Browse Items (24 total)

This cartoon appeared in the November 2, 1971 issue of the Florida Sentinel Bulletin, an African American newspaper in Tampa. The artist’s depiction of an African American family watching a white family on television highlights the political…

The African American community in Gainesville was restricted to a small area on the east side of town. The Cotton Club, named after the famous nightclub in Harlem, was the entertainment center of Gainesville’s African American community. Many stops…

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…

Though much of the Circuit remained “underground” throughout the 1960s and 1970s, national and international artists often toured the larger stops in Florida. This promotional billboard advertised an Aretha Franklin performance in Miami’s Overtown…

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…

Agriculture and other industries brought thousands of laborers to South Florida every year. Alan Lomax recorded Booker T. Sapps in Belle Glade in 1935. Sapps and other local musicians worked in the citrus fields. They entertained other farmworkers…

Library of Congress folklorist Alan Lomax discovered Booker T. Sapps in Belle Glade, Florida. Sapps and other musicians worked the citrus fields in Belle Glade and entertained other farmworkers during their off hours. Working-class audiences across…

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…

On July 30, 1967, a confrontation between police and two African American men at a popular night spot in Riviera Beach escalated to a full-scale riot. The riot lasted through the night, and a local lumber company was set ablaze. Local leaders called…

Performance and politics meet in two ways in this 1971 photo, as “Daddy Twofoot” performs for a political rally crowd outside of the Red Bird Café in Tallahassee’s Frenchtown neighborhood. By the 1970s, many artists on the Circuit were overtly…