| Abstract: | This article, based on a case-study of Washington, DC, presents an historical-structuralist perspective on the social, political and economic forces that underlie contemporary patterns of US metropolitan inequality. Section one explores the unique history of the DC black population- the largest US urban concentration of African Americans until World War I. Section two discusses the ascendance of Washington, DC, as the international capital of the post World War II era. This period features the rapid expansion of white suburbia together with the growth and increasing concentration of African Americans in the urban core. Section three examines Washington, DC, as an exemplar of the US post-industrial metropolis. These distinguishing characteristics include the emerging 'multicultural majority' of the central city, widening urban/suburban socioeconomic 'divide', and profound shift in immigrant settlement patterns (from city to suburbia). The findings suggest that Washington, DC, may offer instructive insights into the future of multicultural relations in post-industrial US society. |
