Historic U Street

Jazz/Entertainment Sites

For a period of time after the Civil War, more and more freedmen came to Washington. As their numbers increased among the black bourgeoisie in the city, racial tolerance decreased. This lack of tolerance left the U Street community, including its businesses, increasingly more segregated from white Washington.

Black business people decided to go it alone as they began their own black business movement. The hub of this effort was in the U Street neighborhood, and what you see on this map represents the coming together in this lively business atmosphere of commerce and art--or entertainment culture. The red dots that you see here represent nightclubs, supperclubs, restaurants; the blue dots represent jazz performance venues. U Street gained its fame in these venues, especially at the Howard Theater, but also in its nightlubs. As you will see, all jazz was performed in this culture of excitement, glitz, high fashion. U Street was a hotbed of artistic innovation and expression.