Go-Go City: Displacement and Protest in Washington, DC

[Street sounds, traffic, wind] TERRENCE ODOM: I heard they used put death to people like me.

Even if people like me were minding their business, strolling down the wrong dirt road behind some abandoned farm, we were hung by our necks, cut by our skin, beat with shotgun butts and old yard sticks.

And if we were lucky, if our mouths functioned long enough, our half-dead screams would pierce through the wind that hugged the night as our minds tried to fight off the fire that our bodies consumed but couldn't fully endure these flames that were put [cut off] it's like for centuries, they've been lying.

For centuries we've been dying.

For centuries I've been trying not to let this be the reason I hate, but my blood burns.

Every time I write a slave's poem, my paper bleeds.

[Go-Go music plays] They wrote us out our story.

Who knew we came from glory?

I was blind and my mind was defined by the lies they designed and put out before me.

So just sit back and listen.

This is a new resistance.

[Go-Go music] [Percussion and bass plays] Hey!

Come on!

Ha!

Come on now!

ANAWAN BIG G GLOVER: Politics has nothing to do with my city, for real; Capitol Hill, the White House and all that.

We have so much more to give We have our own music, we have our own culture, food.

That's what it was and itll always be Chocolate City.

DICKIE SHANNON: They call it gentrification.

- They call it progress.

RADIO DJ: Well, it's progress if we can be a part of it.

DICKIE: I call it cultural genocide.

NATALIE HOPKINSON: A lot of the who filled the street, A lot of those people don't live here anymore.

ROBERT WHITE: The people who were not showing up.

a year or two years ago, not because they didn't care but because they believed that they had already lost.

NATALIE: These protests were reasons for people to come back.

MAN 3: Let me hear you say, "Power to the people."

CROWD: Power to the people.

MAN 3: Power to the people.

PROTESTER: I'm here for you.

I'm here for your kids.

Your grandkids.

BIG TONY FISHER: You can take a lot of stuff away from us, you're not gonna take the Go-Go.

BIG G: You can't mute us, man.

Never will they be able to mute us.

Never, ever.

[Junkyard Band Performing] 'cause all we got is us.

These evil streets is rough, there's no one you can trust.

These evil streets is rough Cause all we got is us.

[Airplane overhead] [mechanical sound] [birds chirping] [newscast music] JUDY WOODRUFF: On this Memorial Day, as the COVID-19 death toll climbs closer to 100,000... WOLF BLITZER: More states now have an upward trend in cases than downward, is it fair to say this crisis is far from over?

NEWS BROADCASTER: DC Mayor Muriel Bowser had hoped to announce tomorrow that phase one would be happening on Friday, they're not seeing the numbers trend the way they want to.

So, now, the re-opening of DC is in jeopardy.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: Just those very comorbidities that are unfortunately disproportionately prevalent in the African American population.

POLICE OFFICERS: Put your hands behind your back, then.

GEORGE FLOYD: I'm not gonna do nothing.

OFFICERS: Face in the floor.

Take the other hand.

GEORGE FLOYD: I've done nothing wrong.

[George Floyd cries out] OFFICERS: Stand up.

GEORGE FLOYD: Please, please, man.

ANWAN "BIG G" GLOVER: Growing up in Washington, DC and being from the neighborhoods I grew up in, you get immune to things.

But to see him crying for his life, and he takes his last breath.

OFFICERS: Stay on the ground.

On the ground.

[George Floyd gasping] BIG G: Just watching other officers stand beside him.

It brought me to tears.

And it's still happening to this day, 2020.

GEORGE FLOYD: I cannot breathe.

I cannot breathe.

[George Floyd gasping] [birds chirping] [rumble of helicopter blades] [cymbals and horns] GEORGE DEREK MUSGROVE: DC is this place where African Americans have tremendous opportunity.

African Americans, after the end of slavery, headed to the cities.

Life was freer there, it wasn't free, but it was freer there.

And it just so happened that one of those Southern cities where the pull back from reconstruction after the Civil War was perhaps the least violent and the least disruptive to African Americans.

SABIYHA PRINCE: They found work in housing and urban development and different you know branches of the federal government.

GEORGE DEREK: It was a magnet for African Americans who honestly thought that, "If I'm going to work hard and accumulate money, there's a higher likelihood in Washington, DC that it will not be taken from me through force or through law."

[Go-Go music plays] VIRGINIA ALI: My husband Ben and I opened Ben's Chili Bowl in Washington, DC on August 22, 1958.

This was still a segregated city.

