theblackbottom

About

History:
theblackbottom.com is a blog dedicated to the critical discussion of African American politics and culture in Michigan, the Great Lakes region, and the United States as a whole.
This blog is named in honor of the old Detroit neighborhood known as the Black Bottom. Many black neighborhoods around the United States from Detroit to Muskegon to the lower ninth ward in New Orleans to Philadelphia were in the lower or low lying areas of America’s cities.These communities were cauldrons of black political activism, religion, and culture. They were often called “the bottom” or the “black bottom.” Or they were called pejorative names by outsiders such as Grand Rapids’ neighborhood”Coon’s Hollow.” Not only was the black bottom a neighborhood it was also a dance that was popularized in New Orleans and spread throughout the country in the 1920s. Recognizing the political activism, culture, and religious expressions in these neighborhoods the late playwright August Wilson named one of his great plays Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, which in 1985 won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best American Play and was nominated for a Tony Award. theblackbottom.com draws on the cultural memory of these historic black communities as the basis of its name and is operates out of Grand Rapids, Michigan in Western Michigan.