Originally a freed-slave encampment during the Civil War, and later a center for Black education when Howard University arrived in the 1870s, Shaw is the nerve center of DC's Black community and actually predates New York's Harlem as a Mecca for Afrrican-Americans. In fact, until being surpassed by Harlem in the 1920s, Shaw was the largest urban Black community in the nation and center of its intellectual and artistic leadership. All the great jazz musicians were regulars in Shaw, and some of them (such as Duke Ellington) grew up there.
Shaw remains among DC’s nightlife hot spots and is home to some of the District’s most well known night clubs and theaters. The arrival of the Metro Green line in the 1990s sparked an ongoing revitalization of Shaw, and the neighborhood is now enjoying (or anguishing in, depending on your point of view) fairly significant infill and residential immigration.
