Looks at the flowering of the African-American community around U Street in Washington, DC-dubbed the black Broadway during the early 20th century-and the area's revival today after years of decline. In the era before the Harlem Renaissance, this Washington neighborhood was the center of black culture in America-a jazz mecca for such greats as Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Pearl Bailey, Louis Armstrong, and Ella Fitzgerald. Unlike Harlem, which was largely white-owned, U Street was black-owned, black-run, and black-built. With Howard University as a magnet, it was a cultured community that drew poets, educators, businessmen, bankers, doctors, architects, and entertainers. After the devastation of the 1968 riots, the old U Street sank into urban ruin. But the area is bring revived, with buildings like the Lincoln Theater, Whitelaw Hotel, True Reformer's Hall, and 12th Street Y being restored and reopened. New jazz clubs crowd U Street. A monument to black Civil War veterans-designed by Louisville sculptor Ed Hamilton-now stands on Vermont Avenue. And Ellington's legacy has found a fresh beginning at the Ellington School for the Arts, which is helping to launch careers for a new generation of inner-city youth.