Black Bottom was not a racial slur nor was it in any way named for the African American mecca it would become, the French called it that because the soil was very very dark.

This hood is another sad tale for Detroit’s history. They razed blocks upon blocks and many years of Blues History to make way for Chrysler Freeway. Years of downward spiralling since the Great Depression made Black Bottom become the “urban blight” the city no longer wanted to deal with.

They attempted to make up for it by having Meis van der Rohe design a new residential development to take it’s place, but come on… Duke Ellington, Billy Eckstine, Pearl Bailey, Ella Fitzgerald, and Count Basie graced those streets, so it had significance to this world. Detroiters John Lee Hooker, Big Maceo Merriweather, Bobo Jenkins, Baby Boy Warren, Calvin Frazier, Boogie Woogie Red knew it was the place to be as well..