On Saturday November 19th Empower DC hosted the 100 Year Anniversary Celebration of Crummell School. The celebration also covered by local media with a video by NBC 4 and an article from the Washington City Paper. The school is located in Ivy City, a historically African American neighborhood in Northeast Washington, DC. The school was established in 1911 and named after Alexander Crummell, an educator, clergymen, and advocate for African American rights. W. E. B. Du Bois devoted a chapter of The Souls of Black Folks to Alexander Crummell in which he writes, “I began to feel the fineness of his character – his calm courtesy, the sweetness of his strength, and his fair blending of the hope and truth of life. Instinctively I bowed before this man, as one bows before the prophets of the world.” Crummell School embodied the determination of Crummell to uplift African Americans through education.
The school was closed in the 70s and Ivy City was left without a vital community center. Rezoning and neglect on the part of the city government led to Ivy City becoming the dumping ground for the city’s unwanted facilities and left this residential neighborhood buried under industrial warehousing and highways. Coupled with the harsh effects of deindustrialization, high rates of unemployment and the mass incarceration of African Americans the heart has been taken out of the neighborhood. After years of struggle and little to show, it seems the community lost the hope to continue the fight against this injustice. But is Ivy City coming back for more?
Alumni, former teachers, and former and current residents came out to participate in the celebration. Crummell School holds a special place in the hearts and memories of a number of people who feel they have their roots in the historic neighborhood of Ivy City and in the education and grounding they received at Crummell.
We aired the latest version of the short documentary “Crummell School: Heart and Soul of the Community” – to be finished in the near future – in order to get feedback and try and involve the community in its production.
The Ivy City community is resurrecting their historic Civic Association (also established in 1911) after a long hiatus. Newly elected Vice President Alicia Swanson-Canty delivered a strong and passionate speech at the event. Residents are beginning to raise their voices a little louder and in unison in regards to what they want to see develop in their community as new housing projects come in. Questions linger over whether the school can be restored as a much-needed community center as part of an ongoing neighborhood revitalization project. The community has spoken, but will they get what they so badly need? This community, and African Americans in historically segregated communities all over the United States, have had to fight for education and resources. This historic struggle continues…
Our hearts are with the people of Ivy City as they attempt to rise from the ashes of long-forgotten struggles for racial equality that still burn with an ugly determination in this divided country. As thousands take to the streets and parks to denounce the brazen greed and indifference of the “1%” it is more important than ever to remember the long and bloody battle for civil rights that have taken place in our local communities for decades and that continue to this day.
Free Franklin Activists Hang Banner From Franklin School
At 2:00 PM on Saturday, November 19, 2011, a small group of activists associated with Occupy DC took over the vacant Franklin School building at 13th and K Streets NW, Washington, DC. Their occupation did not last long as the police arrested eleven activists around 7:00PM that same evening. The activists call themselves Free Franklin. They’re goals, motivations and calls to action are posted at FreeFranlkinDC.blogspot.com. A public forum about the future of Franklin Shelter and the importance of public property for essential human services is scheduled as follows:
Public Forum on Franklin Shelter Monday, November 21 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM Asbury United Methodist Church 11th & K Streets NW
All DC community members are encouraged to attend. For more on the November 19 takeover of Franklin School I suggest Luke’s post at DC’s Independent Media Center.
The recent history of Franklin School illustrates the conflict between the needs of long-term DC residents and the actions of District government who, more often than not, represent the interests of developers and the wealthy over those of low and moderate-income residents. Since the Fenty Administration, the government of the District of Columbia has been attempting to declare Franklin School surplus and sell it to a private entity, this despite the school’s long history of public service. One of DC’s first public high schools, the building was used as an educational facility for most of its life. Up until 1995 the Franklin School housed an adult-education center, at which time it was closed for renovations that the city promised but (surprise, surprise) never materialized. The school remained shuttered until 2002 when homeless advocates took over the building and turned it into a shelter. By 2007, the Franklin Shelter was housing 300, working, homeless men. In 2008, then Mayor Adrian Fenty shuttered Franklin Shelter ignoring emergency legislation passed by the council to keep it open, Franklin Shelter Closing Requirements Emergency Act of 2008. After more than two years in the courts, a lawsuit brought by the Committee to Save Franklin Shelter and former residents finally failed in January of 2011. Despite this, homeless advocates continue to challenge the closing of DC’s homeless shelters in the courts. More information about their efforts can be found at FranklinShelter.org.
