Word: mayfair
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Swank," the old Washington Evening Star called it. Forty years ago, Mayfair Mansions in Washington was one of the nation's most desirable housing developments for middle-class blacks. Today it looks more like a wartime concentration camp, with nondescript red barracks buildings and desolate open areas of dirt and patchy grass...
...analogy is apt because two years ago Mayfair Mansions was invaded by an army of drug dealers who threatened to take over the place. Gangs operated freely behind closed doors as well as in the open, in abandoned apartments and in deserted courtyards. Hallways were littered with syringes, burned matches, cotton balls -- the accoutrements of the drug world. Gunfire was a nightly occurrence, and there were at least a dozen deaths from shootings and overdoses. "We have been under siege for almost two years by drug dealers," Barbara Brown, vice president of the Mayfair Residents Council told TIME's Susan...
...recent days, laughing children are being heard again on the Mayfair playground, and parents even take their young ones out after dark. For Mayfair, help came from an unusual source: the Nation of Islam...
...Mayfair tenants made overtures to the organization at a local mosque several weeks ago, and the Muslims responded with around-the-clock patrols. Known for the fiery black nationalism preached by their leader Louis Farrakhan, the Muslims have transformed the complex. Since the appearance of the guards in their trademark sober suits and bow ties, the drug dealers have made themselves scarce...
Although the drug dealers have left Mayfair Mansions, most have merely moved next door to another housing project, called Paradise Manor. Residents there also requested help, and on Friday the Muslims went into the adjacent complex with a parade of several hundred people, including city officials and a brass band. As the Muslims marched into Paradise, Mayfair residents were pleased and thankful about the change in their community. Said Glenn French, Mayfair's property manager: "Something good has happened here...