Washington's U Street: A Biography [Hardcover]

Blair A. Ruble (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 20, 2010 | ISBN-10: 0801898005 | ISBN-13: 978-0801898006 | Edition: 1

This book traces the history of the U Street neighborhood in Washington, D.C., from its Civil War–era origins to its recent gentrification.

Home throughout the years to important scholars, entertainers, and political figures, as well as to historically prominent African American institutions, Washington’s U Street neighborhood is a critical zone of contact between black and white America. Howard University and the Howard Theater are both located there; Duke Ellington grew up in the neighborhood; and diplomat Ralph Bunche, Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, and medical researcher Charles Drew were all members of the community.

This robustly diverse neighborhood included residents of different races and economic classes when it arose during the Civil War. Jim Crow laws came to the District after the Compromise of 1877, and segregation followed in the mid-1880s. Over the next century, U Street emerged as an energetic center of African American life in Washington. The mid-twentieth-century rise of cultural and educational institutions brought with it the establishment of African American middle and elite classes, ironically fostering biases within the black community. Later, with residential desegregation, many of the elites moved on and U Street entered decades of decline, suffered rioting in 1968, but has seen an initially fitful resurgence that has recently taken hold.

Blair A. Ruble, a jazz aficionado, prominent urbanist, and longtime resident of Washington, D.C., is uniquely equipped to undertake the history of this culturally important area. His work is a rare instance of original research told in an engaging and compelling voice.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Complete with personal profiles of past and present DC luminaries, known locally and nationally, in more than 300 pages of text Ruble takes the reader on a journey of U Street's history from its initial development following the arrival of runaway slaves to the city during the Civil War to President Obama's visit to the landmark Ben's Chili Bowl.

(John Muller H-Net 2010)

Straightforward tale about the District’s history with African Americans at the center.

(Baltimore Afro American 2010)

[Ruble] weaves the historical tale of the area with profiles of its major personalities, including Howard University founder Maj. Gen. Oliver Otis Howard, former Mayor Marion Barry and Radio One Inc. founder Cathy Hughes... After all, it's a lot more than a place to get a half-smoke.

(Matthew Gilmore Washington Business Journal 2010)

This is a wonderful book... Washington's U Street: A Biography is a meritorious study of a subject of considerable historical importance. Thank you, Mr. Ruble.

(Theodore Hudson Ellingtonia 2011)

His research is impeccable... very readable and entertaining.

(Melody & Words 2010)

A must-read for anyone interested in the tremendously rich history of the U Street neighborhood.

(14th & You 2011)

U Street gives readers many human-interest stories, delivered with a light touch.

(Jane Woodward Elioseff Internet Review of Books 2011)

Too often, historians forget that Washington, DC, is a city with a history and not just an extension of national politics. Ruble gives readers a history of U Street with a story of a neighborhood that began as a free black community.

(Choice 2011)

Groundbreaking... Ruble carefully constructs a biographical history of U Street in northwest Washington that highlights the accomplishments of everyday people in the neighborhood, while simultaneously giving life to the area’s buildings, streets, and educational and cultural institutions, particularly those of the African American community.

(Amber N. Wiley H-DC, H-Net Reviews 2011)

An informative, readable, and well-documented work that seeks to recover the history of the nation's capital from the vantage of its African American residents and one of their most enduring communities.

(David Taft Terry Journal of American History 2011)

No one, to my knowledge, has assembled a narrative on black Washington that covered such an expanse. There have been a number of books that have looked at black Washington during a certain era, but they do not attempt the sort of panoptic approach that one finds in Washington's U Street.

(Jonathan Holloway, Yale University )

Ruble takes us back to the days before Jim Crow, when U street was a mixed community, then look at the post-Jim Crow era, when it was central to black cultural and social life, and moves on to today, and its spectacular revitalization.

(Deb Morris )

Ruble offers more than a mere chronology of the U Street neighborhood. Washington's U Street: A Biography gives readers a glimpse into the lives of the people—rich and poor, black and white, law-abiding and not—who elevated U Street into the iconic place it is today for Washingtonians, especially African Americans.

(Mary Berger Washington History 2011)

A welcome gift for anyone interested in Washington or ubran issues in general.

(Bob Cullen Bob Cullen Photography 2012)

This book is loaded with terrific photos and fascinating sidebars about some of the more interesting people who lived, played, and worked on U Street.

(Patrick M. Reynolds Flashbacks 2013)

From the Back Cover

This book traces the history of the U Street neighborhood in Washington, D.C., from its Civil War–era origins to its recent gentrification.

Blair A. Ruble, a jazz aficionado, prominent urbanist, and longtime resident of Washington, D.C., is uniquely equipped to write the history of this culturally important area. His work is a rare instance of original research told in an engaging and compelling voice.

