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AUTHOR: Detroit Black
Writer’s Guild
ISBN: 1-888754-02-8
Price $35.00 + ($5.00
Shipping & Handling)
DESCRIPTION:
Hardback with colorful dust jacket. A photo album poetry book of Black
Detroit from the 1930’s to 1950’s when "Paradise Valley" was one of the most
prosperous Black business and entertainment districts in the country. This
poetry book takes a nostalgic look back into Detroit’s past at a time when
showgirls, tap dancers, and jazz greats took center stage. This book
features more than 200 timeless photographs and the work of 56 poets.
Publisher’s COMMENT:
This book is destined to become a classic and should be in every library and
on the coffee table of every American home. Browsing this book
gives you a warm fuzzy feeling and leaves you with a comfortable sense of
well being.
REVIEWS:
- In the Free Press on Friday, you’ll get a glimpse of
an amazing new book, "Paradise Valley Days"…. I’ve had an advance look
at this historical treasure. Between more than 200 historical photos and
the lyrical words of 56 Detroit poets and writers, one can hear, smell,
and feel paradise Valley and sense the times. (Detroit Free Press,
Tuesday July 21, 1998)
-
- A new book on Detroit’s Paradise Valley captures a time
of star-studded music-making and round-the-clock revelry. This is a two
page article with photographs of the editors (Detroit Free Press,
Friday, July 24, 1998).
- "Paradise" revives Black Mecca. Writer’s Guild
compiles memorable book of photos. …By the 1960’s, urban renewal projects
and the Chrysler Freeway destroyed the neighborhood that was once filled
with black-owned businesses, clubs, and hotels. Today the rich memories of
a paradise lost live on in Paradise Valley Days, a new book by the Detroit
Black Writers Guild (Book review, 2/3 of a page, Detroit News,
Wednesday, February 17, 1999 and Friday, February 19, 1999)
- Paradise Valley, Southfield author chronicles birth
of Detroit’s Black cultural pulse. (Article is 1/3 of the front page.
Southfield Eccentric, Thursday, February 18, 1999)
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Section I – The Journey. (Photographs
and poetry depicting the great migration of Blacks to the North.)
- Section II – Their Destination. (Photographs
of the neighborhood augmented by poetry. Includes article, "The Great
Black Strip" by Toni Jones, reprint, Detroit Free Press January 7, 1973.)
- Section III – The People. (Photographs
of some of the people who lived during that time.)
- Section IV – The Entertainers. (Beautiful
photographs of showgirls, comedians and musicians. Contains a story
written by one of the entertainers.)
- Section V – Military/Sports. (Old
soldiers and sports figures like Joe Louis. Includes an article about a
Tuskegee Airman who was shot down during World War II and captured by a
German Officer who spoke fondly of his adventures in Paradise Valley while
attending The University of Michigan.)
- Section VI – The Struggle. (Covers the
race riot of 1943 and other items related to the struggle against
oppression.)
- Section VII – The Legacy. (Priceless
photographs of some of the old buildings that were once part of the
"Valley". They were taken just weeks before the area was cleared in 1998
to make way for Detroit’s new Stadium complex.)
EXCERPTS:
PARADISE
VALLEY
by
Peggy A. Moore
In its heyday, back in the 1940’s, 50’s, and 60’s,
Paradise Valley, a Black Mecca that was located on the lower east side of
Detroit, dazzled and attracted more weekend visitors to her door step than
did Greek Town or China Town during the same period.
Paradise Valley came of age during the height of
segregation in Detroit. Legal "Deed Restrictions" prohibited a Negro from
renting or owning property in all but the most wretched parts of the city —
all on the lower east side. Back then, a Negro could be thrown in jail for
being caught in any area west of Woodward Avenue.
It was in this climate that Negro businessmen like Charles
Roxbourgh, Irvine Rhone, John White, and others took a somewhat condemned
area bounded by Gratiot, Vernor, Brush, and Hastings and carved out
"Paradise Valley."
At that time, Negroes had no political power. No one that
looked like them was allowed to sit in the mayor’s office or hold a seat on
the "Common Council." For this reason, the citizens of Paradise Valley got
together, erected their own City Hall, and elected Roy Lightfoot as their
first mayor.
Did you know that before integration came to Detroit,
Paradise Valley actually had more Negroes in business than any other city in
the country?
This was due largely to the fact that Negroes who worked
for the automobile industry earned fairly decent wages and they had a lot of
money to spend. There were also many Railroad Porters who called Detroit
their home, and they, too, were well paid.
