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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…

The Circuit and politics were linked in African American communities and existed side-by-side on newspaper pages. Comedians performed regularly on the Circuit. This ad promotes comedian Slappy White, who later appeared on Sanford and Son and other…

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…

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.…