[restaurant sounds] When we met and fell madly in love and wanted to be married he talked about wanting to be self-employed and perhaps opening a restaurant.

So he had this special chili recipe that he thought would be great on hot dogs.

We talked about that, and we decided all we needed was the ideal location.

[jazzy rock music] The ideal location was what we called Black Broadway, that's U Street.

It was the entertainment center for African Americans.

The good thing was, we were able to find the architect, the contractor, the plumber, the electrician, and the cabinet maker, all minority-owned businesses, two- within two or three blocks of here.

IBIJOKE AKINBOWALE: It was Chocolate city, in terms of businesses, home ownerships, they thrived within the city.

DICKIE SHANNON: We had Black pharmacists, we had Black doctors, we had Black banks, savings and loans institutions.

That gave me a sense of who I was.

RONALD MOTEN: All you had to do is work hard.

If you was a business man, if you worked hard, you can get whatever you wanted in this city.

If you was a government worker, if you worked hard, you can do whatever you wanted.

If you was a street vendor, if you worked hard, you can get whatever you wanted.

ROBERT WHITE: It was possible to survive on a working-class salary here for a long time.

In fact, my mother passed away when I was young, and my dad was able to raise both me and my brother.

He had a high school diploma, he worked as a clerk at the hospital, but we rented a house.

It wasn't in the fanciest neighborhood.

We didn't have a lot of luxuries, but we had everything we needed.

RONALD: People all over the world and all over the country looked at DC as a special way because they felt like we had a sense of pride and we had an ego that we were proud to be Black.

We were proud to have our own music.

We were proud to create jobs and have contracts with people of color where when you go to different places, they were like, "How does that happen?

That doesn't happen in my backyard."

[music] SABIYHA PRINCE: It was a Black run city, as well.

Back in the 1960's, that was not very common.

GEORGE DEREK: You start to see very early Black Power activists cropping up in DC.

You have a large number of lunch counter sit-ins starting as early as 1943 during the Second World War.

BIG TONY FISHER: Then you had the Black Panther Movement.

You know which was like- They had its headquarters right across from where I used to live, and we would go over there in the morning before school, and they would feed us breakfast and stuff like that.

VIRGINIA ALI: Dr. King had a satellite office at 14th and U so whenever he came to town, he'd come into the Chili Bowl as well, and I had an opportunity to sit with him for a couple of minutes to hear about his dream.

GEORGE DEREK: By the time we get the late 1960's, DC is easily rivaling places like Newark and Chicago and New York, as a center of Black Power activism in the country.

JONATHAN HUTTO: The struggle is eternal, and the only thing that will make the power act is when those on the margins become a disruptive force that would not surrender until full freedom and full humanity is granted.

[Crowd Chanting] No justice!

No peace!

No justice!

No peace!

No... No... PROTESTER: How can you defend a system that works against your own people on purpose?!

PROTESTER 2: You were Black before you were a cop!

[loud noise of crowd] PROTESTERS: At least put the fist up.

But you won't.

But you won't.

'Cause your shaking your tail for Trump.

[chanting] PROTESTER: Let's go!

JONATHAN: As Dr. King stated decades ago, protest is nothing but the physical manifestation of failed government policy.

The masses are on the move because they've become beyond sick and tired of being sick and tired.

[Chanting] No justice, no peace.

No justice, no peace.

No justice, no peace.

[Protester] People are dying out here!

And y'all will stand back here and protect Trump?

You all should be ashamed of yourself!

Especially you!

I will spit on you!

Wait until I see you outside that badge, remember the face!

[yelling in background] PROTESTER: I hope you're ready for a long night!

[Go-Go music] YADDIYA: I mean, Go-Go music, to me, means DC.

Go-Go is Black culture in DC.

It's a product of Chocolate City.

That's the foundation for a lot of our upbringing.

It's in the DNA, you know what I mean?

Jazz culture you think of New Orleans.

Juke music culture you thinking Chicago.

You can think about whole lifestyle surrounding that, how people dress, how people talk, where people like to go and eat.

It's all cultural.

You understand?

So, Go-Go to me is the culture of DC.

[Trouble Funk Performing] Now, everybody here to boogie down, let me here you say "Yeah!"

[Crowd yells] Yeah!

Everybody here to boogie down, let me hear you say, "Hell Yeah!"

[Crowd yells] Hell yeah!

Everybody here to boogie down, let me hear you say, "Yeah!"

BIG TONY FISHER: It started back playing Go-Go in '78.

Go-Go back then was more of an atmosphere.

It's like "Hey man, where are you going tonight?"

