U Street Bookstore Eviction Set

Owners Denounce Corridor's Yuppification, Vow to Resist

The future of Sisterspace and Books on U Street NW comes down to this, after five years of bitter litigation over repairs, maintenance and utility costs and rising rent:

A D.C. Superior Court judge ruled that co-owners Faye Williams and Cassandra Burton have let their lease expire and no longer have any right to the storefront where they have sold books, offered GED classes and organized author readings and community gatherings since 1997.

This week, maybe next, officers from the U.S. Marshals Service are likely to show up to escort Williams and Burton from 1515 U St. They will carry out the books, most written by African Americans, the music and the brightly colored artwork all the items that some black Washingtonians say have helped create an emotional and cultural haven in the city as it was being transformed racially and economically.

The eviction will not go smoothly, if Williams and Burton have their way. There may be retail space available elsewhere on U Street, or a few blocks away, but Williams and Burton say they are not looking to move. They are rallying supporters to stand with them when the marshals arrive -- to refuse to leave the premises, to go to jail if necessary.

Their reasons go beyond the disputes detailed in thousands of pages of court filings. At the heart of their resistance are the changes they see unfolding outside their store in the historic U Street corridor -- for much of the past century the commercial and entertainment heart of the black community but now one of the hot spots of the District's yuppie rebirth.

" 'Chocolate City' is rapidly becoming Condo City, due to the increase of new white realtors and residents who have discovered a new land to colonize," proclaims a flier that Williams and Burton distributed to advertise a community meeting at the store yesterday. "Enough is Enough!"

Legendary African American artists who once frequented U Street, such as Duke Ellington and Langston Hughes, today are memorialized in the names of new loft buildings that are filling up as fast as they are completed.

The benches in a triangular park around the corner, where some older men used to sit, have been removed to create a dog-walking area. Some residents prefer that to the public drinking that sometimes happened there. But to Williams and Burton, it's just another loss.

"Do you really want to put old people out of a park so your dog can" relieve itself? Williams asked bitterly. "Talk about a waste. And an insult to the people who have been in the community for so long."

She and Burton want to buy 1515 U St., even though the owner's attorney insists that it is not for sale.

"We're claiming this building as a center of African American culture," Williams said. "We're not interested in paying another white man another penny."

In fact, rental income from 1515 U St. helps support a 63-year-old black resident of Prince George's County, Cecil O. MacClure. He is the beneficiary of an irrevocable trust set up by his brother, Joseph H. MacClure, who operated a consulting business there and lived in one of the upstairs apartments until he died.

The attorneys who control the trust are white, however, and that -- along with the mood these days on U Street -- makes it easy to depict this particular struggle in racial terms. Hundreds of customers and supporters, including D.C. Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp (D) and council members Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) and Jack Evans (D-Ward 2), have rallied to the cause.

"I see another black business leaving U Street, as I was told so many closed their doors in the '60s," the Rev. A. Rebecca West wrote in a letter to Superior Court. "We need to keep Sisterspace and Books on U Street."