USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Jack Johnson, the first African American heavyweight boxing champion, opened the Club Deluxe, a 400-seat nightclub at the corner of 142nd Street and Lenox Avenue, in 1920. In 1922 the club was taken over by Owen (“Owney”) Madden, a well-known Manhattan underworld figure.

Detailed explanation-2: -Gangster Owney Madden, a Chicagoan, created the Cotton Club on 142nd St. & Lenox Avenue to be a whites-only club, except for the entertainers and staff. The African American employees were depicted as exotic savages or plantation residents, and the music was often orchestrated to bring to mind a jungle atmosphere.

Detailed explanation-3: -Opened in 1923, the Cotton Club on 142nd St & Lenox Ave in the heart of Harlem, New York was operated by white New York gangster Owney Madden. Madden used the Cotton Club as an outlet to sell his “#1 Beer” to the prohibition crowd.

Detailed explanation-4: -Owney Madden, who bought the club from heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson, intended the name Cotton Club to appeal to whites, the only clientele permitted until 1928. The club made its name by featuring top-level black performers and an upscale, downtown audience.

Detailed explanation-5: -The Cotton Club was a New York City nightclub from 1923 to 1940. It was located on 142nd Street and Lenox Avenue (1923–1936), then briefly in the midtown Theater District (1936–1940). The club operated during the United States’ era of Prohibition and Jim Crow era racial segregation.