The Woodrow Wilson Center Press
Washington's U Street: A Biography
Related Topics: Urban Studies, United States
Watch "dialogue" host John Milewski's interview with book author Blair Ruble.
The audio version can be found here.
Home throughout the years to important scholars, entertainers, and political figures, as well as to historically prominent African American institutions, Washington's U Street neighborhood is a critical zone of contact between black and white America. Howard University and the Howard Theater are both located there; Duke Ellington grew up in the neighborhood; and diplomat Ralph Bunche, Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, and medical researcher Charles Drew were all members of the community. This book traces the history of the U Street neighborhood from its Civil War–era origins to its recent gentrification.
What People are Saying
"No one, to my knowledge, has assembled a narrative on black Washington that covered such an expanse. There have been a number of books that have looked at black Washington during a certain era, but they do not attempt the sort of panoptic approach that one finds in Washington's U Street." — Jonathan Holloway, Yale University
“I don’t know how many streets have biographies written about them, but U Street's is definitely the hippest.”—Kick Ass Book Reviews
Chapter List
List of Profiles
List of Maps
List of Figures
Preface
Introduction: Washington's Contact Zone
1. Ambiguous Roots
2. A City "Like the South"
3. Confronting the Nation
4. "Black Broadway"
5. The Last Colony
6. Chocolate City
7. "The New You"
Notes
Acknowledgments
Index
