Reaching for Equality
,inexpensive entertain- ments lined Seventh and Ninth streets,from D to U streets.Vaudeville houses,pool halls,record shops and taverns made for a busy night life.And everyone went to the movies.Two small theaters once operated on this block, the Alamo ( ) and the Mid-City ( ).Seventh Street also boasted the Happyland ( ),Gem ( ),and Broadway ( ),with the Raphael nearby at Ninth. Until Washington’s movie houses were segre- gated by seating or by theater.By ,five of the city’s “colored”theaters were found near here. Some were white owned.Others were not,such as the Mid-City, owned by African American vaude- ville star Sherman H.Dudley. The Washington Bee newspaper, a booster of black-owned businesses,encouraged boycotts of white-owned theaters.In the Bee targeted the Happyland,which segregated its auditorium with a low partition.Theater historian Robert Headley noted that children often hurled hard candy at each other over the wall. In a race riot came to this area.It was one of a number that struck U.S.cities that summer.Heroic black veterans of World War I’s battles for freedom had come home demanding first-class citizen rights,and their actions threatened some white DC residents.In July reports of an incident in Southwest Washington sparked white mobs that rampaged through black neighborhoods,including Shaw.In turn armed black men defended their communities.Over five days,more than white and black residents were killed and hundreds were injured.
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