the community
both Negro and white. They
recognized that it was not just
a fight after a football game,
but a symptom of ugly social
tensions which have built up
in this outwardly calm capi
tal. President Notes Situation
President Kennedy spoke
the mind of many Washington
residents when he told a news
conference on Jan. 24 that the
stadium riot "highlighted a
very bad situation in the Dis
trict of Columbia."
There are, as the President
noted, many contributing fac
tors. Like nearly all big
cities, Washington is plagued
by a rising crime rate, traffic
congestion, overcrowded
schools and inadequate hous
ing for low-income families.
Unlike any other city in
America, however, Washing
ton is handicapped in coping
effectively with its own muni
cipal problems. Although it is
the capital of the world's
greatest democracy, its citi
zens do not have the right of
self-government. For its laws,
taxes and appropriations.
Washington must look to a
U. S. Congress which has not
always been particularly
sympathetic to its needs, and
to the executive branch of
the federal government,
which in the past has tended
to pay more attention to crises
in far corners of the globe
than to the explosive prob
lems accumulating around its
own door-step.
Fastest Growing City
Underlying and complicating
all of Washington's problems
is the rapid growth and un
usual racial distribution of its
population. Washington is by
a wide margin the fastest
growing city in the East. Its
metropolitan area population
has doubled since 1940. It
stands today at about 2,200,
000, which makes it the na
tion's 10th largest urban cen
ter. The 69-square-mile District
of Columbia, which many
Americans think of as being
synonymous with the city of
Washington, actually consti
tutes only the inner city of
the metropolitan area. Nearly
two-thirds of the population
now lives outside the District
of Columbia in the Maryland
and Virginia suburbs.
The racial composition of
the total metropolitan area
has undergone little change in
the past 10 years. It is three
fuurths white, onc-fourlh Ne
gro, approximately the same
as in 1920.
But the white population is
now heavily concentrated in
the Maryland and Virginia
suburbs, while t h e Negro
population is confined largely
to the inner city. As a result,
the District of Columbia has
become the only major U.S.
city with a Negro majority.
Its population is 54 per cent
Negro, 46 per cent white. If
present trends continue, the
District of Columbia popula
tion will be 72 per cent Ne
gro by 1970.
Because white families with
school-age children have mov
ed to the suburbs in dispro-
Veterans Council
Elects Officers
Wendell J. Frank, Jackson
ville post, American Legion,
was elected president of the
Veterans Allied Council of
Jackson County during its
Thursday meeting.
Other officers elected were
Ray Lawless, Veteran of For
eign Wars post, vice presi
dent; Vaughn Beer, American
Legion, Jacksonville, sergeant
at arms; Edward Smith, VFW,
treasurer, and Pat Graham,
Disabled American Veterans,
sccrcatry.
Veterans voted to write a
letter to Congressman Robert
Duncan (D-Ore.) thanking him
for his efforts in obtaining
a medical and surgical center
at the Veterans Administra
tion domiciliary, White City.
The council also passed a
resolution favoring property
tax exemption for Veterans
of World War I without stip
ulation of disability certification.
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portionate numbers, the racial
imbalance of the district's
public schools is even greater
than that of its general popu
lation. About 85 per cent of
the students enrolled in D.C.
public schools this year are
Negroes.
Shifts Segregate Schools
The Washington schools,
which were desegregated by
Supreme Court order in 1954,
have been virtually "re-segregated"
by population shifts.
Washington's Negro com
munity includes many middle
and upper-class families who
live in handsome homes and
send their children to the
best private schools and col
leges. But it also includes a
vastly larger number of poor,
uneducated and unskilled peo
ple who have moved from
rural areas of the South into
an urban environment with
whose complexities they are
ill-equipped to cope.
Census studies show that
75 per cent of the Negro
adults in the District of Co
lumbia have less than a high
school education. One out of
ten is illiterate. One-fourth of
the Negro families live on in
comes of less than $60 a week.
Social unrest among the
newly urbanized Negroes has
been heightened by resent
ment of racial barriers. Al
though all of Washington's
public facilities - schools, bus
es, restaurants and theaters -arc
desegregated, Negroes still
encounter "white only" poli
cies in many sectors of pri
vate employment and housing.
"Some progress has been
made in recent years in open
up job opportunities for Ne
groes, especially in retail and
service trades," said Sterling
Tucker, executive director of
the Washington Urban
League. "But qualified Negro
job-scekcrs still arc being
turned down by many private
employers. And Negro youths
find it impossible to get into
the apprenticeship programs
of many skilled trades in the
building industry and else
where." Can't Get Decent Housing
In their search for decent
housing. Tucker said, Negroes
arc "hemmed in" by their in
ability to obtain homes or
apartments in the rigorously
segregated suburbs, and are
forced to pay "outrageous"
prices for the housing that is
available to them in the black
ghpttoes of the inner city.
While frustrations and re
sentments have built up on
one side of the color line, fear
and suspicion have been at
work on the other side. Many
Washington whites are terri
fied hy the steady increase in
the inner city's Negro ma
jority. They blame Negroes
for the rising wave of yok
ings, muggings and other as
saults that have made it un
safe to walk the streets of the
capital at night. They regard
the stadium riot as a warning
that serious racial disturb
ances may break out at any
time.
The consensus of more than
two dozen Negro and white
leaders interviewed in the
preparation of these dispatch
es was that Washington is not
trembling on the verge of a
major race riot. It still has
time - although perhaps not a
great deal of time - to allevi
ate the social pressures that
are building toward an ex
plosion. But there arc few people in
Washington who would quar
rel with President Kennedy's
solemn warning in a special
message to Congress last
month that "the problems of
the district have become so
critical as to challenge the na
tional government to redouble
its understanding of and in
terest in its capital city."
Next: Washington's crime
problem.
SECRETARIAL SERVICE
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1012 W. 9th 772-S844
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