In response to the shutdown of a community movie night this week and years of harassment by private security, the Brookland Manor/Brentwood Village Residents Association (BMBVRA) and the Brookland Manor Coalition are holding a speakout protest on Thursday, May 27 at 6:30pm.

Join us to support Brookland Manor! Stop the war on the residents. Let them live! We demand access to green space for residents and a safe place for children to play. We demand recognition of the Brookland Manor Reparations and Equity Plan and no more displacement of residents. Bring signs supporting truly affordable housing, an end to gentrification as District policy, and your support of the grassroots community in Ward 5.

Background

On Saturday, May 22, 2021 BMBVRA attempted to host a Ward 5 community screening of the 2018 film What Happened 2 Chocolate City outside of 1320 Saratoga Ave NE. Owner MidCity’s private police force shut down the event by calling Metropolitan Police Department’s (MPD) Fifth District and threatening everyone in the crowd - mostly elderly Black women and children - with arrest for trespassing in their own front yards. 

In recent years, the gated yard where BMBVRA has previously hosted events was, like all other green spaces at Brookland Manor, padlocked and placed off limits to residents as part of MidCity’s well-documented hostility campaign to clear out families in advance of the planned redevelopment. Private police harassment is a well-documented pattern of abuse at Brookland Manor, where owner MidCity Financial intends to triple density on-site while significantly reducing the size and number of affordable units on the property. Against public objection, the DC government has agreed to fund this project, which has already displaced dozens of households, with $47M public dollars. It is not clear whether the redevelopment plan includes a single unit of permanently affordable housing. Residents continue to resist mistreatment and the destruction of their community. To date, Brookland Manor residents have received no assistance from Ward 5 Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie or any other elected official.

CM McDuffie - The People Are Crying Out! No Action = No Equity!

Virtual Protest at Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie's House, TUE March 2, 2021, 4:30pm to 6:00pm. Register for the Protest: www.bit.ly/whereskenyan 

As Ward 5 resident, we elected Kenyan McDuffie to represent us and help us, but he has turned his back on us. We've had enough of the lip service and lack of action by our Councilmember. We are tired of being ignored by DC's self-appointed racial equity champion while our homes are taken from us.

Longtime residents have asked him:

• To stop displacement of Ward 5's Black and Brown families at Brookland Manor.

• To intervene in imminent health threats to Ward 5's kids and elders at McMillan Park.

• To end and repair the harms caused by BIDs to Black and Brown people city-wide.

• To protect public resources and green spaces from predatory development in Ward 5.

• To stand with us, the people who put you in office, instead of developers.

Mr. McDuffie has not lifted a finger to help us. To the contrary, he's sided with developers over the community time and again. His lack of action on behalf of Black and Brown residents in his own Ward shows his racial equity platform to be a cynical smokescreen for his political agenda. 

Join the Brookland Manor Coalition, Save McMillan Park Action Coalition, Howard East Neighbors and others to hear of the stories of how they've been ignored about very serious concerns. Be there with us virtually in front of Councilmember McDuffie's house, Tuesday, March 2, between 4:30pm and 6pm. * We ask that you make a sign for your camera to hold up in front of his house. RSVP and we can help you with messaging!

Contact: ward5criesout@gmail.com