Except for its brief re-opening on November 19, the Franklin School has remained empty since September 2008. Homeless advocates would like to reopen it as a shelter. Others interested in the property as a historical landmark and District treasure such as the Coalition for Franklin School would like to see it reopened as a school or some other educational or cultural institution. The city seems most inclined to sell the property to private developers interested in turning the Franklin School into a boutique hotel. In accordance with District of Columbia Code 10-801, DC government is not allowed to surplus and sell any property without first conducting a pubilc hearing and soliciting input from the community. Unfortunately, as the above video of the surplus hearing for Franklin School conducted on November 18, 2010 demonstrates, these hearings are far too often used as a forum for city officials to present to the community their reasons for a decision that they’ve already made, rather than a hearing in which public comment is genuinely considered. Is the surplus of Franklin School a foregone conclusion? Stay tuned.
According to Wikipedia, Ivy City is a small Washington, DC neighborhood located on a triangular strip of land in the central part of DC’s Northeast quadrant. It’s bounded by New York Avenue to the northwest, West Virginia Avenue to the east, and Mt. Olivet Road to the south. The neighborhood is surrounded on all sides by significant landmarks: Gallaudet University (across Mt. Olivet Rd.), Mt. Olivet Cemetery (across West Virginia Ave.), and Amtrak’s Ivy City yard (across New York Ave.).
Better Days in Ivy City
I give you all this information because unlike Columbia Heights or Anacostia, Ivy City is not well-known. It has long been a tight-knit, working-class, African-American community with a proud history. But as the economy changed–the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad went away, warehouses closed down–what was once a thriving neighborhood became blighted.
This of course is not uncommon. Many of the District’s neighborhoods have their own histories of decline, but for some revitalization or outright gentrification has turned things around. While U Street, Georgia Avenue and even the long-neglected H Street corridor have seen major changes, revitalization projects in Ivy City have been proposed, promised and abandoned.
Those who look closely at revitalization in neighborhoods like Columbia Heights and Shaw may consider the residents of Ivy City fortunate. Relatively few native or even long-term residents have been able to remain in those other neighborhoods. Ivy City may not have the amenities that come with gentrification but it has not had the displacement either. Question is, will that last. The city is again planning projects that would promise revitalization, but will it come without displacement?
That is the question first time filmmaker Sean Furmage is preparing to answer in a documentary about Ivy City that he’s recently begun working on through the Grassroots Media Project. The project will be a part of his course work as a PhD candidate at American University. An introduction to the project is posted here. In it Furmage focuses on two recently proposed Ivy City redevelopment projects. The first, the Adaptive Reuse of Alexander Crummell School was scheduled to begin last summer, but it looks now like the city is trying to surplus the school instead. The other is the Ivy City Special Demonstration Project which will bring 58 units of “affordable” housing to the community, but it is unclear how many of those units will ultimately be awarded to current community members.
Furmage’s documentary will look at the struggles between local residents and the city council, developers and non-profits and their contrasting visions for the future of Ivy City. What’s posted here gives you a flavor of the finished documentary, which we hope will be complete by this fall.
Empower DC is currently seeking out residents of Ivy City to join the campaign to save the historic Alexander Crummell School from for-profit developers. As is clear from the video, Ivy City residents who have the time and inclination to be active want to keep Crummell as PUBLIC property, for use by the community and residents city-wide – to RESTORE the school for uses that benefit the community, serve community needs and preserve the history of the school and community. For more information, and particularly if you know anyone from Ivy City, join the Facebook campaign to save Crummell School.
On July 10, 2010 ONE DC and Take Back The Land set up a tent city at 7th and R Streets NW to protest the unfulfilled promises made by Mayor Fenty regarding the public property there, otherwise known as Parcel 42. The tent city got a fair amount of media attention at the start, but interest waned as the protest failed to move the Fenty Administration to action, beyond posting the sign in the picture of course. The sign, which reads, “Another Project from the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development,” sounds like Mayor Fenty is taking credit for the tent city. In a way, that’s accurate. If Fenty had followed through on the Memorandum of Understanding that he signed in 2007, then a tent city on that lot wouldn’t have been necessary.
The Grassroots Media Project’s radio production class gathered audio at tent city near the end of July. Interviews were conducted by Candace Wolfe, Navid Nasr, Crystal Elekwachi and Riley Abbott. The final piece was edited together by Riley Abbot.
Additionally, Eric Sheptock’s blog posts on the subject give you the perspective of a tent city resident. It’s also interesting to compare coverage by the City Paper, which focuses on whether or not the activists would achieve their goals, with coverage in the Afro American, which is more concerned with how affordable housing is defined by the city and why their definition is problematic.
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