Black Broadway on U | A Transmedia Project

These mini-docs are part of the Black immersive storytelling and living digital history platform, Black Broadway on U | A Transmedia Project, produced by Indigo Creative Works.

A Black history project at the intersection of cultural storytelling and immersive technology (digital, mobile, 360 video, and Augmented Reality) explores and documents the largely unknown civic, social, and historical significance of Washington, DC’s historic Greater U Street community—once known as "Black Broadway" during its heyday from the early 1900s to the 1960s.

THE STORY

Between the end of the 19th and the first half of the 20th century, Washington, DC’s historically Black U Street neighborhood flourished—despite racist Jim Crow laws and segregation, which plagued our nation’s capital at the time.

“Black Broadway,” as it was commonly known, sparked a Black Cultural Renaissance in DC that produced icons like author Zora Neale Hurston, historian Carter G. Woodson, civil rights activist and educator Mary McLeod Bethune, and researcher Dr. Charles Drew. It was also the home of Duke Ellington and a prime location for performers including Cab Calloway, Pearl Bailey, Louis Armstrong, Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, and Jelly Roll Morton.

VISIT WEBSITE | Black Broadway on U www.blackbroadwayonu.com

FEATURED PRESS | Click through links to view articles.

"Saving Places" National Trust for Historic Preservation - Who Tells Your Story | U Street’s African American Legacy in D.C.

ESPN The Undefeated - Black Broadway: The Hidden History of U Street in Washington, D.C.