We Can Still Legally Save Saratoga (Brookland Manor)

I. The History of Saratoga(Brookland Manor)

II. Black Autonomy

III. A Legal Plan To Save Saratoga

I. History of Saratoga (Brookland Manor)

During a time when the DC government should be giving reparations to descendants of slaves, they are kicking out those same descendants from from their homes.

Brookland Manor, also known as “Saratoga” is a low income apartment complex in the Brentwood neighborhood in NE, D.C. The real estate development company called Midcity is based out of Bethesda, Maryland and has been kicking out residents left in right to prepare for the re-development of Brookland Manor. Hundreds of Black families will not be able to return to Brookland Manor after redevelopment.

A model of the redevelopment.

I am all for redevelopment but I believe the redevlopment should be for the residents who have been living there.

I also reccommend this article written by Minnie Elliot, an 83 year old Black woman and activist. She is a resident of Brookland Manor and is the president of the Brookland Manor/Brentwood Village Residents Association.

Opinion | There can be no racial equity in D.C. when Black and Brown families are being displaced

II. Black Autonomy

The reason Saratoga can be knocked down with no regard for Black families, is because of this quote below from Dr. King in 1966.

“The Northern ghetto had become a type of colonial area. The colony was powerless because all important decisions affecting the community were made from the outside.”-(Dr King ,Chicago Freedom Movment)

All of the important decisions affecting Saratoga/Brentwood DC and other Black Washingtonians are made by people who do not live in those communities. Real estate developers, interest groups, and DC government officials who don’t live in Brookland Manor or Brentwood, control the land there and made…