Is Washington, D.C. Losing it Chocolate City Status?

Percentage point change in white share of population

In their popular 1975 album, Chocolate City, the funk band Parliament displayed a theme of love for Washington, D.C., where the group was particularly popular. In the lyric from the song Chocolate City, the group noted “God bless Chocolate City and its (gainin’ on ya!) vanilla suburbs.”

The album takes its name from the term "Chocolate City," which had been used to describe Washington, D.C. where blacks had become a majority through migration. The term was also used by Washington’s black AM radio stations WOL-AM and WOOK-AM since the early 1970′s to refer to the city.

The District of Columbia’s longtime status as a Chocolate City or majority-black city appears to be losing its population to the vanilla suburbs, even as Maryland and Virginia continue to experience a dramatic rise in their minority populations, according to census estimates.

The impact on the city’s racial makeup is noticeable. In 2000, blacks made up 60 percent of the District’s population. By 2006, that figure was 55 percent.

The 14 percent increase in non-Hispanic white District residents and 6 percent decrease in blacks from 2000 to 2006 are probably the result of the gentrification of once-affordable city neighborhoods.

If the trends continue, the city will almost certainly cease to be majority black by 2020. It will wind up more like a Los Angeles or a New York, with no clear majority.

Nationally, minorities have far higher growth rates than non-Hispanic whites and make up more than a third of the U.S. population. Their numbers topped 100 million in 2006, with Hispanics accounting for 15 percent of the U.S. population, non-Hispanic blacks for 12 percent and Asians for 4 percent.

From 2000 to 2006, the number of non-Hispanic black residents in the District declined to 322,000, the number of non-Hispanic whites rose to about 184,000 and the number of Asians increased to 18,000, a 20 percent gain.

The changing racial mix is stirring up quarrels over class and culture. Beloved African American institutions in traditionally black communities, minority-owned restaurants, shoe repair shops, book stores are losing the customers who supported them for decades. As neighborhoods grow more multicultural, conflicts over home prices, taxes and education are opening a new chapter in American race relations.

Part of the demographic shift is simple math: So many whites had abandoned cities over the past half-century, there weren’t as many left to lose. Whites make up 66% of the general U.S. population, but only about 40% of large cities. Sooner or later, the pendulum was bound to swing back, and that appears to be starting.

This trend is also evident in other cities such as Atlanta, San Francisco, Chicago, and New York.

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