When Marion Barry first became mayor of Washington in 1979, the city was more than 70 percent black. Whites made up 26.9 percent of residents; 2.8 percent were Hispanic.

When Barry died on Nov. 23, Washington had lost its claim to the title Chocolate City. The black population had fallen below 50 percent, the percentage of whites had grown to 35.8 percent and the Hispanic population had reached 10.1 percent.

In Chicago, when Harold Washington was elected the first African-American mayor of that city in 1983, blacks and whites each made up roughly 40 percent of the population, with Hispanics at 14 percent. Today, as Rahm Emanuel, the current mayor, finds himself forced into a runoff with Jesus Garcia, blacks have dropped to 32.9 percent, and whites to 31.7. Hispanics are now at 28.9 percent.

The nation’s urban centers are changing rapidly. Blacks are moving out, into the suburbs or to other regions of the country. Poverty is spreading from the urban core to the inner suburbs. White flight has slowed and in some cases reversed. Nationally, Hispanics have displaced blacks as the dominant urban minority.