One hundred years ago, Sinclair Lewis’s satirical novel skewered 20th-century America’s booming midsize city and the complacency and conformity of its middle-class inhabitants.
An exclusive community created by Frank Lyon.
“Lyon’s Legacy” is a limited-run opinion column on the history of housing in Arlington. A version of this article first appeared in ARLnow.
“In this early-twentieth-century era, when African Americans in the South faced terror that maintained them in subjugation, when African Americans throughout the nation were being driven from small towns where they had previously enjoyed a measure of integration and safety, and when the federal government had abandoned its African American civil servants, we should not be surprised to learn that there was a new dedication on the part of public officials to ensure that white families’ homes would be removed from proximity to African Americans in large urban areas.”
A later artist’s rendition of Crandal Mackey’s raid on Rosslyn. This painting hangs in the Virginia Room at the Central Library. The depiction is hagiographic, cartoonish, and inaccurate, but indicates the significance of the event in Arlington’s history. Image used with permission of Arlington Library.
“Lyon’s Legacy” is a limited-run opinion column on the history of housing in Arlington. A version of this article first appeared in ARLnow.
Before 1900, the population of Arlington County was nearly 40% African-American. By 1950, it was less than 5%. Today, the number is still less than 10%. So what happened? Image by the author.
April 23, 2021 at 11:45am
Lyon’s Legacy is a limited-run opinion column on the history of housing in Arlington. The views expressed are solely the author’s.
“IN THIS early-twentieth-century era, when African Americans in the South faced terror that maintained them in subjugation, when African Americans throughout the nation were being driven from small towns where they had previously enjoyed a measure of integration and safety, and when the federal government had abandoned its African American civil servants, we should not be surprised to learn that there was a new dedication on the part of public officials to ensure that white families’ homes would be removed from proximity to African Americans in large urban areas.”
Carter Glass, delegate to the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1901-02. (Image via Library of Congress)
Lyon’s Legacy is a limited-run opinion column on the history of housing in Arlington. The views expressed are solely the author’s.
“Discrimination! Why that is exactly what we propose… That exactly is what this convention was elected for to discriminate to the very extremity of permissible action under the limitation of the federal Constitution, with the view to the elimination of every Negro voter who can be gotten rid of.”
Carter Glass, Virginia Constitutional Convention, 1902
Arlington wasn’t always white. Before 1900, the population of the county was nearly 40% African-American. By 1950, it was less than 5%. Today, the number is still less than 10%.