Thursday, June 19, 2008

Juke Joints at the LOC

The Library of Congress has a Flickr account. Who knew? Well since I found out I have been spending all my free time looking at scans of pictures from the 30's and 40's.

Check out these cool pictures of Juke Joints from back in the day.

From Random House:
"Juke joint (or jook joint) is the vernacular term for an informal establishment featuring blues music, dancing, and alcoholic drinks, primarily operated by African American people in the southeastern United States. The term "juke" is believed to derive from the Gullah word joog, meaning rowdy or disorderly."

Living quarters and juke joint for migratory workers, a slack season; Belle Glade, Fla. (LOC)
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Migratory laborers outside of a juke joint during a slack season, Belle Glade, Fla. (LOC)
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Negro migratory workers by a juke joint, Belle Glade, Fla. (LOC)
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4 comments:

Coffee Messiah said...

LOC has some interesting material and you have found only a small portion of the immense collection in storage.

I peek, but don't always leave a note.

Still liking your posts and learning something.....Cheers!

fitzgerald said...

Thanks again for stopping by.

Stephen A. Bess said...

Fantastic photos. I have a LOC library card. I need to take advantage of all this info at my fingertips since I live here in the DC area. Thanks for sharing this. Peace~

fitzgerald said...

Stephen, you are welcome. I envy you, I wish I lived close enough to visit the LOC. I visited DC back when I was in the Navy and fell in love with our capital. I visited the Smithsonian museum and many of the monuments. It was so cool.