Editing Arlington County, Virginia (section)

===20th century===
[[File:Seal of Arlington County, Virginia (1983–2007).svg|thumb|The former Arlington County seal used from June 1983 to May 2007]]
[[File:Looking W at Netherlands Carillon - GW Memorial Parkway - Arlington VA USA - between 1980 and 2006.jpg|thumb|[[Netherlands Carillon]]]]
[[File:US Navy 061013-F-3500C-443 View over the U.S. Navy Annex, showing the completed U.S. Air Force memorial.jpg|thumb|The former [[Navy Annex]] and [[United States Air Force Memorial|Air Force Memorial]]]]
In 1900, [[African Americans|Black]] people constituted more than a third of Arlington County's population. Over the course of the century, the Black population dwindled. Neighborhoods in Arlington set up racial covenants and forbade Black people from owning or domiciling property.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |date=October 8, 2020 |title=New Video Tackles Arlington's History of Race and Housing {{!}} ARLnow.com |url=https://www.arlnow.com/2020/10/08/new-video-tackles-arlingtons-history-of-race-and-housing/ |access-date=September 10, 2023 |website=ARLnow.com {{!}} Arlington, Va. local news |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=September 8, 2023 |title=A restrictive covenant used to block a duplex also barred non-white people from buying or renting it {{!}} ARLnow.com |url=https://www.arlnow.com/2023/09/08/a-restrictive-covenant-used-to-block-a-duplex-also-barred-non-white-people-from-buying-or-renting-it/ |access-date=September 10, 2023 |website=ARLnow.com {{!}} Arlington, Va. local news |language=en}}</ref> In 1938, Arlington banned row houses, a type of housing that was heavily used by Black residents. By October 1942, not a single rental unit was available in the county.<ref>''Arlington Sun Gazette'', October 15, 2009, "Arlington history", page 6, quoting from the ''Northern Virginia Sun''</ref> In the 1940s, the federal government evicted black neighborhoods to build the Pentagon and make room for highway construction.<ref name=":2" />

In 1908, [[Potomac, Virginia|Potomac]] was incorporated as a town in Alexandria County, and was annexed by Alexandria in 1930.

In 1920, the Virginia legislature renamed the area Arlington County to avoid confusion with the City of Alexandria which had become an [[independent city]] in 1870 under the new Virginia Constitution adopted after the Civil War.

In the 1930s, [[Hoover Field]] was established on the present site of the Pentagon; in that decade, Buckingham, Colonial Village, and other apartment communities also opened. [[World War II]] brought a boom to the county, but one that could not be met by new construction due to rationing imposed by the war effort.

