Shepherd Park is a neighborhood in the northwest quadrant of Washington, D.C. In the years following World War II , restrictive covenants which had prevented Jews and African Americans from purchasing homes in the neighborhood were no longer enforced, and the neighborhood became largely Jewish and African American. Over the past 40 years, the Jewish population of the neighborhood has declined (though it is now increasing again) but the neighborhood has continued to support a thriving upper and middle class African American community. The Shepherd Park Citizens Association and Neighbors Inc. led efforts to stem white flight from the neighborhood in the 1960s and 1970s, and it has remained a continuously integrated neighborhood, with very active and inclusive civic groups.
24-578: Shepherd Park and the rest of Ward 4 were represented in the Council of the District of Columbia by Muriel Bowser , until her election as Mayor of the District of Columbia in the fall of 2014. It is home to a number of prominent people, including former NAACP President Benjamin Jealous . A number of judges, professors, newspaper reporters, and doctors also live in the community. The northern line of
48-661: A Sunni Muslim mystic named Tasibur Uddein Rahman, an immigrant from Kolkata . Rahman was an active participant in the South Asian Barelvi movement and conveyed the movement's view of Islam to Khaalis. Instead of describing himself as Barelvi, Khaalis adopted the name " Hanafi ," the predominant school of religious jurisprudence ( madhhab ) within the movement, and opened a "Hanafi Madh-Hab Center" in Washington DC . It appears that Khaalis may have been drawn to
72-499: A dangerous weapon, and 24 counts of kidnapping while armed. Khaalis was born to Seventh-day Adventist parents in Gary, Indiana as Ernest Timothy McGhee. He graduated 22nd in a class of 135 at Roosevelt High School, and he played percussion instruments and eventually converted to Roman Catholicism . He attended Purdue University and Mid-Western Conservatory. He was discharged from the U.S. Army on grounds of schizophrenia . He
96-610: A few flower-inspired street names. Georgia Avenue is the only commercial corridor near the neighborhood. Downtown Silver Spring and Rock Creek Park are both within walking distance. The neighborhood is served by bus services on Georgia Ave. and 16th Street, and the Silver Spring and Takoma Park Metros are equidistant, both approximately one mile away. Local architecture includes Tudor Revival, Colonial Revival, and Spanish Colonial Revival houses; bungalows and other early-20th-century vernacular styles; and mid-century ramblers. There
120-459: A fieldstone mansion, 7700 16th Street NW , to serve as the headquarters of Khaalis' organization in Washington, D.C. In 1972, Khaalis circulated an open letter that referred to Elijah Muhammad as a "lying deceiver" and asserted that he lured "former dope addicts and prostitutes to monk-like lives of sacrifice" that would "lead them to hell." Khaalis claimed credit for Malcolm X's leaving
144-553: A group called the Kokayi family . When that group was disbanded, many of its members became members of Hamaas' Hanafi American Mussulman's Rifle and Pistol Club , which was given a group membership charter by the National Rifle Association of America . In 1971, Khaalis converted basketball player Lew Alcindor to Islam; after his conversion, Alcindor adopted the name Kareem Abdul-Jabbar . Abdul-Jabbar donated
168-582: Is a significant concentration of mail-order kit houses by the Lewis Manufacturing Company and by Sears in the southeast corner of the neighborhood. The neighborhood takes its name from its most famous resident: Alexander Robey Shepherd , the governor of the then-Territory of DC from 1873 to 1874. The neighborhood was originally called Sixteenth Street Heights. Part of the neighborhood was renamed Shepherd Park in 1926 when developer L.E. Breuninger proposed 200 new homes. His first model home
192-615: The Dickens novel Bleak House , which he and his wife were reading at the time of their home's construction. The mansion was demolished in 1916. Shepherd owned a plant nursery in the District of Columbia, which enabled the 60,000 trees he had planted. His nursery led to a variety of wild flowers that still thrive in the yards of city residents. It is also the genesis of the streets in Shepherd Park being named for flowers. The Shepherd Park Citizens Association formed 1917 to petition
216-535: The Juanita E. Thornton/Shepherd Park Neighborhood Library, which opened in 1990. Juanita E. Thornton/Shepherd Park Neighborhood Library is part of the District of Columbia Public Library (DCPL) System. It opened to the public on July 29, 1990. 38°59′04″N 77°01′59″W / 38.9844°N 77.033°W / 38.9844; -77.033 List of neighborhoods of the District of Columbia by ward#Ward 4 Too Many Requests If you report this error to
240-656: The NOI, a position he held until 1957. Muhammad also sent him to Chicago to head the University of Islam . In an interview, Khaalis said, "Elijah once said that I was next in line to him, that it was me, not Malcolm X." In 1959 he appeared on the television documentary The Hate That Hate Produced alongside Malcolm X, but by this time he had already left the Nation, denouncing the personality cult around Elijah Muhammad . At an unknown point following his departure, Khaalis met
264-462: The Nation of Islam. In a 1973 interview, Khaalis said he was teaching Malcolm X about Sunni Islam . "He used to come to my house on Long Island and we would sit in his car for hours. He would meet me after he left the temple. Never in public because he knew they were after him. He was saying the wrong things." On January 18, 1973, Khaalis' family was murdered inside their Washington D.C home, in retaliation for letters that Khaalis had written against
