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.