I have copied in the first few paragraphs of this story. You can click on the link to read the entire story. I * have * included the paragraphs that mention Bloomingdale.
So what address in Bloomingdale is part of the history of breaking racially restrictive covenants?
It would be 116 Bryant Street NW.
How Racial Covenants Shaped D.C. Neighborhoods
MS. REBECCA SHEIR
00:00:09
I'm Rebecca Sheir. Welcome back to "Metro Connection." Today we're heading back in time in Washington with a show we're calling "Throwbacks." And the story we'll here next is about a relic from the days of segregation. That relic is something known as a racially restrictive covenant. And for years in D.C., these covenants prevented black residents from living in what were thought of as white neighborhoods. And even though these policies ended with the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950 and '60s, the effects still resonate today. Lauren Ober has the story.
MS. LAUREN OBER
00:00:39
The year was 1950. A gallon of gas cost 18 cents. Diner's Club issued the first ever credit card. And a prominent black doctor named Robert Deane wanted to buy a house in the Northwest D.C. neighborhood of Mt. Pleasant. The house Deane had his eye on was a stately, seven-bedroom Georgian Revival built in 1906. Perched above Park Road, the house typified the grandeur of the block.
MS. MARA CHERKASKY
00:01:03
We're on the 1800 block of Park Road Northwest, which is the block with all the biggest houses in the neighborhood. They're like big, freestanding houses that were built by rich businessmen in the earliest years of the 20th century.
OBER
00:01:17
That's local historian Mara Cherkasky. She's giving me a tour of Mt. Pleasant.
CHERKASKY
00:01:21
Well, the neighborhood developed basically after the streetcar started running up here in 1903. It became a row-house neighborhood, basically. And then some even better-off people built these large, freestanding houses.
OBER
00:01:33
It was one of those freestanding houses that Dr. Deane wanted for his family of five.
CHERKASKY
00:01:37
This is the biggest house on the block. And it was built for a German immigrant wine and liquor dealer named Charles Kramer. And he lived in it his whole life and then his daughter Lillian Kramer inherited it.
OBER
00:01:53
As such, the house was Lillian Kramer's to do with as she pleased. And in 1950, she wanted to sell it to Dr. Deane. But there was a problem. Remember, Dr. Deane was black. And back then, black people didn't live in Mt. Pleasant or really anywhere else in the District except Shaw, Anacostia and a tiny handful of crowded African American enclaves. It's not because the city's black residents didn't want to live elsewhere. It's because they weren't allowed to buy property in neighborhoods like Mt. Pleasant because of what were called racially restrictive covenants.
MS. VALERIE SCHNEIDER
00:02:24
They usually restricted the sale of the property to whites. So sometimes they excluded particular groups of people -- African Americans, religious minorities, Jews. And they ran with the land, so they were intended to last in perpetuity.
...
SCHNEIDER
00:03:46
Instead of just fighting the legality of these racially restrictive covenants head-on, we're going to bring in a lot of sociological and economic evidence that shows the damage that these covenants do.
OBER
00:03:57
Not just to African American communities, but to others as well. In 1948, they had their day in court again. The Supreme Court heard two cases on these covenants. One involved a dispute in D.C.'s Bloomingdale neighborhood. Again, Houston argued for the petitioner.
SCHNEIDER
00:04:13
They had experts testify at trial as to the overcrowding caused by racially restrictive covenants and that that caused deplorable housing conditions. They linked racially restrictive covenants to infant mortality rates in African American communities because of all the health issues, crime issues related to the overcrowding.
OBER
00:04:32
Houston and his team prevailed. The justices ruled that racially restrictive covenants could not be legally enforced. But that didn't stop groups like the Mt. Pleasant Civic Association, says historian Mara Cherkasky.
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