White immigrants from the South have vied for that spot repeatedly and for the most part successfully.
Or, to put it another way, you think it was tough up on Indiana Avenue (the classical black neighborhood) you wouldn't believe what it was like in Brightwood (and that's way back then), and that was a darned near middle-class community with people who had real jobs.
For the most part the AA crowd is a tad more sophisticated, certainly more educated, and undoubtedly more a fixture of the community at large than any other AA community in any Northern state. Doesn't mean it's any more integrated than anywhere else, but the crime rate doesn't lie ~ it's usually way down from what you'd expect in Chicago, Detroit, East St. Louis, Gary/Hammond/East Chicago/Mishawaka/South Bend, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Cincinnati, etc.
They've been doing the "Black Expo" thing for a number of years with far less disruption than you'd find almost anywhere else. I hope it hasn't been ruined otherwise, although a couple of posts here suggests the 50,000 summer-time visitors fail to spend enough downtown (and may attract too much rowdiness).
The Mid-Atlantic AA community had traditionally visited Virginia Beach over Labor Day weekend ~ FOR DECADES ~ and in recent years that's had to be severely toned down due to narcotics, murder, theft, beatings, mayhem and all sorts of nonsense that simply did not go on in the past.
It is the gangs and typically youth that roam around downtown that cause the trouble. They have just about run most people out of the Circle Center Mall, defintely after dark.
A funny story, at least it is now: The wife and I have our anniversary third week of July. Last year, I made plans to go to the Slippery Noodle and stay at the Hampton Inn, two blocks away. Little did I know, the Expo was being heldat the same time. It was an experience to say the least, that will not be repeated.