"I'm going to the Go-Go, to see Chuck Brown & The Soul Searchers" [applause] RONALD: I mean man, Go-Go meant everything to me because it meant everything to my mother.

I remember my mother being in the room and shutting the door and just blasting Trouble Funk and EU in her room.

Those were the bands she always played.

Of course, I was gonna be just like her!

[Go-Go Music Beat] Give me the bah bah bah bah bah dop duh dah BIG G: The basketball court, right on 14th and Irving, they used to have all the bands on Saturday afternoons.

The bands would play, and we would all just be out there on our bikes and climbing on the fence in the basketball court, watching the bands play.

So I knew that's what I wanted to do.

I wanted to play in a- play in a Go-Go band.

[Go-Go music] SUGAR BEAR: It's what people in generations have heard for years and years and years.

It makes you proud to say "Yeah, this is our music".

ROBERT WHITE: Growing up, I always wanted to be one of the guys that Big G shouted out from the stage, "Oh, Rob White!"

But I wasn't a popular guy like that, I didn't roll with any crews!

[music] RONALD: My grandparents were very strict, I lived with them most of the time.

So I used to have to sneak out of the house to go to the Go-Go.

ROBERT: The first time that I snuck into a Go-Go, I was in junior high school.

You know, 14, 15 years old.

My friends were a decent bit older than me, and I remember walking in and one of my neighbors who I knew from the neighborhood, but didn't know well, he saw me at the door and just kinda gave me a puzzled look and I just said like that.

[Chuck Brown Singing] Hit it!

Hit it!

BIG TONY FISHER: There was something that Chuck Brown created.

One more time!

Hit it!

[Crowd] Ohhhhhhh!

BIG TONY FISHER: To go with the atmosphere, called a Go-Go beat.

ROCKSTEADY: It started out as a conga-driven sound where the congos and timbales and the drums was the dominant force.

DJ RICO: All of us in classrooms, we always banged on our desk.

You know what I'm saying?

[Go-Go Beat] [beatboxing] BIG TONY FISHER: And you just hold that there.

Know what I'm saying?

You hold it, and you got the congos beating.

SUGAR BEAR: The beat move, so when you move and you movin' and you groovin', you bobbing your head... BIG TONY FISHER: And then you got the cow bells too, "dink, dink, dink!"

SUGAR BEAR: It actually pulls you in.

BIG TONY FISHER: And it's grooving, everybody's grooving and... [drum beat playing] SUGAR BEAR: I can't even describe the feeling.

Seriously, it's unreal.

[Suttle Squad performing] [Repeating] Women lie.

Men lie.

Give it right there SUGAR BEAR: We ain't take no prisoners.

You've got 100% cranking, nothing like it man.

Baby!

[Go-Go music continues] Uh!

SWEET CHERIE: I'm telling you they just have a ball, we'll let them dance and then they just party, they start dropping it low.

ROCKSTEADY: Oh man, crank means... Everybody just having fun, man.

When you see a band that's cranking, you can look at the whole entire band and everybody's smiling.

DJ RICO: You'll see that grit come across their face...

The drummer all up into it like this.

[Go-Go playing] And the congo player, you know, just getting it.

Here we go!

Well, its loud in here!

ANDRE JOHNSON: That's the pocket right there.

Got the whole club going loud in here !

It's wild in here.

BIG TONY FISHER: That was the real magic of Go-Go.

That's why they called it Go-Go, it just keep going, and going and going.

I'm an animal.

Yes, I'm an animal!

ROCKSTEADY: We was playing for like two hours straight without stopping.

I'm an animal.

Yes, I'm an animal!

ANDRE: Just that beat going, and people would love it.

Baby!

Baby!

RONALD: There's nothing like saying "You created something."

It's like it's in your blood.

You know, it's in your DNA.

Baby!

[loud voices talking] [Protesters chanting] No justice, no peace!

No justice, no peace!

No justice, no peace!

PROTESTER: You still ain't listening!

How dare you, just sitting back there, - You ain't doing but getting paid pig!

- He not only died, he got killed!

[Protesters chanting] No justice, no peace.

- We're good.

But we've had enough!

We've had enough!

[Protesters chanting] Black Lives Matter!

Black Lives Matter!

- Stop throwing stuff!

Stand with me!

Stand with me!

If you stand with me, he will stand with me.

If he stands with us, he will stand with us.

- What you doing?!

Get your hands off me!

- But you're standing against me!

[background shouting, angry voices] [gates crashing] [loud voices shouting] - Put your hands up.

Put your hands up.

