Echoes of Jazz: Jazz in the Physical Space

The memory of these jazz clubs are entangled with the physical places that once held housed them. For example venues such as the Royal Peacock and spots along Decatur Street no longer exist physically, they still exist in how they continue to shape how Atlantans understand the cultural and racial landscape of the city. In urban studies, scholars often argue that the memory is not simply a recollection of what happened but a spatial and social practice that actively creates identity. (Lefebvre 1991) Moreover, Atlanta's jazz clubs operate exactly this way, as they have been physically altered or even erased by highway construction or urban renewal, they still remain powerful sites of Black social life that persisted and flourished despite segregation, if people remember it. 

Remembering these clubs is also another way of acknowledging what has been lost. In the 1960s and 70s the construction of I-75/I-85 and then later stadium expansions, destroyed huge chunks of the neighborhoods that nurtered Atlanta's jazz scene. Kevin Kruse, a historian put it, such redevelopment disproportionately erased Black history and spaces, making memory an act of resistance (Kruse 2005). As to call attention to former jazz sites forces Atlanta to confront its patterns of displacement and the cultural contributions that were nearly just written out of the landscape. Therefore, memory transforms these clubs to political and moral touchscapes. They have become apart of Atlanta's self-image as the "Cradle of the Civil Rights Movement," scholars like Maurice Hobson infer that Atlanta's identity depends heavily on selective remembrance (Hobson 2017). While remembering the jazz clubs challenges the narrative, it also acknowledges not only the artistic genius as well as the segregated circumstances that gave rise to that innovation. 

In this way, Atlanta's jazz clubs remain, their memory is the geography, shaping how residents understand; race, belonging, and place. Even though most buildings are gone there cultural meaning still persists, reminding the city of the once vibrant social words that once thrived there and challenging Atlantans to preserve the history embedded on their streets.