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Justice And Beauty

Decent Essays

If a tourist walked from the Minnesota Ave. subway station towards panel #14, he/she would notice the rather giant image of a massive crowd that covers a bit more than half the panel. With that said, this panel displays image that would immediately capture the interest of the tourist, as both the size of the crowd and the size of the interior of the venue give an impression that something significant or “grand” once stood in the surrounding area. Also, in terms of convenience to the tourist, the bottom half of the same side of the panel provides a brief “introductory” summary of Deanwood’s cultural and infrastructural development; this text, or historical context, also highlights another past–the background on the project that made the heritage …show more content…

Although the existence of government intervention in the establishment of Mayfair Mansions is unknown, it is important to note a link between Gillette’s argument and the establishment of the apartment complex itself, which is that the infrastructural “makeover” of Washington made African Americans subject to displacement and in dire need of housing during the twentieth century; the Mayfair Mansions serves as a historical example of an institution that sought to fix the displacement problem among black Washingtonians. Apart from the removal of alley dwellings, several thousand properties had to be demolished, and the destruction of these properties led the black population in select Washington areas to becoming increasingly subject to displacement (Gillette 146). Also, the Pentagon was established in a predominantly black residential area in Arlington during WWI, which unsurprisingly led to displacement (Gillette 147). In 1944, Washington’s number one problem per the Citizens Committee on Racial Relations was the lack of adequate (or basic) housing for blacks, who struggled to find new homes to live in (Gillette 147), even as the federal government pushed to revitalize Washington’s urban setting through an “extermination” of immoral, communist-like suburban living (Gillette 151); the lack of adequate housing and the persistence of modernization combined to contribute to an increase in racial conflict between whites and blacks, as the government strived to discourage suburban living (Gillette

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