page_title: U Street
section_title: 1900–1968: "Black Broadway" and Hub of Black Washington
hierarchical_section_title: U Street / History / 1900–1968: "Black Broadway" and Hub of Black Washington
caption_attribution_description: 12th Street YMCA Building at 1816 12th Street, NW in Washington, D.C. The building is a National Historic Landmark.
context_page_description: The U Street Corridor, sometimes called Cardozo/Shaw or Cardozo, is a commercial and residential district in Northwest Washington, D.C., most of which also constitutes the Greater U Street Historic District. It is centered along a nine-block stretch of U Street from 9th to 18th streets NW, from the 1920s until the 1960s was the city's black entertainment hub, called "Black Broadway" and "the heart of black culture in Washington, D.C.". After a period of decline following the 1968 riots, the economy picked up with the 1991 opening of the U Street metro station. With subsequent gentrification the population diversified and as of 2017 is est. 67% non-Hispanic White and 18% African American. Since 2013, thousands of new residents have moved into large new luxury apartment buildings. U Street is now promoted as a "happening" neighborhood for upscale yet "hip" and "eclectic" dining and shopping, its live music and nightlife, as well as one of the most significant African American heritage districts in the country.
context_section_description: Until the 1920s, when it was overtaken by Harlem, the U Street Corridor was home to the nation's largest urban African American community. The area was home to the Industrial Bank, the city's oldest African American-owned bank, and to hundreds of black-owned and black-friendly businesses, churches, theaters, gyms, and other community spaces. Natives of the area included jazz musician Duke Ellington, opera singer Lillian Evanti, surgeon Charles R. Drew, and law professor Charles Hamilton Houston.
  In its cultural heyday – roughly consisting of the years between 1900 and the early 1960s – the U Street Corridor was known as "Black Broadway", a phrase coined by singer Pearl Bailey. Performers who played the local clubs of the era included Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, and Jelly Roll Morton, among many others. During Prohibition, U Street was also home to many of the capital's 2,000-3,000 speakeasies, which some historians credit for helping integrate a city long divided between black and white.
  From 1911 to 1963, the west end of the U Street neighborhood was anchored by Griffith Stadium, home of the District's baseball team, the Washington Senators. The Lincoln Theatre opened in 1921, and Howard Theatre in 1926. Duke Ellington's childhood home was located on 13th street between T and S Streets.
  The Green Book, a travel guide for black travelers (1933–1963) listed many sites along U Street NW by Green Book Travelers.
caption: Twelfth Street YMCA Building
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