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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…

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…

Miami’s business and political elite developed “slum clearance” plans during the 1930s designed to remove the city’s African American population beyond the city limits. While New Deal housing projects created new segregated areas in Dade County in…

The Lenape Bar was a LaVilla hotspot in Jacksonville between the 1920s and 1940s. It hosted performances by Ray Charles and other important artists who toured Florida between the 1920s and 1950s. Jazz artists who performed at the Ritz Theatre or…