Blacks and Historic Preservation

Why should black people be so concerned about historic preservation?Consider, by way of example, Georgetown, a predominantly white enclave populated by the white aristocracy.Its reputation as a chic, expensive place to live is well known.The trouble is that we used to live there too-until the historical preservationists, in league with the real estate developers, decided that Georgetown's historic value was ripe for takeover.Georgetown is a very old place, and blacks had been living there since before the Civil War.' By 1930 over forty per cent of the residents of Georgetown were black 2 The housing they lived in was not grand, perhaps, but it was housing and it was theirs.Real estate brokers, however, recognized that the historically significant origins of Georgetown could, upon rehabilitation of the area, attract new white residents willing to pay handsomely for an association with history.Black homeowners could not resist the prices offered them, nor could they afford the significantly higher rents that the restored houses could command, and by i95 o most blacks had moved from Georgetown.The Georgetown syndrome has been aptly described by the Taeubers, who point out that other examples exist in other cities including Charleston and Philadelphia. 3A close examination of the Georgetown syndrome reveals its galling effects.It contains most of the elements of an all-too-common pattern that has devastating effects on blacks.The first difficulty with this form of Negro displacement is that it is another example of whites deciding what is best for blacks.When Georgetown was taken over, blacks probably did not offer much resistance.The "white liberal" was thought of as a friend of the blacks.He would lead them to the promised land, but only as long as they did what was expected of them.The fact that he wanted to move into Georgetown was not supposed to be a matter of concern to blacks.Today that kind of approach does not commend respect in the black community.The need for and the imperative of black power with its tenet of self determination is here to stay.The second difficulty with the Georgetown syndrome is that blacks have no place to move once they leave.What happens is that the white middle and upper classes, which already have the greatest number of housing choices, are given one *Member of the firm of Ross, Hardies, O'Keefe, Babcock & Parsons, Chicago, Illinois.'C.GREEN, Tim Sac=~r CrTy: A HIsTORY op RACE RELATIoNS IN