Kathleen James-Chakraborty – in-person conference paper, Global Irish Studies, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., USA.

This talk discussed how the postwar redevelopment of Southwest displaced thousands of mostly Black Washingtonians while providing the city with some of the earliest integrated new apartment blocks.  The architect Chloethiel Woodard Smith played a crucial role in its reshaping.  Focusing on designing for an economically and racially diverse public, Smith operated outside the mainstream of the national architectural profession but was for three decades a key figure in the modernization of the capital city.