Stop.

Stop, ya'll.

Stop, stop, stop.

Hold up!

Hold up!

- I know.

I know.

Stop, stop.

I get it, I get it, put your hands up.

You gotta stop.

- Put your hands up, please.

Put your hands up!

Stop!

-Be peaceful!

Peaceful!

-Put your hands up please.

- Hands up!

[Crowd] Don't shoot!

[Chanting] Hands up!

Don't shoot!

[drumming] TERRENCE ODOM: DC was known historically as the "Chocolate City," but increasingly over the years, we're noticing that the African American population is getting pushed further and further out.

[birds chirping] SABIYHA PRINCE: For me, the definition of gentrification is what happens in urban areas that have been marginalized and neglected over a significant period of time.

And then you have a shift where real estate speculation occurs, and people take an interest in this community and an influx of resources begin to get poured into that community, Followed by the people who have access to those resources.

GEORGE DEREK: Look, the city used to be 73% African American.

It's now 46% African American.

That's a very fundamental change.

There's a clearly worn strategy.

You take these places that are very poor, you buy cheap, you kick all the poor people out.

[light thump] You fix it up, you move what we used to call yuppies or young professionals in.

JASON RICHARDSON: Especially following 9/11, you saw a lot of investment in DC as federal spending increased.

That brought in a lot of new people, and at the same time, you had a city that was eager to attract development.

[sirens in background] ROBERT WHITE: You have to hold the policy makers accountable.

DC really went broke and had to figure out a way to increase our tax revenues.

Increasing the average salary of residency or attracting people with higher salaries was a deliberate policy decision.

And we did need more tax revenue because we have so many people with high needs in the city.

But you also have to be very conscious of the fact that attracting people with higher incomes will start to put a downward pressure on people with more limited incomes, and so you have to create some stop gap and some safety nets to help those people.

And that's I think where we fell short.

One kind of backlash is that you will start to have a sort of a domino effect, and next thing you know, a sort of a domino effect, and next thing you know, neighborhood after neighborhood after neighborhood now has become out of the price range for so many African Americans.

JONATHAN HUTTO: They pushed out indigenous Washingtonians, it changed the culture to the point where Shaw doesn't look like the Shaw that I remember.

It doesn't look like the Le Droit Park that I remember.

Petworth doesn't look like the Petworth that I remember.

DJ RICO: You got buildings that's just coming up out of nowhere.

But with these buildings, you have a lot of homes that's been taken away from people that's been living in these neighborhoods for over 30 years.

You go from paying $875 or maybe $1300 to somebody telling you, "Oh, well, this is gonna cost $2750."

[record scratch] What?

I was just paying, you know what I'm saying, barely $800.

JASON: I don't think it means arguing that economic investment is bad.

But do the incumbent residents have the option to stay and get all the benefits from that investment, or are they being pushed out and replaced by incoming residents who are gonna take advantage of all of that?

And it looks like in most areas, we're seeing the former.

[horns and trumpet music] SABIYHA: We are on U Street, the historic U Street.

How you doing?

Thank you, brother.

Known as Black Broadway, the heart of Chocolate City.

This was an area that was um, perhaps like 80% African American if not more, and it's currently hovering below 40.

People have accused developers of taking on the names of local celebrities.

That is a condo using the name of DC native Duke Ellington.

These are people that are pioneers in African American culture, and these spaces are not necessarily as welcome for African Americans.

You're looking up at gleaming condominiums, which are not cheap to purchase or rent, and you're also looking at groupings of African American men that are very unwell.

That are very down and out, and that are struggling with addiction.

And I just wonder where the resources are for them.

And I understand it's not an easy problem to solve, but it's almost like they're invisible.

There's a sense that what was here before is completely disposable, that the past doesn't matter, and that the people don't matter.

A friend of mine said she was walking behind a woman and her daughter, and they looked up at one of those buildings, and the little girl said something about "Oh, mommy, look at this."

And she said, "Come on, baby.

That's not for us."

[buzzing] [metal pinging] - Ahh!

Mass incarceration.

- Help me.

- Health care.

Education is bad.

- Half of y'all dumb, and half of y'all evil.

And I don't know which one is worse.

[Explosions, fire-crackers] - Economic deprivation!

[explosions] [metal pinging] [crowd noises] [metal pinging] [rattling of gate] [fire-crackers] [explosions] JONATHAN: What you're seeing is the breakdown of trust in government to actually heal the wounds of the people.

Until we can get that for the masses of our people, there's gonna be no peace in America.

