Chicago's Jazz Age Melting Pot: Hot Jazz, Boogie Woogie & the Blues

In the Twenties, Chicago’s South Side "bright-light" district "The Stroll" was the heart of the jazz scene. Peppered with nightclubs, pool halls, tattoo parlors, and vaudeville houses, it was home to the city’s 100,000 African Americans. During the day, the city was segregated, but at night differences between black and white became somewhat blurred. Chicago nightlife knew no boundaries, and the sound of jazz seemed to seep up out of the sidewalks.