Page 53 - Blues Festival Guide Magazine 2019

Black musicians to congregate and socialize after gigs, it was
also a place for Black musicians to rent rooms when gigging in
town. Jelly Roll Morton lived in one of the rooms for a time.
In the South, there were designated homes that housed not
only traveling musicians, but African American workers as well.
Places like this wouldn’t be in the Green Book because they
were off the radar and in rural communities, only known by
those who traveled those roads. If you’re familiar with how the
NAACP sent representatives to different cities to monitor court
cases, then you’d also remember that they had volunteers who
allowed representatives or those facing the legal system, to stay
in their homes. Again, to ensure the safety of the volunteers, this
information wouldn’t be published in a book.
Some of the homes that rented rooms to traveling bluesmen
were known as “Hot Suppers.” These were Black institutions that
gave a form of escape to sharecroppers, allowing them to enjoy
themselves away from white people. Documentation shows
they began in the late 1800s, later to become known as liquor

efficient. This led to a new industry where African American blues
musicians traveled around the South and Midwest for gigs and
recording sessions, usually with weapons. They slept in the homes
of African Americans who rented out rooms to traveling musicians,
none which were found in the Green Book. It was shared through
word of mouth.
Michael Dolphin, the son of the legendary music mogul John
Dolphin (owner and operator of Dolphins of Hollywood on Central
Avenue in Los Angeles), shares, “During this time, bluesmen
stayed either with friends or relatives, and the promoters would
also guarantee housing because safety was always a concern.”
Traveling was troublesome, so there were kinfolk networks that
musicians were familiar with. If they didn’t know the “who” or
“where” prior to their excursion, they were given instructions
on who to look for and where to find them upon arrival. The
kinfolk community system has been a major part of the African
American community since slavery, abolition and the underground
railroad. Considering that the majority of the country blues artists
traveling during this time either started on a plantation or were
sharecroppers, this system wasn’t foreign to them.
In 1904, the New Amsterdam Musical Association, which
was the first African American musician’s union in America, was
established. Now operating as a nonprofit with landmark status,
the organization has been a staple for the African American
music scene and community since purchasing a Harlem Bobby Rush, “King of the Chitlin Circuit,” experienced his own difficulties traveling and
Brownstone in 1922. This location was not only a speakeasy for performing gigs. Photo courtesy of BluEsoterica Archives

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