THE WHITE HOUSE ~ Friday, October 14, 2022

TheWhiteHouseSpin.Com

Written By Karen Ann Carr, Producer

One of the best kept secrets about the DMV is the East of the River, commercial and residential, region of Washington DC, USA. The residential streets over-looked Washington DC. Residents enjoyed  living beyond the inner-city hustle and bustle.

Just beyond the Benning Bridge in northeast Washington you will find Minnesota Avenue NE of Ward 7.  

Educators, Artist, Architects and Musicians Marvin Gaye and Shirley Horn selected the region to live in the nineteen fifties. Minnesota Avenue was awesome in that there was a community Movie Theater, Giant Food grocery Store, a bustling bakery, a Doctor’s office, a Law office, a florist, a Dentist and a major grocery store and two five and dime style stores where you could buy patterns and material to sew  or a fuse to restore electricity at home. Needy strangers could find help on Minnesota Avenue.   

Many residents spent time chatting face to face with neighbors, sharing recopies or listening to music. Children were encouraged to be creative. Learning and producing art, music, drama, dance and in my case architecture. Young men and women held party’s in the basement. Children practiced new dances and played games.  Teens learned and then played cards and monopoly most of the night, as adults chatted on porches.  Residents of different faiths enjoyed and respected each other without adhering to stratified stereotyping.

The sense of community was simply awesome. What made the experiences better was proximity to a major grocery store known as Giant Foods, a movie theater that offered major films and the original pioneers of the five-and-dime store, The F. W. Woolworth Company five and dime store and more. The McBride’s store was built as well. Stores were owned by people of all racial and ethnic backgrounds.

Singing, playing games, listening and playing music were not unusual. Smelling barbeque, eating potato salad, smelling smoked turkey at thanksgiving and a neighbor offering you their special dish was not unusual. Residents viewed the National Fourth of July fireworks display on the National Mall from their porches or yards before or after eating the special sweets of the day.  Children played in front of the house, in back yards and in the lovely alley ways. Some yards had a variety of fruit trees, fig trees, grape vines and azaleas.

The region was filled with variety of District residents. All sectors of society were represented. Residents of the District mingled and shared evenings with each other, free from fears. People looked out for one another. Children were encouraged to contribute to society by their parents and neighbors. Often organizing and participating in fundraising activities for muscular dystrophy. Adult residents were active participants of community churches, political meetings and community activities. Adult community leaders collected money for families experiencing the death of a member.   

However, the region was not isolated from the national shame of discrimination, bigotry, assaults upon civil rights activist or the murder of US children in Sunday school and national leaders.  U.S. President John F.  Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr, Malcolm X, the US Attorney General Robert Kennedy were murdered. Some people rioted and destroyed the commerce of their own communities. The Minnesota Avenue bakery owner, of I believe Jewish decent did not return.  The commerce of the F. W. Woolworth Company five and dime store was impacted. The major grocery store Giant Foods eventually fled the region. Residents began leaving the region as well. A retired black-American Police officer said, the poor people’s march on Washington DC changed the District. The once easy going culture of the District of Columbia shifted into a dog-eat-dog  /survival of the fittest cultural was born and the infestation of drugs flooded the District of Columbia region.  A culture of generational poverty began eating into all sectors of society.