In October 1949, the [[University of Virginia]] in [[Charlottesville, Virginia|Charlottesville]] created an extension center in the county named Northern Virginia University Center of the University of Virginia. This campus was subsequently renamed University College, then the Northern Virginia Branch of the University of Virginia, then George Mason College of the University of Virginia, and finally to its present name, [[George Mason University]].<ref>October 1, 1949: {{Hanging indent | {{Cite book| last = Finley| first = John Norville Gibson| title = Progress Report of the Northern Virginia University Center| date = July 1, 1952| url = http://digilib.gmu.edu/jspui/bitstream/handle/1920/2698/Mann_53_1_1_v.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y| archive-date = February 20, 2017| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170220225740/http://digilib.gmu.edu/jspui/bitstream/handle/1920/2698/Mann_53_1_1_v.pdf| quote = "The report that follows is a progress report on the Northern Virginia University Center since its beginnings in 1949 by its Local Director, Professor J. N. G. Finley." George B. Zehmer, Director Extension Division University of Virginia}}}} Northern Virginia University Center of the University of Virginia: {{Hanging indent | {{cite book|last1=Mann|first1=C. Harrison|title=C. Harrison Mann, Jr. papers|date=1832–1979|publisher=George Mason University. Libraries. Special Collections Research Center|location=Arlington, Virginia|url=http://sca.gmu.edu/finding_aids/mann.html|access-date=February 23, 2017}}}} University College, the Northern Virginia branch of the University of Virginia: {{Hanging indent | {{cite book|last1=Mann|first1=C. Harrison Jr.|title=House Joint Resolution 5|date=February 24, 1956|publisher=Virginia General Assembly|location=Richmond|page=1|url=http://ahistoryofmason.gmu.edu/archive/files/8e80e948d96eba1ccf790954fb595bc5.jpg|access-date=April 30, 2017|archive-date=March 31, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220331072721/http://ahistoryofmason.gmu.edu/archive/files/8e80e948d96eba1ccf790954fb595bc5.jpg|url-status=dead}}}} George Mason College of the University of Virginia: {{Hanging indent | {{cite book|last1=McFarlane|first1=William Hugh|title=William Hugh McFarlane George Mason University history collection|date=1949–1977|publisher=George Mason University Special Collections and Archives|location=Fairfax, VA|url=http://ead.lib.virginia.edu/vivaxtf/view?docId=gmu/vifgm00002.xml|access-date=February 23, 2017}}}} George Mason University: {{Hanging indent | {{cite book| publisher = Fairfax County Board of Supervisors| isbn = 978-0-9601630-1-4| last = Netherton| first = Nan| title = Fairfax County, Virginia: A History| date = January 1, 1978}}{{rp|588}}}}</ref> The Henry G. Shirley Highway, also known as [[Interstate 395 (Virginia–District of Columbia)|Interstate 395]], was constructed during [[World War II]], along with adjacent developments such as [[Shirlington, Arlington, Virginia|Shirlington]], [[Fairlington, Arlington, Virginia|Fairlington]], and [[Parkfairfax, Virginia|Parkfairfax]].

In February 1959, due to the 1954 [[Supreme Court of the United States|U.S. Supreme Court]] ruling ''[[Brown v. Board of Education]]'' striking down the previous ''[[Plessy v. Ferguson]]'', [[Arlington Public Schools]] [[desegregated]] racially at Stratford Junior High School, which is now Dorothy Hamm Middle School, with the admission of black pupils Donald Deskins, Michael Jones, Lance Newman, and Gloria Thompson. The elected Arlington County School Board presumed that the state would defer to localities, and in January 1956 announced plans to integrate Arlington schools.

The state responded by suspending the county's right to an elected school board. The [[Arlington County Board]], the ruling body for the county, appointed segregationists to the school board and blocked plans for desegregation. Lawyers for the local chapter of the [[National Association for the Advancement of Colored People]] (NAACP) filed suit on behalf of a group of parents of both white and black students to end segregation. Black pupils were still denied admission to white schools, but the lawsuit went before the U.S. District Court, which ruled that Arlington schools were to be desegregated by the 1958–59 academic year. In January 1959 both the U.S. District Court and the Virginia Supreme Court had ruled against Virginia's [[massive resistance]] movement, which opposed racial integration.<ref>Les Shaver, "Crossing the Divide: The Desegregation of Stratford Junior High", ''Arlington Magazine'' November/December 2013, pp. 62–71</ref> The Arlington County Central Library's collections include written materials as well as accounts in its Oral History Project of the desegregation struggle in the county.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://library.arlingtonva.us/center-for-local-history/virginiana-collection/ |title=Virginiana Collection |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220706005712/https://library.arlingtonva.us/center-for-local-history/virginiana-collection/ |archive-date=July 6, 2022 |url-status=dead |publisher=Arlington Public Library |access-date=August 29, 2022}}</ref>

