Built by the People Themselves

The story of how racial segregation and suburbanization shaped lives, the built environment, and the law in Arlington, Virginia

Arlington, Virgina, sits on the bank of the Potomac River, just opposite the nation's capital city of Washington, DC. This proximity shaped the history of Arlington and the economic, social, and political lives of its Black residents. In Built by the People Themselves, Lindsey Bestebreurtje traces the history of Arlington's Black community from the first days of emancipation through the era of civil rights in the twentieth century. She highlights individual stories of how Black families, neighborhoods, institutions, and communities were affected by politics, planning, and policy in Arlington and Virginia. A core insight of Bestebreurtje's account is how common people developed strategies to survive and thrive despite systems of oppression in the Jim Crow South. Moving beyond the standard story of suburbanization that focuses on elite white community developers, Bestebreurtje analyzes African American-led community development and its effects on Arlington County.