About: The Plan (Washington, D.C.)

The Plan is a conspiracy theory in Washington, D.C., which posits that since the enactment of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act in 1973, white people have had a "plan to take back" the black-majority city and the offices of the local government. The theory asserts that the decline of low-income black residents and their replacement by wealthier whites from outside of Washington, D.C. is intentional through the calculated use of gentrification and urban renewal. While most within Washington, D.C. generally regard The Plan as false, it is true that the black population has fallen by about 25%, and the white population grown by the same, in the period since the Home Rule Act was enacted. This has resulted in the loss of majority status for black residents in the District.