Final Project Topic Ideas
February 20, 2014
When considering my project, I concluded that I definitely want to focus on an issue involving race, as the ever-changing demographics of my city has always been of interest to me. My initial idea was to focus on the gentrification of the city in some capacity. In recent years, I have seen Washington, D.C., morph into a city I don’t remember from my childhood. Neighborhoods that once were long time homes to native D.C. families or families that had migrated from Central and South America and Africa, neighborhoods that thrive with culture and history, are being bought out by high priced developers and turned into trendy, expensive spots for more privileged young adults. One idea of mine for this project would be to do analyze and trace the patterns of gentrification in the city from the beginning until current times. It would be interesting to see how certain eras sparked mass exoduses of white people to the suburbs, while more recent times we see the opposite. To research this I would need to look at census records primarily. I could also find articles and images that depict the changing culture of certain neighborhoods in Washington, D.C. For example, the neighborhood of Georgetown was primarily a black neighborhood in the 18th and 19th centuries. Now, however, it is known for its high end designer shops and its extremely affluent residents.
My two second topics involve race riots. The first of the two is the 1919 Red Summer riots. I think that the Red Summer highlights a very dark slice of history in American cities that is rarely talked about. Race is an issue that it seems many are afraid to address. It is hard to confront a not-so-distant history where white men in uniform searched for black people to torture and kill. There are probably plenty of articles in the Library of Congress database that cover the riots. There are also plenty secondary works written about the Red Summer.
Stores on 14th St and Irving St NW burned during the 1968 Civil Rights riot in what is now the Columbia Heights neighborhood.
The second riot that I am leaning towards in terms of this project is the 1968 Washington, D.C. riots, in which violence and destruction overcame parts of D.C. for 5 days after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. I think that this series of riots is particularly interesting because it significantly effected the neighborhoods, Columbia Heights and the U Street Corridor, leaving it unable to prosper until recent years. Now these two neighborhoods are among the “trendiest” and “up and coming” neighborhoods in the city. Obtaining information on the event and impact would be particularly interesting since I know a number of people personally, parents and grandparents of my friends and so forth, who lived through this. I know people who literally grew up, went to school, and lived their entire lives in these very neighborhoods during this time. I would love to interview them and get first hand primary source recounts. Since it is much more modern in terms of technology than my other two topics, I would have greater access to photos, articles, and other primary sources.
One Response to “Final Project Topic Ideas”
February 21st, 2014 at 2:49 am
These are solid topic suggestions. Of the three, of course the first would require a great deal of narrowing, refining. It’s worth a book and this is a small digital project.Ways you could consider narrowing it would be selecting a single neighborhood–although that’s still awfully broad, a time period, or even a particular street. Look for old photos, take current ones, interview residents. There’s a lot you could do. As a resident, you’ll know which neighborhoods are most interesting and relevant to your broad topic. There are also neighborhood associations, as you may know, that collect the history of their area.
Here’s an article on the 1919 riots, in case you haven’t seen it: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/2000/raceriot0301.htm
And re the last possible topic–you could even focus on how an individual site in the riot area changed over time. Ben’s Chili Bowl, for example, which opened in the late 1950s has moved from a uniquely neighborhood/African-American place with gentrification to an “in” hangout–besides presidents and celebrities who go there. Other neighborhood cultural institutions have changed similarly.
If you decide to stick with any of these topics, narrowing your scope, of course, you’ll have a wealth of material and great opportunities to add your independent research to the pile.