Today, if you were fortunate enough to find yourself in our nation's capital, there was only one place to be. Shaw.
A richly historical neighborhood, Shaw grew from encampments of freed slaves near Boundary Street (now Florida Avenue) on what was the outskirts of the District of Columbia in the mid-19th Century, Shaw was named for Robert Gould Shaw, commander of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, whose proud story was told in the film "Glory."
As the 19th Century closed, Shaw was the center of intellectual and political life for African Americans in the United States, presaging New York's Harlem Renaissance, home to figures such as Langston Hughes and Alain Locke.
Still, the neighborhood's most famous resident by far was composer, arranger and bandleader Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington. The epitome of sophistication and style, Ellington embodied the ethos of the proud, educated middle-and-upper-class African American culture of Shaw in the mid-20th.
The neighborhood's residents, rather than allow themselves to be demeaned by the hatred and segregation of the Jim Crow era, built a society within a society which was meritocracy realized, a place where work, pride and, above all, education, was honored.
When Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968, Shaw was one of the neighborhoods where reactions flared into rage and riot. Like many neighborhoods similarly afflicted in the late sixties, redevelopment passed Shaw by.
Despite the endurance of such landmarks as Ben's Chili Bowl, the 1970s saw a deep decline. Family-owned businesses gave way to liquor stores, loan shops and more entrepreneurial operations centered on drugs and prostitution. Longtime residents left for the city's suburbs and many despaired of ever seeing the area revived.
In 1986, the city made a $50 million dollar investment in the neighborhood, building the Reeves Center, a modern office complex to house several city government agencies. Throughout the 90s, development sparked by the Reeves, along with an influx of new residents, many from Ethiopia, began to transform the neighborhood.
These days, Shaw is a vibrant, bustling neighborhood, home to big and small businesses, residents of all races and incomes, a thriving center of a grand capital city.
While there were many activities and events around the city today, there is really no place else to be but Shaw. Vendors crowd the streets hawking Obama shirts, hats, buttons, posters and calendars. (My favorite crack to the calendar sellers: "Hey, this is just one year. I want an eight-year calendar!")
People packed the sidewalks, lining up down the block for a half-smoke and a bowl at Ben's, gazing at landmarks like the Lincoln Theater, noshing at Dukem's Ethiopian Cuisine or Oohs and Ahhs, browsing the Obama items for sale or just drinking in the joy of the day.
Perhaps the most moving event of the day was the ceremony held at the African American Civil War Memorial, where reenacters representing the Massachusetts 54th presented medals to members of the Massachusetts National Guard, who have invited twenty of the 54th to march with them in tomorrow's parade. The ceremony was both somber and joyous and the Guardsmen and the soldiers of the 54th stayed afterward to tell their stories to those who had gathered.
Nothing could have better summed up the joy, honor and hope of this Martin Luther King Day and Inaugural Eve in our capital's proud heart.