Black Broadway in Washington, D.C.

A history of the African American neighborhood and its remarkable residents in our nation’s capital.Before chain coffeeshops and luxury high-rises, before even the beginning of desegregation and the 1968 riots, Washington’s Greater U Street was known as Black Broadway. From the early 1900s into the 1950s, African Americans plagued by Jim Crow laws in other parts of town were free to own businesses here and built what was often described as a “city within a city.” Local author and journalist Briana A. Thomas narrates U Street’s rich and unique history, from the early triumph of emancipation to the days of civil rights pioneer Mary Church Terrell and music giant Duke Ellington, through the recent struggles of gentrification.“[An] engaging and compelling history. A skillful storyteller, Thomas brings the neighborhood’s people to life; and what a list of neighbors they are: Marion Barry; “Cool Papa” Bell; Mary McLeod Bethune; Ralph Bunche; Stokely Carmichael; Kenneth B. Clark; Anna Julia Cooper; Rev. Alexander Crummell; Charles H. Drew; Paul Laurence Dunbar; Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington; E. Franklin Frazier; Bishop C. M. “Sweet Daddy” Grace; the Grimké’s Angelina, Archibald, and Francis; Buck Leonard; A. Philip Randolph; Mary Church Terrell; and Carter G. Woodson, to name just a few. . . . Thomas makes them all—and perhaps even more importantly, many unknown everyday U Streeters—fully alive. Pick up her book and all doubts about the importance of the Nation’s Capital for American life will disappear.” —Blair A. Ruble, author of Washington’s U Street: A Biography