ABSTRACT
Washington, DC has been associated with diverse groupings of Black nationalists and pan-Africanists for decades. These communities, bounded by ideology and identity more so than geographic location, usually consisted of small, yet robust, physical places and spaces where people of similar values congregated and organized. Spurred by the Black Power movement of the 1960s and 1970s, these groups and their activities reflected a multiplicity of sometimes overlapping perspectives and strategies about Black advancement. This included Black nationalism2 (both militant and nonmilitant perspectives) and pan-Africanism. Author Algernon Austin distinguishes between what he calls “cultural nationalists,” who prioritized promoting racial pride through the adoption of the arts, fashion, and African names, from the “cultural” Black nationalists (some of whom would also later identify as pan-Africanists), who were more concerned about the “political and economic racial structures that affected Black life” (2006, p. 109). For “cultural” Black nationalists, power, not performance, was essential. Therefore, politics reached beyond dressing in dashikis and wearing afros. It encompassed nation building and securing independent educational, political, and cultural institutions such as schools, businesses, and political organizations that supported Black liberation (Austin, 2006).
