Washington DC’s declining black population fights to preserve its musical heritage

PEOPLE OFTEN slow down to bop as they pass Donald Campbell’s mobile-phone shop in Shaw, a neighbourhood in Washington, DC. Until 7pm every day speakers outside blast Go-Go, a drum-based fusion of funk, R&B and soul that is indigenous to the city. In an area that was once dotted with Go-Go clubs, several of them owned by Mr Campbell, this is one of the last public places the music is played regularly. It is also the scene of a row that has forced a reckoning on how gentrification is eroding the culture of a once black-majority city.

Last spring residents of a glossy new apartment block, mostly inhabited by young, white newcomers to the area, complained about the racket. T-Mobile, which owns the shop, asked Mr Campbell to turn it off, which he did. That unleashed a torrent of anger from African-Americans across Washington. There were large street protests at which Go-Go bands played, a #DontMuteDC social-media campaign and an online petition. After a few days of this John Legere, T-Mobile’s boss, tweeted that “the music should NOT stop in D.C.” Mr Campbell turned it back on.