The 1930s, 40s, and 50s in Charleston- before the decline in mining jobs caused many African Americans to leave Kanawha County- those years were electric with music that could be found throughout the city on almost any night of the week. That’s what Hubert “Rabbit” Jones remembers.
Jones made his living as an accountant, but his love was playing improv jazz or the blues with so many of musicians who passed through the capital city. Back then, segregation was still officially law, but in Charleston’s night clubs, blacks and whites would often mingle. Jones played upright bass at many of the nightclubs in town, including many of the white bars, where officially, white people were not supposed to dance to music that was being performed by black musicians. “And of course sometimes the policemen would stop them and sometimes they wouldn’t. And then following the dances some of the whites wanted to come over to the triangle district for the rest of the night, listening to and dancing to black music.”
Credit Courtesy of the W.Va. State Archives, Bernidean Brown Collection
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Workers outside the Ferguson Theater, 1939.
By “the triangle district”, Jones is referring to The Block, a neighborhood in downtown Charleston that once flourished with many black owned businesses. Today, most of what can be found in The Block is a post office, and an interstate exit. both of which were built right on top of this once vibrant and ethnically diverse community.
Credit Credit courtesy of C.H. James III
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The first C.H. James Produce Company was located in downtown Charleston on Summers Street
Thursday evening, Jones will discuss his role in some of that community’s history. His lecture will take place at 6:00 P M in at the Culture Center Archives and History Museum on the Capitol Complex in Charleston.
Music in this story was by King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band, playing “Just Gone”, courtesy of WFMU.
In Charleston, those who grew up during segregation remember a tight knit community in the downtown neighborhood known as The Block. During the 30’s and 40’s Barbara Hicks Lacy grew up in this neighborhood, and she’s one of the remaining residents who vividly recalls The Block, which today has all but disappeared. The West Virginia Center for African-American Culture and Arts recently invited her to share her story at the West Virginia State Archives.
When she was a kid, Lacy’s best friend, named Baby Sue, was white, and so they weren’t allowed to attend the same school.
The Block was full of characters, and during segregation Lacy saw many well to do black tourists and musicians who came through her neighborhood. Lacy worked at her father’s restaurant The Block Cafe.
“Particularly when the rhythm and blues people were coming to town and there was going to be a dance.”
She explained that she got to meet a lot of these people because the restaurants in The Block was the only place where non-whites were allowed to eat. And they had to stay at the Ferguson or the Brown hotel.
Here, it was safe for children to roam around the neighborhood together.
She told one story about a bar, owned by Mr. Pin. She doesn’t think her mother ever found out that as a little kid she’d stop by Mr. Pin’s bar to perform a song or two. She had it in her mind that she was an undiscovered Shirley Temple.
“I’d go in, and he’d sit me on the bar, and I’d sing ‘Night Time is the Right Time’. Don’t laugh, it was for a quarter!”
That quarter was usually spent down the street, at the Ferguson Theater, where Lacy spent almost every afternoon after school watching movies.
“It didn’t cost but a dime. And popcorn was a dime. And you could get a drink for a nickel. So if you had a quarter, you were home free. That’s what we did, all the kids in the neighborhood. We went to the movie everyday.”
Credit Courtesy of the West Virginia State Archives, James Randal collection
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The Ferguson Hotel
But these movies were basically the same films that were shown at the white theater. Separated by a few blocks, during segregation, downtown Charleston essentially was split into two sides, roughly along Washington Street. Charleston’s West Side was another neighborhood where black businesses thrived during segregation.
Although there were three white businesses within Lacy’s neighborhood, The Block was predominantly occupied by non-whites. Syrian, Greek, and Italian families lived here too. Garnet High School was the local black school, about a block away from Lacy’s father’s cafe.
As Lacy described the people she remembers, like Flat Tire the barber, Mable Cook the beautician, and Richard Sonders, the usher at the Ferguson Theater, they all seemed like vivid characters out of a great novel. Its pages were written on the side alleys and brick streets off Shrewsbury Street, where Barbara Hicks Lacy grew up. Though the buildings and people she remembers are mostly all gone, the story has not been erased.
Ms. Lacy’s talk was part of a series called African American Life in Charleston: A Personal Perspective. The series wraps up this Thursday as the fourth speaker, James Estes, recalls his own own memories. The event will be at 6:00 at the West Virginia State Archives and History Library.
The Block Historical District is a section of Charleston that was once the heart of the African American community. As part of a project to resurrect some of the history of this neighborhood, the West Virginia Center for African American Art and Culture has organized a series of lectures. About 60 people attended the second of these talks last week.
Charles James III is the fourth generation in his family to own and operate one of the oldest family-owned businesses in the United States, the James company. James said that he remembers being invited to the local country club in the late 80’s. But his father in an earlier generation was not asked to join until the 80’s.
“It was a product of the times. I mean, no blacks were in country clubs. But it’s interesting because they knew him as a businessman. They bought and they sold from each other. But at some point the line was drawn, where the social life took over,” James said at the talk last Thursday.
In 1963, Ebony Magazine featured an article about the James Produce Company, with a subheading that read “Firm Has White Clients.” It didn’t just have white clients-most of the people who dealt with the James Company were white.
Credit courtesy of C.H. James III
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Ebony Magazine article, featuring the James Produce Company, in 1963.
James said that it was the quality of the products they sold that motivated these customers to cross racial lines.
“And that’s why I thought they must have been really shrewd business people, cause they were not part of the good old boy network. But the reason they built that business was through price, quality and service. They said, “You know Jim, we’ll play golf on Sunday, but I’m buying my produce from Charlie James.”
Also in 1963, his grandfather, who had campaigned for JFK, was invited to the White House for a state dinner. A generation earlier, his great-grandfather exchanged letters with President Teddy Roosevelt, who admired James and the business that he had started from the ground up. It began in 1883 when C.H. James I moved to West Virginia from Ohio and began selling goods from a mule cart, trading with coal miners. The miners had no cash, only scrip money. So he traded goods in exchange for produce that they could grow.
His son, E.L. James, would later say, “you have to diversify to survive.”
Just before the 1929 stock market crash, the company went bankrupt. But the family was able to pick up the pieces and begin again, opening a small outlet store at Charleston’s original farmers’ market on Patrick Street, and the company reorganized under the name James Produce Co.
Before the James family came to West Virginia they were involved in helping to organize part of the underground railroad in Ohio.
Credit Roxy Todd
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Credit C.H. James III
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The James Produce Company operated their second business on Virginia and Park St. on Charleston’s West Side.
Elliot Hicks, an African American who grew up in the West Side of Charleston, says all of these stories of his community should be remembered and talked about.
“And Charleston was an enabling community at that time. We need to see how we can succeed by looking back at history. Knowing history is important,” said Hicks.
The once diverse neighborhood known as The Block had many historic buildings that were lost in the 1960’s due to urban renewal and interstate expansion. Today, there are just a few historical buildings from The Block that remain, five of which are listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Credit courtesy of C.H. James III
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C.H. James I, the speaker’s great-grandfather, founded the family business in 1883.
This year, the West Virginia Center for African American Art and Culture placed historical markers downtown to mark The Block. Much of that history lies hidden beneath the interstate, but the memories are still around.
The Block Speaker Series is another effort to preserve the almost erased history. The third of these events will take place on August 28th at the Culture Center Archives and History.
