2000

Though the world prepared for "Y2K" digital disaster, it never materializes.

Presidential election results remain unknown for a month, as the state of Florida recounts its votes. In the end, George W. Bush is named the victor.

As part of The Changing Face of America series, commentator Leon Wynter returns to Prince George's County, Maryland, after an absence of 20 years to discover what life is like in the only suburban county in the nation to have African-Americans as the majority population.

On the Feb. 23 show, journalist Wynter contrasts the "PG County" of today with the one where he started his journalism career two decades ago: "When I covered the county, school desegregation was the big civil rights story. Now it's getting to Nordstrom's without having to cross the county line ...

"Before Prince George's, no county in America ever went black while raising its income and education level -- but nobody knows if they can sustain it, either. The growth in property values here is already slowing compared to neighboring suburbs. They're weighed down by fears of a black school system. The only way to pay for better schools is to fight for ever-classier development, even if it creates the appearance of a black gentry pulling up the ladder behind it ..."

Hear the broadcast.

Contents Copyright 2001, National Public Radio