Negroes are pouring into
Washington, white families leav-
ing in droves. Result: a basic
change in the population of the
nation’s capital.
In schools, 64 per cent of stu-
dents now are Negroes. In some
residential areas, Negroes take
over.
In the nation’s capital, where inte-
gration of public schools began last
year, people are startled to discover
that Negro pupils now outnumber
white pupils 2 to 1.
Washington’s enrollment trend in re-
cent years has been toward more and
more Negroes, fewer and fewer whites.
Now that trend is being accelerated.
Twenty years ago, 64 per cent of the
pupils in the city’s public schools were
white, 36 per cent Negroes. Today this
is reversed—64 per cent Negroes, 36
per cent whites. These figures are dis-
closed by a new official count.
Washington now has a greater propor-
tion of Negroes in the public schools
than any other large U. S. city.
Migration from South. An end to this
shift of the races is not in sight. What
is happening in Washington is explained
by two important developments:
First, as the southernmost unsegregat-
ed city in the East, Washington attracts
more and more Negroes from the segre-
gated South.
Second, and even more important,
Washington is losing thousands of white
tamilies to the suburban areas of Mary-
land and Virginia—areas where schools
are either segregated or heavily white in
enrollment.
This rush of whites to the suburbs has
been stepping up since 1948, when the
Supreme Court outlawed “restricted
covenants.” As long as these covenants
had legal effect, homeowners were com-
mitted not to sell to Negroes or persons
of other minority groups. After the court
ruling, Negroes penetrated white neigh-
borhoods more rapidly, causing whites
to hasten their flight to the suburbs.
In the last two years, since plans for
integration of races in the schools were
announced, still more white families have
moved from the city.
The white population that is left in
the city is an unusual mixture—including
less than the normal proportion of chil-
dren. The young married couples and
those with families tend to live in the
suburbs. The older persons and young
unmarried persons tend to stay in the
city, finding it more convenient to live
in downtown apartments.
White births drop. One result of
these changes is that the birth rate among
white Washingtonians is far below the
national average. It is 19.7 per 1,000
population. At the same time, the Negro
birth rate is unusually high—30.4 per
1,000.
A large proportion of the white children
who are born in the city move away.
There is no net gain of white popula-
tion in Washington. Some new people
come, but a larger number leave. Be-
tween 1940 and 1950, the white persons
moving away outnumbered those moving
in by 12,932. At the same time there was
a net migration of 63,967 Negroes into
the city. ,
One result of all this is that, in nine out
of 10 Washington public schools, there is
some joint attendance by Negroes and
white students, with Negroes predomi-
nating in most places.
_H
SRR
%
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5%
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R4
In Washington’s Public Schools —
2 Out of 3 Pupils Today Are Negroes