Within the velvet-appointed sleeping carriages, African American porters shined the musicians' shoes, nursed their hangovers, clipped their hair and served them mint juleps and Welsh rarebit—the same service afforded wealthy white passengers.
In that Jim Crow era of racial segregation, Black people were relegated to separate and unequal accommodations. Just getting out of an automobile or bus to look for a meal and a bed could prove perilous.
Only on the Pullman cars, where they were served by fellow African Americans, could they truly relax while on the road. To avoid problems, we used to charter two Pullman sleeping cars.
Even the music makers' fame couldn't fully protect them. Wrong choices sometimes led to berating, beating or worse, with racial violence reaching new peaks in the early 1900s.
#jazz-history #racial-segregation #music-and-transportation #african-american-culture #duke-ellington
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