Existing comment:
An Era of Significant Change:
Today Washington DC is a multiethnic, multiracial city with reviving neighborhoods, a vibrant arts community, a large metropolitan bus and rail system, and a lively political scene.
It also has a shortage of affordable housing and pockets of persistent unemployment and poverty.
The foundation for much of today's District was laid during the transformational years of 1963-1975, when DC residents gained limited home rule. Rapid changes also affected nearly every aspect of life and culture -- including housing, transportation, politics, education, and the arts. Many changes were related to the seismic shift in national consciousness that characterized the 1960s. Social activism addressed longstanding social injustices. Issues of war and peace reshaped law and politics. New trends in art, theater, and music reworked the social fabric.
DC had become the nation's largest city with a majority African American population -- its leaders honed in civil rights struggles and the new grassroots politics of empowerment. During those 12 years, Washingtonians cast their first meaningful votes in a presidential race, and inaugurated their first popularly elected Council and mayor. The city changed visually as urban renewal projects demolished and replaced entire communities. DC was the focal point for a wide variety of national causes and campaigns -- including poverty, war, and discrimination of all kinds.
It was an extraordinary time when men and women took to the streets and redefined what was right and proper and what was legal and equal.
Change was in the air. |