NEWS ANCHOR: But it does appear that St. John's Church is on fire.

And, this is awful.

[alarm bells ringing] JOURNALIST: Why are you out here right now?

PROTESTER: 'Cause, man.

This is a lot of pain I got right in here.

I can't explain, I don't know what to do about it.

[sound of alarms fade] ROBERT: I get angry when the media and frankly even local officials focus on the outliers, the people causing damage, the people who are doing something frankly, other than protesting.

So, you know, why are we focusing on you know, people who are vandalizing and those aren't the protesters.

That's a completely different issue that should be addressed differently.

So, we got to be very clear about why people are in the streets, we have to ask them we have to ask ourselves, what is it that people are unhappy about?

And I think in a democracy, your goal can't be to crush the protest.

Your goal has to be to understand where this rage and frustration is coming from.

[melancholic music] IBIJOKE AKINBOWALE: When we think about gentrification many folks only think about that as it pertains to home-ownership but that means the loss of business, that means the loss of property.

Rents don't just increase for living purposes, but rents have increased at places that have been standardly affordable to do business and have priced folks out.

DICKIE SHANNON: I came to Washington in 1963.

Have been here ever since.

[background conversation] GUY: Who needs a sandwich?

Who needs a sandwich?

Anyone need a sandwich?

[talking in background] What d'you have?

[background conversation] [chatter] - What we got?

- The line is out of line.

CUSTOMER: Still ain't ready yet?

DICKIE: We'll send a waiter out to tell you your table's ready.

WOMAN: I've been coming to this line since I was a little girl.

EMPLOYEE: This is my grandfather's spot.

YOUNG MAN: I remember standing in line with my father, man.

He'd buy one sandwich.

Me and two brothers, eating it, man.

EMPLOYEE: I've been in here, in and out, since I was a little kid.

It helped me keep myself out of trouble.

It gave me something to do.

And I appreciate it.

And I know that people appreciate it because it's good food.

They get their bang for their buck, baby.

WOMAN 2: All right, my baby.

CUSTOMER 2: Appreciate it.

WOMAN 2: No problem.

CUSTOMER: All right, thank you.

Y'all be good.

DICKIE: They call it, "gentrification."

I call it cultural genocide.

Put yourself in a 6, 7 or 8-year-old child's place.

You know, they very seldom get a chance to go into a Black business and see how it functions.

[background conversation] EMPLOYEE: How you doing?

One sandwich.

WOMAN 3: Thank you DICKIE: You're welcome.

Take care.

Before you had a variety of stores.

You had clothing stores, supermarkets, nightclub, hardware stores, women's clothing, men's clothing.

-Thanks, sir.

I appreciate you.

WOMAN 4: Ain't no more potato salad?

EMPLOYEE 2: Ain't no sides and all of that.

Just fish.

- Fish only!

Stand right there.

IBIJOKE: I mean going up and down 8th Street, it used to be riddled with local faces that live in the communities and also work and employ others in the community as well.

WOMAN EMPLOYEE: Anybody else just want fish, by itself?

How many?

Dickie gave me the chance of a lifetime to be something more than I thought I was.

He taught me how to want to run my own business, being a manager, to have the love for the customers like they had for him.

Dickie has my loyalty for the rest of my life.

- Any more ketchup?

EMPLOYEE: Nope.

CUSTOMER: Nowhere?

EMPLOYEE: Nope.

- Give me the mambo sauce then.

DICKIE: Now you got Whole Foods and Walmart.

IBIJOKE: Tequila bar.

ANDRE: Tanning salon.

JONATHAN: Starbucks.

IBIJOKE: Smoothie shacks.

ANDRE: High dollar donut shop.

DICKIE: So, you make a business decision.

You have to live with it.

[Go-Go music] - So where can we get fish from now?

EMPLOYEE: No, right there.

Off of Andrews Air Force Base.

- In Maryland?

- How am I gonna get a bus out there?

GIRL: You can Uber.

WOMAN 5: That's too far.

DICKIE: Yeah, that's too far.

WOMAN 5: It is.

SABIYHA: It feeds an overall sense of alienation to see these landmark businesses kind of disappear, right?

Because people like to eat the kind of food that's associated with their culture.

If you no longer have access to that, then that's a loss.

EMPLOYEE: Yeah.

We closed.

EMPLOYEE: We sorry, we closed, sir!

Bye-bye, have a good night!

EMPLOYEE: Ain't no more fish.

No more fish.

Closed!

EMPLOYEE: You want fish?

5601 Allen Town Road.

GEORGE DEREK: You know, if you look at the centers of gentrification in the city today, they are the centers of the revolt in 1968.

