You Had to Wear a Tie 13th and u streets nw
washington ’ s historic black broad- way was the heart of African American life in Washington, D.C. from about 1900 to the 1950 s. Duke Ellington, its most famous native son, grew up, was inspired, trained, and played his first music here. He is but one example of the leaders in law, medicine, the military, science, and the arts who were shaped by a community that valued education and supported achievement against great odds in a segregated society. At the eastern edge of the neighborhood stands Howard University, its guiding star throughout many generations. The Lincoln Theatre at 1215 U Street, now restored to its 1922 grandeur, was one of three first-run movie theaters clustered on U Street. The Lincoln Colonnade behind the theater, since demolished, was a popular setting for balls, parties and per- formances. All the great entertainers played clubs on or near this boulevard — Cab Calloway, Pearl Bailey, Sarah Vaughn, Louis Armstrong, Billy Eckstine, and Jelly Roll Morton, to name a few. Black-owned entertainment venues and professional businesses including the offices of black lawyers, doctors, and dentists, and the headquarters of black social institutions, all clustered along U Street. Many of them occupied buildings that were financed and built by and for African Americans, an unusu- al phenomenon at the time. At night and on weekends, U Street was a parade ground — a place to meet friends and share what many describe as a close, small-town atmosphere. And at its core was an elegance epitomized by Duke Ellington himself. The old-timers of the neighborhood said that U Street was so grand that to come here “you had to wear a tie.”
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