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...... The Blues evolved out of the African Americans struggle for freedom and equality. After the Civil War, Black churches were used for shelter and activity centers for former slaves. With the migration of Blacks from the South to the North, the Blues spread and became respected as a music genre. In Harlem the streets echoed of the blues flowing from the newest jazz clubs. For the first time in history, young middle-class whites were coming into black neighborhoods to listen to jazz. Blacks and whites began mixing in the speakeasies and cabarets. They joined on the dance floor and shared tables at the hottest jazz clubs, connecting the races as they etched a Black neighborhood onto the cultural map of the country, indeed, the world (Floyd 1993)
Harlem was host to some of America's greatest writers, musicians, and artists. The Harlem Renaissance was an era in which black people were perceived as having finally liberated themselves from a past filled with creative limits. For the first time African Americans were self-assertive and racially conscious, as if they passed through some rite of passage. They seemed to have optimism and pride in all things black, and a cultural confidence that

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