An Archaeology Of Jazz: Urban And Racial Identity At The Blue Bird Inn, Detroit
Author(s): C. Lorin Brace VI
Year: 2016
Summary
The postwar period was a transformative time for African American communities in Detroit. Mass migrations of African Americans from the south and shifts in the racial boundaries between neighborhoods led to dramatic changes in the urban makeup of the city. Located at the center of one such neighborhood in Detroit’s Westside was the Blue Bird Inn, one of the most important jazz clubs in the city as well as a social hub for the community. The Blue Bird rose to prominence in the late 1940s with the shift to bebop jazz, paralleling the changes in urban racial dynamics occurring in the neighborhood at the time. This paper explores changes in African American urban identity during this period as seen through archaeological work done at the Blue Bird Inn.
Cite this Record
An Archaeology Of Jazz: Urban And Racial Identity At The Blue Bird Inn, Detroit. C. Lorin Brace VI. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, Washington, D.C. 2016 ( tDAR id: 434494)
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Keywords
General
Detroit
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Jazz
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Urban
Geographic Keywords
North America
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United States of America
Temporal Keywords
20th Century
Spatial Coverage
min long: -129.199; min lat: 24.495 ; max long: -66.973; max lat: 49.359 ;
Individual & Institutional Roles
Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology
Record Identifiers
PaperId(s): 316