"This is a wonderful book... Washington's U Street: A Biography is a meritorious study of a subject of considerable historical importance. Thank you, Mr. Ruble."— Ellingtonia

"An informative, readable, and well-documented work that seeks to recover the history of the nation's capital from the vantage of its African American residents and one of their most enduring communities."— Journal of American History

"A must-read for anyone interested in the tremendously rich history of the U Street neighborhood."— 14th & You

"Groundbreaking... Ruble carefully constructs a biographical history of U Street in northwest Washington that highlights the accomplishments of everyday people in the neighborhood, while simultaneously giving life to the area’s buildings, streets, and educational and cultural institutions, particularly those of the African American community."— H-DC, H-Net Reviews

" U Street gives readers many human-interest stories, delivered with a light touch."— Internet Review of Books

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press; 1 edition (October 20, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801898005
• ISBN-13: 978-0801898006
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.3 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,192,178 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars BLAIR RUBLE'S-- WASHINGTON 'S U STREET March 31, 2011

By maurice jackson

Format:Hardcover

This is an exciting year for Washington DC history and Blair A. Ruble's new work WASHINGTON'S U STREET: A BIOGRAPHY will become necessary reading for anyone seeking to learn about Black people in the nation's capital. In addition to this work Clarence Lusane has completed a work THE BLACK HISTORY OF THE WHITE HOUSE and Kate Masur has written WASHINGTON DC: AN EXAMPE FOR ALLTHE LAND about the reconstruction years in the city. These works are important because they put to rest the notion that Washington, DC and its African American history are not as important as say the history of London or Moscow or Istanbul or Paris.
Having read every word, every footnote, I can tell you that Ruble's work already is an indispensible study for not only the history of U Street but the history of the city , of a people, of a not so "secret city." While there are many aspects of Ruble's books that are notable, I found fascinating the section that made the link between the two worlds between 7th St and U St. There along 7th Street Blacks from the Alley slums to the proper townhouses ran into one another, interacted with one another and became a shared community. Ruble notes that U Street probably would never have emerged as one of the most creative places in America had it not been for 7th Street. Another important section deals with unknown heroes of the city, like Charles Hosten Williams who was instrumental in introducing African American and African dance as truly unique and important dance forms . He also played the key for organizing the CIAA--the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association.
Ruble notes the unpleasant facts in the history the city, like the 1909 riots where white mobs attacked Blacks and of racially restrictive housing covenants . But his is a work of achievements and of the struggle for democracy as he tells of the landmark court decisions that made illegal "separate but equal" and the housing covenants.
Other sections deal with two men who I got to know well, as a young man in Washington ,DC in the 1970s. One was the legendary poet Sterling Brown, the other the venerable Art Carter leading sportswriter and historian of black sports and later editor of the WASHINGTON AFRO AMERICAN. The life and joy that existed on U Street spread throughout city. Blair Ruble has captured that joy and the beauty of Washington's U Street.

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must-Read for Washingtonians January 16, 2013

By Steven Bowers

Format:Paperback

It turns out that some of Washington, DC's greatest treasures aren't made from white marble, after all. I received a copy of Blair Ruble's "Washington's U Street: A Biography" before the holidays and I could hardly put it down until I finished it a week later. In short, Mr. Ruble tells a fascinating narrative of the evolution of the U Street neighborhood, from its earliest pre-Civil War days, through segregation and devastating riots, through today's rebirth and redefinition of the area (itself a subject of some controversy). The high quality of Mr. Ruble's exhaustive research and thought-provoking analysis is obvious. I have a new-found appreciation for the neighborhood, and its disproportionate impact on American civil rights, education, and arts history.

Whether you are a recent arrival or a longtime resident of Washington, DC, do yourself a favor and buy this book.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Original, comprehensive overview of an iconic neighborhood! November 4, 2010

By Melody & Words

Format:Hardcover

What so excited me about this book was its originality. No one has undertaken such a comprehensive examination of this undeniably important neighborhood.

U Street has been Washington's vibrant center for many decades, and Ruble's detailed account of the neighborhood, from before the Civil War to today, puts its modern issues in context.

Blair Ruble begins by framing the U Street area as a "contact zone"--a place where cultures and peoples exist side by side. Whether black or white, southern or northern, professional or scholarly, residents in the neighborhood have interacted with each other with very few clashes for decades. U Street has bred activists, politicians, scholars, educators, athletes, musicians, and dancers, among others; and it calls such famous figures as Duke Ellington and Ralph Bunche sons.

Ruble explores the significance of cultural institutions and historical events, such as the founding of the NAACP, Jim Crow and segregation, the civil rights movement, and the establishment of U Street as "black Broadway."

Washington's U Street demonstrates the exceptional ability of the area's many different residents not just to coexist but also to build a strong identity and unique culture.

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