Shaw (Washington, DC)
Shaw is a neighborhood just north of central Washington, DC It is located between M Street NW and Massachusetts Avenue NW to the south, New Jersey Avenue NW to the east, Florida Avenue NW to the north, and 11th Street NW to the west. In Shaw is the U Street Corridor , which is the commercial and cultural center of the district.
history
Shaw was founded as a settlement of freed slaves outside the original city of Washington and was initially called Uptown . It got its current name because a school in the neighborhood was named after Robert Gould Shaw , who commanded one of the first units made up of African American soldiers, the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry , during the American Civil War .
In the first half of the 20th century, Shaw, especially the U Street Corridor , was the cultural and economic center of Washington's Afro-American population. In fact, until the 1920s (when Shaw was overtaken by Harlem in this regard ) the area around U Street was the largest and most important urban center for the African American elite in the United States. The historic African American Howard University, founded in 1867, is also located in Shaw.
After the assassination of Martin Luther King in April 1968 there was serious unrest in Shaw, in which numerous buildings were burned down. As a result, the area around the intersection of U Street / 14 began to decline in the 1970s. Street became a focus of petty crime and drug trafficking. Since the mid-1990s, revitalization measures and decisive action against crime have given the quarter a renewed upswing. Significant gentrification has been observed in recent years .
useful information
- Duke Ellington was born and raised in Shaw.
- U Street has long been an important center of the Washington music scene, with numerous well-known theaters and clubs (Lincoln Theater, Howard Theater, Bohemian Caverns). Since the quarter's revival in the 1990s, U Street has continued this tradition.
- Parts of Shaw have had a high proportion of immigrants from Ethiopia since the 1990s . That's why you can find numerous Ethiopian restaurants there.
Web links
Coordinates: 38 ° 55 ' N , 77 ° 1' W