Tag Archives: Black Masonic Temple

Stringbeans May and the Birth of the Blues in Black Vaudeville

Posted on October 5, 2023 | Leave a comment

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Just before his neck was broken in Jacksonville, Butler “Stringbeans” May was the hottest Black entertainer in the country. He’d just turned 23. Critics called him “eccentric” and “smutty.” It was Stringbeans who made the Blues first rise in Black Vaudeville, but he never recorded and never copyrighted his hits. Details of his death remain a mystery.

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Tagged "Pray for the Lights to Go Out", A Bunch of Blues, Alan Lomax, Alf Kelly, Ashley Street Blues, Ballin' the Jack, Bijou Theater, Black Masonic Temple, Black Masonic Temple Jacksonville, Blind Blake, Broadway Rastus, Buddy Bradley, Butler "String Beans" May, Butler May, Charlie Johnson and His Paradise Band, Chicago Defender, Clara White Mission, Colored Airdome, Dave Seroff, David Sager, Eartha Mary Magdalene White, Eartha White, Elgin Movements, Ellen Goodloe, Erwin Bosman, Florence McClain, Frank Montgomery, Genaro Urso, Globe Theater, Gus Haenschen, Hattie Akers, Hillman Pratt Funeral Home, Incorporated Prince Hall Affiliated, Indianapolis Freeman, Irvin Miller, J. Paul Wyer, Jean Stearns, Jelly Roll Morton, Jessie May Horn, Jim Crow, LaVilla, Leola Wilson, Lubin Company, Lynn Abbott, Ma Rainey, Marshall Stearns, New York Age, Perry Bradford, Rastus Among the Zulus, Robert Johnson, Salem Tutt Whitney, Strand Theater, Stringbeans May, Sweetie Matthews, Sylvester Russell, Tony Langston, W.C. Handy, Will Benbow, Will Benbow’s Chocolate Drops Company, Willis Laurence James, Zip Coon

Black Masonic Temple

Posted on December 1, 2018 | Leave a comment

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What these walls have seen! Architects Mark and Sheftall began their own firm in 1912 and with a commission for the grandest building in black Jacksonville. The Black Masonic Temple formed the brick foundation of the black community.

Princess Laura Adorkor Kofi preached her “back to Africa” message here in the 1920s. Future Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Leander Shaw had his offices here in the 1960s. And the tunnels beneath Broad Street would offer protection if Florida’s massacres of black communities at Ocoee, Perry, and Rosewood should spread to Jacksonville.

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Tagged African Lodge no. 459, African Universal Church and Commercial League, Anderson Bank, Black Masonic Temple, C.H. Henry, Central America, Charles Wright, Clara White Mission, D.W. Perkins, Daniel Webster Perkins, Earl Mark, Florida Star, Frank Lloyd Wright, Free and Accepted Masons, Genaro Urso, Gerry Urso, Henry John Klutho, Incorporated Prince Hall Affiliated, Jacksonville, jaxpsychogeo, Jim Crow, John H. Dickinson, July Perry, Jurisdiction, Ku Klux Klan, Laura Adorkor Kofi, LaVilla, Lawrence Moman, Leander L. Shaw, Leander Shaw, Leeroy Sheftall, Louis Sullivan, lynching, Marcus Garvey, Mark and Sheftall, Most Worshipful Union Grand Lodge of the Most Ancient and Honorable Fraternity, NAACP, Negro Blue Book, Negro World, Ocoee Massacre, Padrica Mendez, Patricia Moman Bell, Pedro Mendez, Perry Massacre, Prairie Style, Prince Hall, Prince Hall freemasonry, Princess Laura Adorkor Kofi, Robert Broward, Rosewood Massacre, Stanton School, State of Florida and Belize, The Crisis, Tillman Valentine, Tim Gilmore, United States Colored Troops, USCT, Wainwright Building