District of Columbia

Washington, D.C., was formed by the 1871 merger of the city of Washington and the territory of Columbia; it is legally referred to as the District of Columbia, but is more commonly called Washington or D.C. The capital of the United States, the city has grown as the federal government has, accommodating the lobbyists, lawyers, trade unions, professional associations, nonprofit organizations, contractors, and other private-sector organizations that need to be proximate to the seat of [Page 218]power, as well as the service sector that supports the city. Although D.C. is an industry town in much the same way as Hollywood, just like Hollywood it has a more diversified economy than people commonly believe: George Washington University, Georgetown University, the Washington Hospital Center, Howard University, and Fannie Mae are the five largest nongovernment-related employers in the city, which is also home to five Fortune 1000 companies. After New York City and Chicago, D.C. has the largest amount of commercial office space in its downtown area. The diversified but quirky economy indicates a quirky and diverse population: D.C. has a weekend population of about 600,000, which nearly doubles during the workweek thanks to commuters from suburbs in Virginia and Maryland. D.C. is predominantly African American (about 56 percent), and about 12 percent of the population is made up of foreign immigrants, especially from El Salvador, Vietnam, and Ethiopia.

The who's who of Washington, D.C., gather for the second inauguration of President George W. Bush in January 2005.

The significance of the African American communities in D.C. is often overlooked by outsiders, who underestimate the strength of local kinship and ethnic social networks. Unlike other significantly sized cities with predominantly black populations, D.C. has always had a large black population, dating to the freeing of a large number of slaves after the Revolutionary War. The free black population in D.C. grew steadily over the 19th century and remained steady after the Civil War; it has in fact been declining since the 1970s, when it peaked at 70 percent. Since then, D.C.'s established black middle class has been gradually relocating to the suburbs.