A Black Neighborhood was Destroyed for the Construction of the Pentagon

In 1941, as America prepared for an entry into World War II, the War Department began planning an ambitious construction project which could support the U.S. military's exponential growth. They decided upon building the Pentagon just outside Washington, DC, in Arlington, Virginia. The construction of the Pentagon was a feat of engineering, and the structure would become the world's largest office building. But the building came at a cost — not just in manpower and money, but also to a Black community known as East Arlington and/or Queen City. This proud Black neighborhood in Northern Virginia was home to over 900 people, some of whom had built their own homes and many of whom worked in the war effort. But the welfare of this community was an afterthought to the builders and planners, and the African American community was razed with only a month's notice to the residence. It was a dark chapter in the Washington, DC-area's history of urban renewal and slum clearing and in the history of the Pentagon.

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