During the 1960s, Arlington experienced challenges related to a large influx of newcomers during the 1950s. [[M.T. Broyhill & Sons Corporation]] was at the forefront of building the new communities for these newcomers, which would lead to the election of [[Joel Broyhill]] as the representative of [[Virginia's 10th congressional district]] for 11 terms.<ref name="broyhill">{{cite news|last1=Clark|first1=Charlie|title=Our Man in Arlington|url=https://fcnp.com/2013/01/30/our-man-in-arlington-12/|access-date=January 27, 2018|work=fncp.com|publisher=Falls Church News-Press Online|date=January 30, 2013}}</ref> The old commercial districts did not have ample off-street parking and many shoppers were taking their business to new commercial centers, such as Parkington and Seven Corners. Suburbs further out in Virginia and Maryland were expanding, and Arlington's main commercial center in Clarendon was declining, similar to what happened in other downtown centers. With the growth of these other suburbs, some planners and politicians pushed for highway expansion. The Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 would have enabled that expansion in Arlington. The administrator of the National Capital Transportation Agency, economist C. Darwin Stolzenbach, saw the benefits of rapid transit for the region and oversaw plans for a below ground rapid transit system, now the [[Washington Metro]], which included two lines in Arlington. Initial plans called for what became the Orange Line to parallel [[Interstate 66 in Virginia|I-66]], which would have mainly benefited [[Fairfax County, Virginia|Fairfax County]].

Arlington County officials called for the stations in Arlington to be placed along the decaying commercial corridor between Rosslyn and Ballston that included Clarendon. A new regional transportation planning entity was formed, the Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority. Arlington officials renewed their push for a route that benefited the commercial corridor along Wilson Boulevard, which prevailed. There were neighborhood concerns that there would be high-density development along the corridor that would disrupt the character of old neighborhoods.

With the population in the county declining, political leaders saw economic development as a long-range benefit. Citizen input and county planners came up with a workable compromise, with some limits on development. The two lines in Arlington were inaugurated in 1977. The Orange Line's creation was more problematic than the Blue Line's. The Blue Line served the Pentagon and National Airport and boosted the commercial development of [[Crystal City, Virginia|Crystal City]] and Pentagon City. Property values along the Metro lines increased significantly for both residential and commercial property. The ensuing gentrification caused the mostly working and lower middle class white Southern residents to either be priced out of rent or in some cases sell their homes. This permanently changed the character of the city, and ultimately resulted in the virtual eradication of this group over the coming 30 years, being replaced with an increasing presence of a white-collar transplant population mostly of Northern stock.{{cn|date=February 2025}}

While a population of white-collar government transplant workers had always been present in the county, particularly in its far northern areas and in Lyon Village, the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s saw the complete dominance of this group over the majority of Arlington's residential neighborhoods, and mostly economically eliminated the former working-class residents of areas such as Cherrydale, Lyon Park, Rosslyn, Virginia Square, Claremont, and Arlington Forest, among other neighborhoods.{{cn|date=February 2025}} The transformation of Clarendon is particularly striking. This neighborhood, a downtown shopping area, fell into decay. It became home to a vibrant Vietnamese business community in the 1970s and 1980s known as [[Little Saigon, Arlington, Virginia|Little Saigon]]. It has now been significantly gentrified. Its Vietnamese population is now barely visible, except for several holdout businesses. Arlington's careful planning for the Metro has transformed the county and has become a model revitalization for older suburbs.<ref>Kevin Craft, "When Metro Came to Town: How the fight for mass transit was won. And how its arrival left Arlington Forever Changed", ''Arlington Magazine'', November/December 2013, pp. 72–85.</ref><ref>Zachary Schrag, ''The Great Society Subway: A History of the Washington Metro'', Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006.</ref>

In 1965, after years of negotiations, Arlington swapped some land in the south end with Alexandria, though less than originally planned. The land was located along King Street and Four Mile Run. The exchange allowed the two jurisdictions to straighten out the boundary and helped highway and sewer projects to go forward. It moved into Arlington several acres of land to the south of the old county line that had not been a part of the District of Columbia.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Cheek III |first1=Leslie |title=Arlington Approves Alexandria Land Swap |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=April 11, 1965}}</ref>