[sad music] VIRGINA ALI: Someone just rushed into the door that evening and said, "Dr. King has been shot."

Well, of course, we don't believe that.

Not our beloved, non-violent leader; couldn't possibly be.

SABIYHA: After Dr. King was assassinated, you had uprisings.

And they occurred in a number of key corridors.

The H Street corridor being one in North East, the U Street corridor in the historic Black area.

VIRGINA ALI: Sadness turned to frustration, and frustration to anger, and the uprising began.

Riots took place.

[jazz music] GEORGE DEREK: It is tremendously destructive.

Tremendous fire damage on all of the business corridors.

SABIYHA: I can remember just being afraid, because I was about nine years old then.

I remember the smell of smoke, I remember the tanks.

And I just remember that sense of danger and unsurety.

But to see a person cut down in that way, the pent-up anger, the grief, which people may not know how to express or how to channel that energy.

And you also have to put it in context of all the other people that had been assassinated leading up to that, the Medgar Evers, the Malcolm X's, and the so many others.

This is all a part of the context of what happens when people are disenfranchised and pushed to the side.

VIRGINIA ALI: After it was over, the businesses didn't reopen.

SABIYHA: It destroyed a significant amount of property, and it also demonized that community, as a community that you cannot invest in.

GEORGE DEREK: The federal government, city government simply did not reinvest.

The people who were left were disproportionately poor, and what you had was a sort of investment desert where money just did not come in for a solid 'nother 30 years until young white people began to return to these neighborhoods about 40 years later.

What will be, will be.

Should we relive the past?

Make it last?

Why can't we see?

What will be, will be... WORKER: See some of the other ones you could you could just put it on.

Some of it you can just take it off, straight up.

Once you put it on, you let it sit for a minute, and it'll come right up.

And then some of the stuff...

It's gonna take a minute.

[drilling and hammering] PROTEST LEADER: I'm here today, and as most of you are too, because I'm tired.

I'm tired of our African American men... PROTESTER: And women.

And children.

PROTEST LEADER: And women and children being racially profiled, and victims of police brutality.

[clapping] I know you all saw the tweet where President Trump said- called us thugs. He called our movement, "A movement of thugs."

[Protesters grumble] PROTEST LEADER: Today, we stand as a group of people, as a group of educated people, not thugs!

- Thank you!

[applause] PROTEST LEADER: We are the face of the movement!

[Protesters chanting] Black Lives Matter!

Black Lives Matter!

Black Lives Matter!

Black Lives Matter!

TERRENCE ODOM: Who's streets?

[Protesters] Our streets!

TERRENCE: Who's streets?

[Protesters] Our streets!

Peaceful protest!

Peaceful protest!

TERRENCE ODOM: There's really a sense of community, there's a sense of nurturement.

Everybody that is participating, is willing to help the person beside them.

[Crowd chanting] Hey-hey, Ho-ho TERRENCE ODOM: I could get sick out here protesting, we're close.

We're not social distancing.

But my people are suffering people are beating, screaming, bleeding in the streets.

I just felt like it was my duty to step up to the plate.

[Go-Go playing] Drop that beat, let it go!

[Protesters] We are the children!

We are the children!

Mighty, mighty, children.

Mighty, mighty, children.

What do we want?

Justice!

When do we want it?

Now!

TERRENCE ODOM: Justice for Breonna Taylor.

Justice for George Floyd.

- Say their names!

TERRENCE ODOM: Brian Easley.

- Say their names!

TERRENCE: Sandra Bland.

- Say their names!

TERRENCE: Breonna Taylor!

- Say their names!

TERRENCE: Breonna Taylor!

Say their names!

TERRENCE: Breonna Taylor!

Say their names!

[Chanting] Don't shoot!

Don't shoot!

Don't shoot!

Don't shoot!

PROTESTOR: If somebody said that they can't breathe, believe it.

[Protesters chanting] No justice, no peace!

No justice, no peace!

No justice, no peace!

[Crowd cheering] PROTEST SPEAKER: In 2020, there are those who reside in this White House who would dismiss this movement for Black lives as a riot.

PROTESTER: Not today!

[Protester speaker] This is not a riot!

[applause] [Crowd chanting] Who do you protect?

Who do you protect?

Who do you protect?

Who do you protect?

Who do you protect?

Who do you protect?

Who do you protect?

Who do you protect?

[fading out] - We got here around 4:30 in the afternoon, and I had no idea that I would still be here at 9:30pm.

