Due South presents another conversation in our occasional series “Golden Leaf” about tobacco’s deep roots in North Carolina. The focus today is the history of tobacco warehouses in early and mid-20th century North Carolina.
By day, the work done in these warehouses was governed by the brutal racial injustices of the South. But, on some summer nights, those cavernous buildings were transformed into a different world, says history professor Elijah Gaddis.
Black music promoters rented the warehouses, invited some of the most famous musicians of the era to perform, and Black party goers danced the night away in a space filled with rich music and glorious decorations – and in doing so, challenged Jim Crow.
Guest
Elijah Gaddis, Hollifield Associate Professor of Southern History and Co-Director of the Community Histories Workshop at Auburn University, and author of “Work, Play, and Performance in the Southern Tobacco Warehouse”
