Browse Items (24 total)

Music on the Southern Circuit returned to the grittier roots of the blues with eclectic new styles like boogie-woogie and rhythm & blues in the 1950s. African American popular musicians in the 1950s expressed a new, aggressive stance in keeping with…

Internationally renowned performers toured the Circuit from the 1930s until the 1970s. Clubs in the Jim Crow South often catered to diverse audiences at the peak of jazz’s popularity in the 1940s. This image of Cab Calloway was taken in the Clover…

The Two Spot was one of the largest and most unique stops on the Circuit. This aerial view from the 1940s or 1950s depicts the entertainment complex’s spacious dance hall, annex, cabins, and racetrack. Spaces like this offered numerous opportunities…

This well-appointed bar in the Two Spot nightclub served dancers, musicians, and partygoers at social events in Jacksonville’s 45th & Moncrief neighborhood. The exceptionally large Two Spot Club was an ideal performance and gathering space for this…

The Two Spot nightclub in Jacksonville’s 45th & Moncrief neighborhood was home to a large dance hall, tables for small and large groups on two levels, and a luxurious soda fountain. Visitors to the club could also rent a cabin on the grounds or watch…

African American performers created Dixieland jazz from the blues and ragtime in the early twentieth century. This 1982 recording of jazz pioneer Ida Goodson demonstrates a transitional style between traditional blues and the more polished jazz style…

The African American neighborhood centered on West 45th St. and Moncrief Road in Jacksonville was an enclave of segregation on the outskirts of the city established in the late nineteenth century. The Two Spot, pictured here in the 1940s, hosted…

African American businesses and homes in Jacksonville were restricted to segregated districts within the city. The Knights of Pythias Hall, depicted in this 1943 photograph, formed the center of Jacksonville’s LaVilla neighborhood. Known as the…

The widespread popularity of big band jazz allowed Americans in some cities in the 1920s and 1930s to cross racial boundaries and enjoy the music together. Southern cities were not as permissive as northern cities, but the large military presence in…

The blues allowed performers and audiences to criticize racial oppression, working conditions, and other aspects of life in the South. This lyric fragment recorded by Zora Neale Hurston displays a common form of social criticism in blues lyrics.…