But I've had a hard time leaving to be honest, because although I am just one person, I feel like everyone being here mattered.

And I definitely wanted my children to see what's going on in this country and also to be a part of hopefully a change in this country.

[helicopter blades whirring] - The anger is what makes the difference.

If you look in any history book, the riots, the protests, they're what make a difference.

They're what change the regime.

They're what change the laws.

So we're doing what we're supposed to be doing out here.

[Go-Go playing] Come on Manny!

Hey!

Come on Sandy!

Hey!

Come on Lee!

NATALIE HOPKINSON: That corner is the touchstone, that's how I know that I'm in the Chocolate City.

[Go-Go plays] NATALIE HOPKINSON: With all of the widespread gentrification, whitewashing, whatever else was happening, you know it was still Chocolate City because you can still hear that music on that corner of that store.

[Go-Go playing] ANDRE JOHNSON: DC has maybe three or four venues that we can perform in now.

Where 20 or 30 years ago, there had to be 20 or 30 venues.

SUGAR BEAR: It's frustrating cause, you know you can't go back there and visit, there's nothing there or the whole community is changed.

It's gone.

If you would go down now you will never see it.

But I know what was there.

ROCKSTEADY: U Street and Florida Avenue, and Georgia Avenue was filled with clubs, but unfortunately, it's not accessible to the Go-Go bands.

BIG TONY FISHER: They definitely tried to mute Go-Go.

There was a big deal about the music that they've been playing like for years.

Over here off of Florida Avenue, this little Metro place, and guys sells all kinds of Go-Go music.

That's like another staple of DC.

[Mental Attraction playing] He's heating up!

-I'm Donald Campbell.

I've been here at this store since June of 1995.

What I wanted to do, I wanted to keep our music alive so I would play music outside every day.

And it would only be local Go-Go artists.

Top five in Go-Go right now!

For y'all that don't know!

Hey... RONALD MOTEN: People who came in that building right there, that beautiful building, basically felt like our music was noise.

So they tried to stop the music and culture at the expense of the people right.

So we became collateral damage of people who thought they were entitled to come and stop our culture.

[Go-Go playing] DJ: We live from the back of the store!

Broadcasting live from 7th and Florida.

Y'all know what corner this is!

The store that started the entire Don't Mute DC movement.

[Chuck Brown playing] DON CAMPBELL: They sent the police department out here maybe 100 times.

They sent the fire department out here maybe 10 times.

They didn't get the results they wanted.

So they decided to go over those heads and they went directly to T-Mobile.

Well, I didn't want to lose my contract, so I cut the music off.

[music cuts-off] DJ RICO: And it made me mad.

You come to DC, Maryland or Virginia, what we call the DMV, and talk about turning Go-Go music off?

Man, you're tripping.

NATALIE: I was apoplectic.

Honestly, this is one of the most violent things that you can do, is to silence this corner.

RONALD: Thats- We made U Street, you know?

When nobody wanted to be here, we started playing this music and it created a life.

NATALIE: We ended up getting 80,000 signatures from something like 94 countries around the world.

[Go-Go playing] Ahhh!!

YADDIYA: I just saw what happened and I felt compelled to take action.

I was talking to my boy Wayne, and I was like, Man, you thinks Man, you thinks we need to do another rally, huh? He was like, "Yeah.

", I was like Man we need to do it tomorrow. he's like, "man yeah".

Tell everybody to come out, tell a friend to tell a friend.

Next thing you know, everything just started blowing up from there.

NEWSCASTER: You were on fire last night, packed with thousands of people out demonstrating in support of the Don't Mute DC movement.

DJ RICO: The street at the Go-Go, where bands was coming out, and performing and giving shows, that was amazing.

NEWSCASTER: Let's talk about the demonstration... YADDIYA: I didn't even know fully what I was doing or the capacity,you know, how grand it would get.

NEWSCASTER: Talk about the implications and the effects of gentrification in the city.

YADDIYA: We're using the Go-Go music as the glue, and we're creating a platform, which are these rallies for people to come and have their voices heard and make the spectacle.

NEWSCASTER: I want to take the next 50 seconds to talk about the growing Don't Mute DC movement.

Today, organizers went back to where it all started, the Metro PCS store on 7th and Florida.

NEWSCASTER: Organizers say they don't want DC to be muted, and they also don't want its historic African American neighborhoods to be forgotten.

BIG TONY FISHER: This Go-Go music thing is something that we all really treasure.

You can take a lot of stuff away from us.

You're not gonna take the Go-Go.

RONALD: We had all these people respond just like that.

