Indiana Avenue: Black Entertainment Boulevard

Book excerpt: What makes one community better than another? In the heyday, the area around Indiana Avenue was quite the community. It was a community filled with flavor, rhythm and a share of despair. The story of Indiana Avenue gives consideration to the question of "What does a great community lack or possess that contributes to the concept of greatness?" Indiana Avenue: Black Entertainment Boulevard, gets to the essence of these answers by tracing the full life cycle of a community, a community known nationally as a significant player in the American jazz story. Indiana Avenue: Black Entertainment Boulevard is the story of how a community functioned, prospered, declined and revitalized. It is a story with great implications. On the one hand, this story is a localized history of a subculture. On the other hand, to understand the Indiana Avenue story is to understand how similar historical communities like Harlem in New York, Bourbon Street in New Orleans and Beale Street in Memphis functioned and developed. All these communities, like many more, had similar traits and parallel histories. These communities became known nationally as stops on a Chitterlings Circuit, a network of entertainment venues made famous due to Jim Crow and separatist laws. Indiana Avenue is a story filled with social and political dynamics. This story gives insight into the development of jazz as well as how entertainment evolved along racial lines. The story of Indiana Avenue involves an astounding American era with deep implications for today.