Prince George’s grows more segregated

The county defies the Washington area’s trend toward neighborhoods of greater diversity, with the number of Prince George’s neighborhoods where more than 85 percent of residents are the same race or ethnicity inching up.

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Troy McFarland sits in class with his daughter, TaKaya, 8, during Men Make a Difference Day at Melwood Elementary School in Upper Marlboro. In the background, from left, are Sallaimatu Jalloh, Simone Humphrey and Kaelan Poorman. McFarland and his wife, LaShonda, said Anne Arundel and Calvert counties were on their initial list of where to move, but they picked Prince George's in part because it was where their children "could see African Americans at their best," LaShonda said.

Katherine Frey / The Washington Post

TaKaya McFarland, 8, beams alongside her father, Troy McFarland, as she raises her hand to answer a teacher's question at Melwood Elementary. Prince George's County has neighborhoods unlike virtually any others in the United States: segregated African American enclaves with median household incomes above $100,000. Most are concentrated in the central part of the county, near Upper Marlboro.

Katherine Frey / The Washington Post

K. Fossett, principal of Melwood Elementary, tests the bridge that Troy McFarland, right, and other fathers, Joseph Baggett, left, and David Jelps, center, made during Men Make a Difference Day.

Katherine Frey / The Washington Post

Schoolchildren buy ice cream after being dropped off by the school bus in their Beechtree neighborhood in Upper Marlboro. Many wealthy enclaves in Prince George's are overwhelmingly African American, and in a major reversal from 20 years ago, none of the county's most segregated neighborhoods are white.

Jahi Chikwendiu / The Washington Post

Sterling Crockett, left, conducts a business meeting at his home in Bowie with Diversified Ingenuity co-founder Tyson Daniels. Crockett moved to Prince George's from Montgomery County. "I saw it as an opportunity to get into a community that is inhabited and run by African Americans," Crockett said. "It's a county of African Americans doing well — more black millionaires.”

Katherine Frey / The Washington Post

Crockett, at his home at the Hamptons at Woodmore in Bowie. After feeling racially isolated growing up in southwestern Virginia, Crockett said, he wanted to live someplace where he could feel proud of who he is.

Katherine Frey / The Washington Post

Crockett's house is the largest in the Hamptons at Woodmore. The new development is shaping up to be another among the three-quarters of Prince George's neighborhoods with household incomes above $100,000 that are majority African American.

Katherine Frey / The Washington Post

Troy McFarland, left, tries to rouse his son, Troy Jr., as the McFarlands get ready for breakfast before school at their home in Bowie. The McFarlands traveled around the world with the Air Force, but when it came time to settle and raise their children, they chose Prince George's. The couple say they can't imagine raising their children anywhere else.

Jahi Chikwendiu / The Washington Post

LaShonda McFarland gets her son, Troy Jr., ready for school as daughter TaKaya stands nearby at their home in Bowie. With fewer financial restrictions than many, the McFarlands could have lived many places, but they liked that they could afford more in Prince George's: Their house is 6,400 square feet.

Jahi Chikwendiu / The Washington Post

Troy McFarland, right, sees son Troy Jr. off as the family members head to school from their Bowie home. The McFarlands were concerned about the Prince George's schools but decided the best way to change them was from the inside.

Jahi Chikwendiu / The Washington Post

Guests sing to Troy Jr. at his sixth-birthday party at the McFarland home in Bowie. Troy's mother, LaShonda, says her neighborhood provides an ideal environment for her children: "It's amazing because my daughter can go outside and see a female doctor across the way and that's what she wants to be when she grows up. It's like we have our own set of mentors in the neighborhood."

Jahi Chikwendiu / The Washington Post

Troy McFarland Jr., back, celebrates his birthday with guests in Bowie. Most blacks and whites in Prince George's still live in separate neighborhoods, despite the dismantling of legal segregation decades ago.

Jahi Chikwendiu / The Washington Post

Troy Jr., 6, blows out the candles on his birthday cake under the watchful eye of his mother, LaShonda McFarland, at their house in Bowie. Hispanics have been responsible for most of the growth in Prince George's in the past decade, but they are carving out their own enclaves, leaving many neighborhoods overwhelmingly African American as the number of whites has dropped.

Jahi Chikwendiu / The Washington Post

Party guest Stephanie Amoky, 7, left, gives birthday boy Troy McFarland Jr. a little candy gift at his party at the McFarland home. Unlike in many parts of the Washington area, the growth of the Asian population in Prince George's has been slow, contributing to the county's relative segregation.

Jahi Chikwendiu / The Washington Post

Troy McFarland reads to Troy Jr. as they prepare for bed at their house in Bowie. Scholars of the black middle class say many African Americans want to live together, which is helping to fuel the segregation in Prince George's.

Jahi Chikwendiu / The Washington Post

LaShonda McFarland fields one last question from her son, Troy Jr., as she reads to her daughter, TaKaya, before bed. The only other black enclaves in the country with incomes as high as many in Prince George's are two small tracts in Queens and one in Brooklyn.

Jahi Chikwendiu / The Washington Post

The McFarland family prays before the children go to bed at their home in Bowie. Georgia's DeKalb County may be the closest rival to Prince George's in terms of concentration of college-educated black professionals. But even DeKalb lacks the pockets of wealth found in black neighborhoods in Prince George's.

Jahi Chikwendiu / The Washington Post

Troy McFarland carries his sleeping son, Troy Jr., as they prepare to get ready for school at their home in Bowie. Raising children in a community that is predominantly other African Americans "has its safeguards," said Bob Ross, the head of the county's NAACP chapter. "You tell your kids, 'When you leave, you're not going to be treated the same as you are in Prince George's County.' "

Jahi Chikwendiu / The Washington Post

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