And then T-Mobile cut the music back on.

Heyyyy BIG TONY FISHER: I think it was right then and there, when they realized the power of Go-Go.

And that was like a history changing moment.

RONALD: It's a small victory of a war that we're trying to win.

Look here!

Come on.

You can't stop us, you know why, we don't die we just multiply.

You can't stop us, you know why, and we don't die we just multiply.

You can't stop us, you know why, and we don't die we just multiply.

[birds chirping] [Go-Go playing softly in background] PROTESTER: This is what democracy looks like!

[crowd] This is what democracy looks like!

PROTESTER: This is what democracy looks like!

[crowd] This is what democracy looks like!

PROTESTER: This is what democracy looks like!

[crowd] This is what democracy looks like!

[Chanting] Hands up!

Don't shoot!

Hands up!

Don't shoot!

- They can't stop us.

We're too good together.

Teamwork made the dream work, nothing better.

[Crowd] Don't shoot!

Hands up!

Don't shoot!

YADDIYA: Let me see you put your fists in the sky right now.

This is powerful.

Give y'all selves a hand for coming out here, man.

Standing up for Black lives.

We gonna march our ass down to 16th street and we gonna head to the new Black Lives Matter Plaza.

Let me hear you make some noise for the new Black Lives Matter Plaza.

[Suttle Squad performing] No justice, no peace!

George Floyd.

No justice, no peace!

YADDIYA: Go-Go has a power, period.

There's power in Go-Go, period.

It's about what you use the power for.

Heyyyy!

As far as actually moving people and getting people engaged, music is the universal language, right?

So let's use that as a tool to get a disenfranchised community more active again.

NATALIE: These are all the things, that George Floyd protests, COVID, and the disparities.

There are all these things in our world that are conspiring to mute Black people.

What a part of the rallies have been doing is it's about using your bodies to make sure that you're there, that you have a physical presence, you're not erased, you're seen and also that you're heard.

Placement and displacement is a recurring motif for Black people all over the world.

We're always looking for a home.

We're looking for somewhere that we can relax, where we don't have to think about being oppressed, thinking about whether somebody's going to shoot you, thinking about being told you're in the wrong place.

One of the places is in our music and in our culture and in our rituals.

So, whatever else might be happening, you're home in that moment.

You're right where you should be.

[Backyard Band Performing] Sometimes in our lives, we all have pain.

We all have sorrow.

SUGAR BEAR: It was a great experience for me to see people, especially with this pandemic we've been in now, you see the people will still come out.

... still have tomorrow.

Lean on me.

BIG G: I saw Caucasian, Indian, Chinese.

Man, it blew my mind.

And for those people to walk with us, they followed us the whole time, all the way back up.

That hit me in a special part of my heart.

...somebody to lean on.

[song changes] -This for real this time!

[Go-Go music] BIG G: We gotta do better, man.

We've been on the back burner for years and we're still on the back burner.

But now we're a little bit more hip and we're older, so we know what we gotta do, who we gotta touch.

YADDIYA: After the first rally I saw the support, and I was like, "We can't just stop, this is a moment.

It's a movement, you gotta keep it going."

[Sugar Bear Performing] Hey, Donald Trump!

[whistle blown hard] What ya gonna do about it?

SUGAR BEAR: I want everyone to sing that so Trump can hear!

Sing it!

[Drums] GEORGE DEREK: Here you have groups of DC residents using the culture to make a place for themselves within DC politics.

ROBERT: Go-Go has definitely been the music of the movement here in DC.

They come out to one of these rallies, they feel the energy and electricity.

They see the people really for who they are, for real people with real culture and a real history in the city.

NATALIE: Go-Go has always been a way for us to say, We're here, we exist, look at us.

We're living, we're thriving, we're connecting.

We're doing the rituals and the cultural traditions that our ancestors have been doing for thousands of years.

It is music of the movement, but it's not just this movement, it's just our movement as Black people.

Keep the movement with the beat!

RONALD: Go-Go is not a trick, it's not a game, it's us.

The drum was always the power that kept us going.

It magnified our voices.

It resonates with the people.

We just breathing in the spirit of our ancestors and we putting it out through our heart, our soul, and the passion that we have for our city.

We have the power if we use it.

[Go-Go music starts playing] PROTESTER: One, two, three.

[crowd screams] Hallelujah!

[crowd sings] I once was lost, but now I'm found.

Was blind, but now I see.

[in praise] Hallelujah, Hallelujah, [crowd sings] Hallelujah, Hallelujah , Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah [Go-Go music]