BLACK TOWN CLEARED TO MAKE WAY FOR U.S. AIRPORT

Throughout US history, vibrant Black communities have often faced the devastating force of so-called ‘progress.’Show more

One poignant example occurred in Willard, Virginia, an unincorporated Black settlement that formerly enslaved people seeking freedom and opportunity founded after the Civil War. By the early 20th century, Willard had blossomed into a bustling town with businesses, schools and churches, away from the apartheid Black folks had to endure in white-run cities and towns.

However, as in the case of many other Black towns in the United States, impending construction of a new international airport displaced Black residents, with the US government handing one Willard family just $8,000 to leave by 19 September 1958, according to a survivor. Authorities bulldozed the town to make way for Washington Dulles International Airport, which serves diplomats, politicians and civilians just 40 kilometres (25 miles) west of Washington DC.

The airport was named after anti-communist US Secretary of State John Foster Dulles (1953-59), who implemented US Cold War policy in Korea, Vietnam, Iran, Guatemala, Africa and many other places where US interventions, coups, proxy wars and military interventions took place. His brother, Allen Dulles, served as CIA director from 1953 to 1961. During that time, he oversaw coups in Iran and Guatemala, as well as the Project MKUltra mind control program and the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, among other ‘feats.’

Video credit: @moorthreads_store