Barry Farm by Joy Sharon Yi B.F.A. in Television and Broadcast Journalism, May 2011, Chapman University A Thesis submitted to The Faculty of The Columbian College of Arts and Sciences (formerly the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design) of The George Washington University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts May 21, 2017 Thesis directed by Gabriela Bulisova Professorial Lecturer of Art and Design Susan Sterner Program Head, New Media Photojournalism Associate Professor of Photojournalism © Copyright 2017 by Joy Sharon Yi All rights reserved ii For mom and dad iii Acknowledgments There are many people in the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design who helped bring this thesis to life. I am deeply grateful to Susan Sterner. The last two years in the New Media Photojournalism program has inspired every part of this project. Thank you for shaping my narrative voice. Gabriela Bulisova provided feedback and support at critical ventures of this project. Thank you, Gabriela, for believing in me. The written elements of this project could not exist without Mary Kane and Manuel Roig-Franzia. Jasper Colt offered his sage wisdom in the creation of the Barry Farm film. Frank DiPerna passed on his love for film, art, and the printed image. Benjamin Tankersley taught me to see the world differently through studio lighting. Eddy Leonel Aldana graciously taught me how to use a view camera. It has been a joy to learn and grow with my peers in the New Media Photojournalism program. Many classmates offered encouragement and support in periods of doubt. My time as a graduate fellow at the Honey W. Nashman Center for Civic Engagement and Public Service has shaped me in more ways than I can express. I am especially grateful to Amy Cohen and Ashlynn Profit whose commitment to inclusion and equity in D.C. has inspired me and informed this project. I am also grateful to the Alexia Foundation for their support. James Roche recognized an overeager graduate student in the early stages of this project and introduced me to many current and former Barry Farm residents. Thank you for opening that first door for me. Sean “Maybon” Brown passionately shared his love for basketball and the Barry Farm’s Goodman League with me. I am thankful to Wendy Glenn and the staff at the Barry Farm Recreation Center who graciously allowed me to iv document their events and programs. I am grateful to Dasani Watkins and her family who welcomed me into their family and allowed me to film over the course of this project. Finally, this project could not be possible without the many Barry Farm families who gave me the privilege of documenting their lives. It has been a wonderful gift and honor. David Sung, you have been my rock. Thank you for your unconditional support and friendship and for listening patiently as I struggled to create and complete this project. To my mom and dad – whom this project is dedicated to – thank you for the sacrifices you made to raise and love me and for instilling in me values of compassion, joy, and justice. v Abstract of Thesis Barry Farm Generation after generation, communities of color have been systematically and institutionally oppressed in America. African-Americans, in particular, have faced enormous challenges even after the civil rights movement – the rise of police brutality, drug addiction, mass incarceration, and gentrification to name a few. My aim is to focus on housing policies that have disproportionately affected African Americans. The goal of this thesis is twofold: (1) recognize government-sanctioned urban housing policies and practices that have “serially displaced” black families and (2) to celebrate black communities that have endured and thrived despite these challenges, with a specific lens on Washington, D.C.’s Barry Farm Public Houses. While there were many systemic abuses toward minorities in the area of housing such as the implementation of racial covenants, black codes, subprime lending, and redlining, for the purposes of this paper, I will focus on the phenomena of “urban renewal” and how this rhetoric was used and repeated to “serially displace” and deliberately zone African Americans into modern ghettos. I will provide personal accounts from residents living in D.C.’s Barry Farm Public Houses and conclude a fundamental paradigm shift in urban planning and a long-term investment in affordable housing is necessary to curtail the trend of displacement, homelessness, and wealth inequality in America. The multimedia component of this project celebrates the Barry Farm community. In 1961, journalist Jane Jacobs suggested ways a poor neighborhood could “unslum.” vi Mindy Fullilove clarified Jacobs’ most poignant remark in 2005: “A slum would endure if residents left as quickly as they could. A neighborhood would transform itself, if people wanted to stay. It was the investment of time, money, and love that would make the difference.” During the course of this project, I have spoken with many current and former Barry Farm residents who have generously shared their lives and love for the Barry Farm neighborhood with me. They have taught me how to preserve and love a neighborhood, even as its physical aesthetic deteriorates. I hope the multimedia components of this project will give a small glimpse into a loving, thriving neighborhood. vii Table of Contents Dedication……………………………………………………………...