The Rise and Fall of the U Street Corridor
A Story of Jazz and Migration in the District
INTRODUCTION
The birth of jazz on U Street and its intrinsic ties to African culture, slavery, and migration is a story of creation and destruction. Black migrants built U Street in Washington, D.C., as a capital of ingenuity, creativity, culture, and jazz music, before it fell into ruin following the 1968 riots, governmental neglect, and decades of gentrification. Now, U Street NW represents a ghost of D.C.’s storied past.
THE SOUNDS OF JAZZ IN THE U STREET CORRIDOR
As you explore this story of U Street's cultural boom spurred by the innovation of Black migrants, keep in mind the real people that underlie this neighborhood's history. Hear the sounds of Black musicians and artists by listening to the curated Spotify playlist below that highlights the some of the biggest stars to emerge from or get there start in the U Street Corridor. Simply scan the QR code to the right or press play below to begin.
TIMELINE OF U STREET CORRIDOR AND BLACK MIGRATION
1910s
The Great Migration: Black Americans head northward en masse, relocating primarily from North Carolina, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Virginia to metropolitan areas like Washington, D.C., and New York. In the District, racially segregated housing forces Black migrants into the Shaw/U Street neighborhood.
1910–1912
Black Broadway and the Howard Theatre: Howard Theatre opens its doors on August 22, 1910. What follows is an explosion of Black creation and artistry that will serve as the impetus for jazz's birth in the District.
1920s
Jazz Clubs: Jazz clubs begin opening in the early 1920s, lining the streets of the Shaw/U Street neighborhood. Places like Jimmy McPhail's, Rocky's, the Lincoln Colonnade, and Bohemian Caverns draw jazz stars from far and wide.
1920s–60s
Jazz Celebrities: The U Street Corridor becomes an attraction for jazz musicians across America. Most significantly, it becomes known as the home of musical legend Duke Ellington, who himself came to the area as a result of his father's migration from the south. Eventually, the U Street Corridor draws jazz icons like Ella Fitzgerald and Jelly Roll Morton to its already flourishing jazz empire.
1968
Civil Unrest in the District: The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. sparks civil unrest among the neighborhood's residents, resulting in the physical destruction of the corridor. What ensues is decades of economic decline and governmental neglect. U Street's musical and cultural empire begins to fade.
Today
U Street's Jazz Legacy: Few jazz clubs remain in the corridor with hopes of reinvigorating the neighborhood's vibrant cultural scene. Forces of gentrification, however, threaten the cultural fabric of the area and the livelihoods of its oldest residents.
WALKING THROUGH U STREET'S HISTORY: A GUIDED TOUR
The Great Migration (1910s-1920s)
Our story begins with the Great Migration, a mass resettling of Black Americans from the south in northern cities due to rampant racism and segregation in former confederate states. Beginning in the 1910s, Black Americans headed northward en masse, relocating primarily from North Carolina, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Virginia to metropolitan areas like D.C., Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburgh, and New York City. Already, D.C. was a predominantly Black city, having the largest percentage of African American residents of any American city by 1900. Migration to the District, however, did not present the limitless opportunities for Black Americans that northern cities falsely promised. Racially segregated housing elsewhere in D.C. forced Black migrants into areas in and surrounding what is now known as the U Street/Shaw neighborhood. Furthermore, Howard University, founded in 1867 in the neighborhood, drew migrants with dreams of educational opportunity to this part of the city. Eventually, the Black migrants that flooded into the area would create a cultural and intellectual hub in the U Street Corridor known as “Black Broadway,” where art and community flourished among Black residents. Most importantly, Black Broadway would become a birthplace of jazz and musical talent.
Featured: Front page of The Washington Times in 1916 featuring an article on the northward migration of Black Americans.
Howard Theatre and Black Broadway (1910s)
Howard Theatre opened its doors on August 22, 1910, inspiring the opening of many black-owned theaters throughout the east coast. “Black Broadway” truly began with the establishment of the Howard Theatre, a cornerstone of the U Street neighborhood and one of the first legitimate African-American theaters. Howard Theatre became a place in a still segregated country where musicians and audiences of all colors could perform, challenging racial barriers established by Jim Crow. Most significantly, Howard Theatre created a space for the unfettered growth of jazz, which, at the time, had become a newly established genre. Jazz represented a cultural import from migrants and enslaved people, as its roots trace back to New Orleans and Africa. The genre’s call-and-response elements, improvisational nature, and human-sounding quality exemplify a collision of African and European musical influences that were coalesced and refined by America’s Black residents. For Washingtonians, Howard Theatre became center stage for this music of Black identity. By the 1930s, the theater welcomed the performances of a plethora of jazz legends: Count Basie, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Cab Calloway, Ethel Waters, and Nat King Cole. But before its renowned success in the later 1900s, Howard Theatre served as a place of jazz education for Washington’s homegrown and imported talent, including Duke Ellington, Shirley Horn, Billy Taylor, Frank Wess, and Jelly Roll Morton. The theater also owes its survival and success to the vibrant community and booming nightlife that would develop in the corridor through the creation of jazz clubs.
Featured: A newspaper article announcing the grand opening of the Howard Theatre in 1910.