As a result, businesses flourished. On St. Antoine Street
there was Watson’ Realty Co., Donald F. White Architect, Long’s Cut-Rate
Drug Store, Law Offices of Lewis-Rowlette-Brown; Biddy’s Chicken Shack;
Wilson’s Modern Laundry; Wayne County Better Homes; Pekin Restaurant;
Biltmore Hotel; Modern Barber Shop; The Pryor Hotel, and many others. By the
way, most of the businesses used Richard Austin, who later became Secretary
of State for Michigan, as their accountant.
All of these businesses were solvent, meaning that they
operated profitably. And while all black businesses had to put their money
in white-owned banks, none of the banks in the city at that time would hire
a black in any position except that of a janitor.
On weekends, especially during the summer months, taxis
ran almost non-stop between the train and bus stations transporting
travelers and visitors into the city. Some to visit friends and family, and
others who came just to relax and have a good time. A great majority
of the visitors came from the south to get a taste of big city life.
At night, cocktail lounges, dance halls, showbars, and
restaurants all came alive with dazzling lights, swing bands, sultry
singers, dancers doing the Black Bottom, Jitterbug, or Hulley
Gulley, and jazz and blues artist all on center stage. It was a time for
"Zoot Suits," long watch chains, and wide brimmed Stetson hats.
In many ways, Paradise Valley was not unlike Harlem in New
York. No Negro musician worth the salt in his bread would ever think
of coming to Detroit City without visiting the "Valley." And it was there
that you would find giants like Duke Ellington, Jimmy Lunceford, Lionel
Hampton, Fats Waller, Cab Calloway, McKinney’s Cotton Pickers, Louis
Armstrong, and all the other Hep Cats....
Paradise Valley
Remembered
Like
an unassuming lady
abducted and vaguely abject
She
stands at the crossroads of the city;
wheedling winds attack her back
And on
her cold shoulders
chattering brown birds and gulls relax.
Unblinking — like a peculiar marble statue
she’s
bathed in soft velvets of twilight
Winking street lights splash colors rhythmically
on
roofs of speeding vehicles on the go.
And on
damp asphalt her sober, expressionless face
seems
to assume an absorbing glow.
Her
fiber, capricious breezes cannot whisk away,
like
submissive leaves that fall at her feet and soon decay.
Her
spirit struggles through broken branches and objectively hovers
over
the wild flowers that dress her jagged pathway.
Gilded
messages scribbled on her crumbling walls
render
lucid clues and hints
of the
essence of her yolk
belated... and bemused.
© 1997
James Neal Ware
The Great Black Strip
Before the freeways were built, even
before the riot of 43, there was a strip in Detroit called Paradise Valley,
and it was swinging all night long...
By TONI JONES
Free Press Staff Writer
Count Basie’s band wailed "After Hours" thinly from the
juke box, but the small gathering in the Garfield Lounge of the Randora
Hotel hardly heard. The faces and clothes were 1972, different. Drinks
were more expensive. And the music didn’t croon live and bittersweet as it
did 30 years ago. Gone were the handsome, smooth talking sporting men
dressed in Al Capone suits with money in their pockets and beautiful women
on their sleeves. Gone too were the big bands, the long shiny
chauffeur-driven limousines, the high-ceilinged dance halls with their
crystal chandeliers and the chorus girls in puffed sleeved satin dresses
with low cut backs, floppy brimmed hats and cigarette holders.
The Randora Lounge at 98 Garfield now
comprises almost all that’s left to suggest the frenzied night life and the
people who made this part of Black Bottom distinctly and uniquely Paradise
Valley. The valley burgeoned in the early 30’s along and around Adams and
St. Antione shortly before, after — and some because of — the legalization
of whiskey in 1933.
Bag Woman
These are my bags
I carry my dreams
My hatred, my nightmares
Stuffed and folded
Stacked, and twisted, and crushed.
My bags are my fate
Holding dreams upon dreams
Defeat, honor, and love stuffed in between.
A bag of dreams dragged upon my feet
Buffed up, then layered down
Beaten slowly
Smoothed swiftly.
A bag of love held close to my heart
Crushed, torn into bits
Wet with tears
With fragments of kisses
Touches of love
Soft glances
Unforgiving and cheated.
A bag for the nighttime
Full of fear
Loneliness and hunger
A remembrance of your smile
To be needed, shared, and loved.
Their heaviness covers my soul
They guide my destiny
They will never leave me
But you did....
© 1994 Evelyn L. Rhodes.
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