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#1732782603351288-482: The Nation of Islam. Two members of his family survived: his daughter Amina was shot six times and sustained permanent brain damage, and his wife Bibi entered a vegetative state from which she never recovered. Khaalis would care for Bibi at home despite her constant moaning. Following the shooting, the Nation of Islam mocked Khaalis in their newspaper. In protest of the depiction of Muhammad in film and to bring attention to his family's murderers. Khaalis planned and led
312-666: The Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.132 via cp1112 cp1112, Varnish XID 938999167 Upstream caches: cp1112 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Thu, 28 Nov 2024 08:30:03 GMT Hamaas Abdul Khaalis Hamaas Abdul Khaalis (1921 – November 13, 2003), born Ernest Timothy McGhee , was leader of the Hanafi Movement, a Black Muslim group based in Washington, D.C. Khaalis founded
336-444: The government to build a neighborhood elementary school and pave 16th Street between Alaska Avenue and the District line. After developers acquired the land around 1911, they designed it so that the new homes would sit on large tracts of land, and they advertised the location as a "high-class" neighborhood. The developers made sure to retain the large trees in the neighborhood when building the streets. The developers also made sure that
360-552: The group following a split with the Nation of Islam in 1957. In 1971 he won the support of the basketball star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar , but in 1973, his family was murdered . Enraged by the murders, he organized a 1977 siege of Washington, D.C. in which two of 149 hostages died. He spent the rest of his life in prison after being found guilty of conspiracy to commit kidnapping while armed, second-degree murder, two counts of assault with intent to kill while armed, one count of assault with
384-500: The land was bound by covenants prohibiting its sale to blacks and Jews. The covenants stood until after World War II when the Supreme Court struck them down as unconstitutional. At that point, speculators would move a black family into a house on a block that otherwise had white residents. Speculators would then tell the white residents that property values would imminently fall and pressure the white families to sell their homes to
408-425: The neighborhood is defined by Eastern Avenue NW, which divides Shepherd Park from Silver Spring, Maryland . The neighborhood is further bounded at the south by Parks at Walter Reed (the former Walter Reed Army Medical Center ), at the east by Georgia Avenue NW, and the west by 16th Street NW . Most east-west streets are named after flowers, shrubs, and trees. Iris Street, Kalmia Road, and Geranium Street are but
432-473: The neighborhood needed a library much more than another fast food location. The District Council decided to build a library on the site instead, and the library opened in 1990. Named the Juanita E. Thornton/Shepherd Park Library, it is named after the neighborhood activist who led the neighborhood association in its efforts to have the library built there. District of Columbia Public Schools operates public schools. District of Columbia Public Library operates
456-508: The speculators. The speculators would then sell the homes to other black families at large profits. This was called blockbusting . Starting in 1958, the Shepherd Park Citizens Association and Neighbors Inc led efforts to fight blockbusting and maintain the integrated nature of the neighborhood in the 1960s and 1970s. It is one of the only neighborhoods on the east side of Rock Creek Park where white flight
480-536: The word "Hanafi," which means "rightly guided" and refers to the followers of Muhammad. In December 1960, Khaalis briefly returned to Chicago and personally appealed to Elijah Muhammad to take the shahada and convert to Sunni Islam. When this was denied, Khaalis founded a separate organization with the legal name American Social Federation for Mutual Improvement, Inc. In 1968, he was arrested for attempted extortion but released on grounds of mental illness. The same year, militant blacks at Howard University formed
504-580: Was a talented jazz drummer and played with Bud Powell , Charlie Parker , Max Roach , Billie Holiday , and J.J. Johnson in New York City. He was accepted to Columbia University , but his G.I. Bill funds expired after just one semester without the ability to finish his degree. Further applications were denied, which was a typical experience for black men attempting to make use of the G.I. Bill. Although he remained high-functioning in everyday life and excelled at jazz and his undergraduate studies, he
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#1732782603351528-464: Was built in the new Shepherd Park was 7707 13th St., NW. Shortly before becoming governor (in 1868), Shepherd built a grand Second Empire-style Victorian that once stood near the corner of Floral and 14th Street. (The carriage house still stands in the alley off of Floral, entrance across from the modern house.) Shepherd chose the location because of its elevation and its proximity to Rock Creek. Shepherd dubbed his large country home "Bleak House" after
552-470: Was stemmed in those years. In 1973, 7 family members of Hamaas Abdul Khaalis family were murdered at 7700 16th Street NW , which had been purchased by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and donated for use of the Hanafi Muslims. In 1985, residents learned that the owner of an apartment building on Georgia Avenue was close to selling the land for a Wendy's to be built on it. Residents protested, saying that
576-549: Was unable to find stable employment because of his schizophrenia diagnosis. Influenced by the popularity of Islam in the New York jazz scene, Khaalis joined the Nation of Islam and, in accordance with the group's rejection of "slave surnames," changed his name to Ernest 2X (also going by Ernest X or Ernest XX McGee). In 1954, at the suggestion of Malcolm X , Elijah Muhammad named Khaalis the National Secretary of
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