We Can Still Save Barry Farms (All Of It)
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“You will let anybody come in and control the economy of your community, control the housing, control the education, control the jobs, control the businesses, under the pretext that you want to integrate. Nah, you’re out of your mind” -Malcolm X, 1964 Ballot Of The Bullet Speech
I. The History Of Barry Farms
II. Black Autonomy
III. The Legal Plan To Save Barry Farms
I. History of Barry Farms
*Some people call it Barry Farm with no “s” others call it Barry Farms. The residents in the video below called it Barry Farms so I will call it what the residents who have been living there, call it*
During a time when the DC government should be giving reparations to the descendants of slaves who built this country, they are kicking out those same descendants from Barry Farms. As we know, Barry Farms is the most historically Black community in DC. The Barry Farms community was established to help uplift formerly enslaved Black people after the civil war. If such a historical place like Barry Farms can get torn down, then no Black community in DC is safe from displacement.
I am all for redevelopment, but I believe the redevelopment should be for the residents who have been living there.
II. Black Autonomy
The reason Barry Farms can be knocked down with no regard for Black families, is because Black people do not have autonomy(self-government.) Yet.
Dr. King highlighted our lack of autonomy through this quote below.
“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,1966)