Jazz Clubs Take Root (1920s)
U Street NW began to take off as a jazz and nightlife hub in Washington, D.C., and the larger United States at the beginning of the 1920s. Home to such jazz clubs as Jimmy McPhail’s, Rocky’s, the Lincoln Colonnade, and Crystal Caverns, along with the Lincoln Center, a cultural center for performing arts, the U Street Corridor saw such famous jazz and blues performers as Harry Belafonte, Charlie Parker, and Pearl Bailey. Performers and business owners alike were mostly the neighborhoods’ Black residents, creating a microcosm of local Black creativity and artistry. Opening in 1926, Bohemian Caverns (also known as Crystal Caverns) became the neighborhood’s most famous jazz club. The club saw performances from legends Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Duke Ellington, and Cab Calloway. Operating as a speakeasy during Prohibition and functioning as a subterranean club, the venue drew residents of all races and socioeconomic classes. It became a space for both Washingtonian elites and for the city's seedier underbelly, as its discrete entrance and exit welcomed members of the Black Mafia. This community and underground spaces laid the groundwork for jazz to flourish in the corridor – as evidenced by the tremendous careers and long-lasting influences of the Washingtonian jazz musicians to come.
Featured: Jazz musicians at a table in the Bohemian Caverns under faux stalactites.
Faces of Jazz in D.C. (1920s-1960s)
Duke Ellington is by far the city’s most famous jazz musician. Ellington has strong roots in the District, having been born and raised in the U Street Corridor at the turn of the 20th century, but his father, James Edward Ellington, migrated from North Carolina in search of new opportunity and a better life. The Ellington family thus became part of the influx of Black migrants that frequented U Street and made it the metropolis of art and culture in the 1900s that would welcome Ellington’s performance. The family moved frequently within D.C., usually around the U Street Corridor. The Lincoln Colonnade, True Reformers Hall, Murray's Casino, and Eye Street Hall, dance halls where music began taking off in the neighborhood, became critical to Ellington’s musical education. As Ellington made a name for himself as a formidable jazz composer, pianist, and bandleader within U Street’s clubs, the area drew further talent, including Ella Fitzgerald and Jelly Roll Morton. Most notably, Morton, a progenitor of jazz, was drawn to the District’s flourishing Black culture and eventually became resident in the area as an owner of a jazz club. In the end, Ellington eventually left behind Washington for the burgeoning arts scene of New York, but he never forgot his roots, returning often to the place that birthed his career and helped birth the genre of jazz. The mecca of art and culture Ellington had grown accustomed to, however, would not last forever in the corridor.
Featured: The Duke Ellington Orchestra performs "C Jam Blues" in 1942. Featured musicians are Duke Ellington (piano), Ray Nance (violin), Rex Stewart (trumpet), Ben Webster (tenor sax), Joe Nanton (trombone), Barney Bigard (clarinet), and Sonny Greer (drums)
Downfall of U Street (1968)
By the late 1960s, U Street was a powder keg of racial unrest and violence, spurred by a still very segregated and foundationally racist America that kept many of D.C.’s Black residents impoverished. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination would be the spark resulting in the area’s explosion – crowds surged around 14th Street and U Street, throwing rocks and setting buildings ablaze to express centuries-long sentiment regarding the suffering and oppression of African Americans in Washington, D.C., and around the country. In its aftermath, the protests and unrest led to the destruction or damage of more than 1,100 buildings by the mass of over 20,000 people. The District was occupied by federal troops and the area incurred nearly $27 million in damage. Jazz remained in U Street, but its once plentiful and vibrant audiences began to fade. After 1968, clubs like Bohemian Caverns began to close their doors. People were driven away by the civil disturbances, resulting in white flight to the suburbs. The neighborhood was left to grapple with a crumbling economy, only made worse by the onset of the crack epidemic in the 1980s. The economic revival of the area would not come until the installation of a metro station in the neighborhood in 1991, leading to an influx of people that diversified the once primarily Black neighborhood. An increase of Latinx residents also followed a movement of wealthier white families into the area, as it became “hip” and “up-and-coming.” Installation of luxury apartments began the area’s descent into gentrification.
Featured: The U.S. Capitol against a smoky background as fires rage during the 1968 civil unrest in Washington, D.C.
U Street's Jazz Legacy (Today)
Today, jazz remains in the corridor, but the neighborhood credited with the genre’s birth in the District has transformed drastically since the beginning of the 20th century, particularly in its racial makeup. By 2011, the District’s Black population fell below 50% for the first time in 50 years. In the same year in the U Street Corridor, residents were roughly 60% white and 20% Black, a reversal of the neighborhood’s demographics just 10 years earlier, when the neighborhood was roughly 20% white and 60% Black. U Street and its surrounding neighborhoods now boast million-dollar condos, the $850 million Washington Convention Center, the $50 million Reeves Center, and newly built entertainment and shopping hubs. Young professionals flood in by the thousands. By 2016, the Bohemian Caverns closed for good after its 90-year history in the District. Ellington, who passed in 1974, holds a lasting legacy in the area through his descendants, his influence on the jazz sound, and the creation of the Duke Ellington School of the Arts. Ultimately, the physical destruction of the U Street Corridor, its subsequent economic decline, the continued systemic racism in America, and the forces of gentrification have certainly altered the neighborhood significantly since the Great Migration. But jazz can still be heard in its streets, albeit by different musicians and with different sounds. The genre serves as a window into the past, nodding toward the Black musicians, migrants, and community members that brought culture to D.C.’s streets but now find themselves a minority in this once vivacious Chocolate City.
Featured: 1923 14th St NW before and after renovation.
CONCLUSION
This marks the conclusion of story of the U Street Corridor’s rise and fall as a heart of Black culture and experience. This story seeks to honor the contributions of Black migrants to the rich intellectual and cultural history of U Street, to which this city owes a great debt. The descendants of these migrants remain the lifeblood of D.C. and continue to build the city’s vibrant culture even as forces of gentrification and systemic racism remain profound challenges to equity in the District.
