Washington City Paper: Contents for Apr. 3

Lost Riot
Thirty years ago this week, Washington burned. Seventy-nine years ago this summer, the city bled. Why we shouldn't forget the riots of 1919.

Cover Story

Late on the Monday night of July 21, 1919, James E. Scott came back to Washington from a weekend out of town. His train pulled into Union Station right around midnight.

The World War I veteran had picked a good time to get away. D.C. was in the midst of an unusually hot summer, even by its own swampy standards. Humidity hung in the air over the train yard and must have lingered under the high ceiling of the opulent railway station.

During that long, sewery summer, another kind of heat had been beating down on the city as well. The war had temporarily ballooned Washington's population and opened up thousands of new jobs. But now that it was over, all kinds of folks were still around, trying to hang on. Stories about a crime wave filled the newspapers. The news ratcheted up the pressure in the sweltering city, most dangerously along the city's precarious racial fault line.

The reports, written with lurid and inflammatory flair, suggested that black rapists were menacing D.C.'s white women. In response, white Washingtonians were forming posses. Talk of bringing back the lynchings of yore filled the air. Race relations were in a downward spiral nationwide--riots had already hit Charleston, S.C., and Longview, Texas--and the tense, nasty capital city was no exception. Scott knew about the trouble, of course, but he had no idea what he was in store for upon his return.

Stepping off the train, Scott walked out of the station and waited outside for the first of the streetcars that would carry him homeward.... Continued

Issue of Apr. 3 - 9, 1998

News and Features

Lost Riot
Thirty years ago this week, Washington burned. Seventy-nine years ago this summer, the city bled. Why we shouldn't forget the riots of 1919.
Cover Story By Michael Schaffer
A Familiar Ring
Northwest merchants know how to get the cops to show up: Just sound the alarm.
The City By Laura Lang
Signed and Concealed
When it came to getting names on her petition to run for an ANC seat, Catherine Hammonds was more than willing to sign on the dotted line.
The City By Jake Tapper
The Damage Done
The City
A Movable Fiasco
When the school system hired Phinis Jones to teach night classes, it missed an important history lesson.
The City By Tom Stabile
Grave Concerns
The National Zoo is playing dead on proposals to commemorate a burial site on its property.
The City By Ta-Nehisi Coates
Killer Logic
The Mail By Abass B. Kamara
Two Thumbs Up for Ebert
The Mail By Steven P. Bell
Fresh Fields of Dreams
The Mail By Francis M. Clarke III

Columns

Touch Foul
Cheap Seats By Dave McKenna
Cherry Picking
City Desk By Laura LangAmanda RipleyMichael Schaffer, Elissa Silverman and Jake Tapper
WARD 1, ROUND 1
Loose Lips By Ken Cummins
Late for Dinner
Paper Trail By David Carr

Eats

Movies

All Queasy on the Eastern Front
Film Review By Mark Jenkins
Ship of Fools
Film Review By Arion Berger
The Road Most Traveled
Film Review By Joel E. Siegel
Death Be Not, Like, Proud
Videocrity By Dave Nuttycombe

Music

The Presidents of the United States of America
Music Review By Rickey Wright
The Family Stand
Music Review By Rikey Wright
The Mavericks
Music Review By Sean Daly
King Britt Presents Sylk 130
Music Review By Neil Drumming
Salmonella
Music Review By William Jelani Cobb

Theater

Still Broken
Theater Review By Bob Mondello
Riding With Merry
Theater Review By Trey Graham

Arts and Events

Loving the Aliens
Books By Scott Morris
The Straight Dope
Books By Joshua Wolf Shenk
'HoodFellas
Books By William Jelani Cobb
'Scaping Fetus
Books By Arion Berger
Yahweh or the Highway
Books By Mark Jenkins
Regarding Henry
Books By Eddie Dean
Opiate of the Masses
Books By John DeVault
Sunlight on an Empty Book
Books By Joel E. Siegel
The Discomfort of Strangers
Books By Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
Land of Disenchantment
Books By Kelly Murphy Mason
None More Non
Books By Dave Nuttycombe
The Harder They Come
Books By Sean Daly
The Conservative Mystique
Books By Michael Schaffer
Feed the Tree
Books By Holly Bass
Swimming to Franconia
Artifacts By John Dugan
Pole to Pole
Artifacts By Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
Ready Sets: Go
Ellipse exhibit gives local theater designers a second act.
Art Review By Bob Mondello