Where not attributed, these stories are, for the most part, based on oral histories from C. Perkins, Frank Fox, Margie Montgomery, Nelson Burton, and Bea Morris. The photographs are from the Cincinnati Historical Society, The Arts Consortium’s Black History Program, and from the collections of Raymond Chubb, Grace Slater, Margie Montgomery Gardner, Bea Morris, Mary Ferguson Brown, and Edna Heard.

By Cissie Hill

Inside everything was magic. Lights flickered across the walls, reflected from the turning glass ball that always hung from the ceiling. Elegant women wearing hats and corsages, and well dressed men, with wide, hand-painted ties, sat at white clothed tables.

All eyes were on the dance floor, where Bea Morris and her partner Popeye Maupin, were jitterbugging. Popeye lifted Bea above his head one moment and, the next, slid her down and beneath his legs – her back inches above the floor. Gradually, more couples filled the dance floor. Soon the room was alive - swirling...