…………………iii Acknowledgements…………….………………………………….….…………………..iv Abstract of Thesis…………….……………………………………….………………….vi List of Figures…………….…………..……………………………….………………….ix Chapter 1: Thesis Research Essay: Urban Renewal or Negro Removal? The Gentrification of Barry Farm…………….………………………………………………..2 Chapter 2: Visual Review…………….……………………………….…………………21 Chapter 3: Methods and Media Used…………….……………………………….….….34 Bibliography…………….………………………………………..………………..…….35 Appendix A: Barry Farm Photographs………………..……………………………..….40 Appendix B: Barry Farm in NEXT 2017, CSAD ………………………………...…….65 Appendix C: Website…….……….……………….……………..………………………68 Appendix D: Community Engagement, The Best Part of Me Workshop..…..………..…73 Appendix E: Community Engagement, FotoWeek DC..……….…………...…...………76 Appendix F: Barry Farm Book.……….…………………………………….…...………77 viii List of Figures CHAPTER 1 Figure 1. The 295 Freeway and the Barry Farm Public Houses, Yi………………...4 Figure 2. Dylan and Little Sean on the playground, Yi……………………………..8 Figure 3. Film school, Dasani checks in with her advisor at E.L. Haynes High School, Yi………………………………………………………………....9 Figure 4. James, Yi…………………………………………………………………14 Figure 5. Brookland Manor Housing Protest, Yi………………………………..…20 CHAPTER 2 Figure 6. Unauthorized immigration lodgings in a Bayard Street tenement, Library of Congress, Riis…………………………………………...…....21 Figure 7. Children running through Cabrini Green, one of Chicago’s notorious housing projects, White………………………………………………….23 Figure 8. Dylan runs in front of his Barry Farm home, Yi…………………………24 Figure 9. Ajoh Achot and Achol Manyen, Sheikh………………………………....29 Figure 10. Dylan, Yi…………………………………………………………………30 Figure 12. Zion, Yi…………………………………………………………………..30 Figure 12. Lee and Sean on Sean’s 50 th birthday, Yi………………………………..31 Figure 13. A film still from the Barry Farm documentary, Yi……………………...32 Figure 14. A film still from the Barry Farm documentary, Yi…………………..….32 Figure 15. A film still from the Barry Farm documentary, Yi…………..………….32 ix “Urban renewal means negro removal.” James Baldwin, 1963 1 Chapter One: Thesis Research Essay BACKGROUND In the nation’s capital - five miles from the White House - there is a public housing project that will soon be demolished called Barry Farm. It consists of faded, beige houses in neat rows and a basketball court that fills with crowds in the summer. While its appearance is modest, Barry Farm carries a rich and mighty history. In 1867, after the end of the Civil War, the U.S. Freedman’s Bureau purchased land from white landowners and sold the land to former slaves. With a pioneering spirit, the newly freed men purchased the land and built their homes from the ground up, creating the first home-owning African American community in the nation’s capital. Today, over 300 public housing units take up much of the Barry Farm neighborhood, erected in the 1950s to accommodate the influx of black communities displaced from the urban renewal of the 1950s and 1960s 1. As of 2017, the Barry Farm Public Houses are under the threat of a new urban renewal. THE FIRST URBAN RENEWAL Urban renewal in America started with the Housing Act of 1949 2. America was in the midst of its Second Great Migration, and the influx of poor back families during a period of segregation created homogenous neighborhoods primed for severe overcrowding, exploitation, rioting, and poor housing conditions. In Chicago’s Black Belt, it was estimated that 375,000 African Americans lived in housing that was equipped 1 In 1954, the Redevelopment Land Authority cleared substandard housing under the Redevelopment Act and created public housing in Barry Farm. 2 The term “urban renewal” was actually introduced into law with the Housing Act of 1954, but the origins of removing “slum” or “blighted” neighborhoods began with the Housing Act of 1949. 2 for no more than 110,000 people. An estimated 29 tons of rats were collected (Hirsch, 1998). Under the Housing Act, once a neighborhood was deemed “slum” or “blighted,” the federal government had the power under eminent domain to seize the land, evict residents, and sell the land to developers for a fraction of the price. This plan for “progress” was used to raze entire black neighborhoods. Between 1950 and 1974, urban renewal destroyed 1,600 African American communities in 993 cities (Fullilove 2005, Hyra 2012). In the black community, the plan was viewed as “negro removal” as “second ghettos” were created and African Americans were moved from areas of investment, like central business districts, into concentrated areas of poverty. In 1998, author Arnold Hirsch argued, “the real tragedy surrounding the emergence of the modern ghetto is that it ….was carried out with government sanctioned support.” With a growing internal refugee population, city planners sought to create “buffer zones” to hide the urban poor.