Why Chocolate City’s Black Legacy Still Matters

Washington D.C. is home to the White House, but so many Black people lived there that George Clinton dubbed it Chocolate City. But why was this chocolate bittersweet?

With a large population of free Black people in the early 1800s, the labor of skilled Black trade workers built what became the nation’s capital. Then by the 1900s, the number of Black federal workers in the capital increased. By the 1920s, the size of the city’s Black population was on a par with Harlem’s.

Black neighborhoods flourished, including a 40-block area that boasted more than 300 Black businesses. U Street, also known as Black Broadway, was the heart of Chocolate City where some of the greatest musicians of the 20th century performed, including native sons Chuck Brown and Duke Ellington.

In 1957, Washington, DC became the country’s first major city with a Black majority. By 1970,  it was 71% Black. However, the 1968 riots after Martin Luther King’s Jr. assassination destroyed nearly 1000 Black businesses, and by the 1980s, many Black residents had left.

Chocolate City evolved along with its Black culture, but one thing never changed: the community's togetherness. What do you want our future Chocolate Cities to look like?