District of Columbia

Name: Black Broadway in Washington, DC
Brand: Briana Thomas
SKU: 9781467139298
Price: 21.99 USD
Availability: InStock

A walking tour through Washington D.C. history can feel like a stroll across the nation itself. Home to so many masters of American art forms and repositories of its culture, the city presents countless landmarks of national tragedy and milestones of countrywide struggle. But some capital lore is distinct to the district. Dig up D.C.’s agrarian roots and explore the wilderness of Rock Creek Park. One spin round Dupont Circle in finery from Woodies might feel like a trip across state lines, but you’re still in the same neighborhood of our District of Columbia history book catalogue. [View all District of Columbia books]

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Black Broadway in Washington, DC

Movie Theaters of Washington, DC

Paperback

$23.99

Black Broadway in Washington, DC

9781467139298

$21.99

Before chain coffee shops and luxury high-rises, before 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 on U Street and built what was often described as a “city within a city.” Stores, banks, and barbershops along with theaters, restaurants and hotels crowned a neighborhood know for Black affluence. U Street competed with Harlem in its heyday, and showed Black culture to the world.

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.

Ford's Theatre

9781467121125

$24.99

Ford's Theatre in downtown Washington, DC, is best known as the notorious scene of Pres. Abraham Lincoln's assassination on April 14, 1865.

It is among the oldest and most visited sites of national tragedy in the United States. First constructed in 1833 as a Baptist church, the property was acquired by John T. Ford and converted into a theater in 1861. Presenting almost 500 performances before the assassination, Ford afterward sold the building to the federal government. A century later, the National Park Service reconstructed the theater, and Ford's Theatre Society began presenting live performances there in 1968. Since then, the two organizations have partnered to offer more than 650,000 annual visitors an array of quality programming about Lincoln's presidency and legacy. Today, patrons can explore the Tenth Street campus, consisting of the theater, interactive museum galleries, the house where Lincoln died, and the Center for Education and Leadership.

Movie Theaters of Washington, DC

9781467129480

$23.99

Movie Theaters of Washington, DC charts the storied history of motion picture exhibition in the nation's capital. In 1894, entertainment venues were repurposed to show newfangled moving images and continued to do so through the downtown heyday of such 1920s baroque movie palaces as the 3,400-seat Fox. In the late 20th century, shoebox theaters dotted the nearby suburbs. In a landscape that has transformed over the decades, majestic landmarks, such as the Uptown, which opened in 1936, remain and are still going strong, and theaters like the Warner survived the dark days of downtown's commercial decline to be repurposed as thriving stage venues. While certain favorites have fallen to the wrecking ball, the Washington area has seen, along with a rejuvenated downtown, a vibrant movie scene for both mainstream blockbusters and art house fare with the Regal Gallery Place multiplex and more new theaters to come.