Hear Me Talkin' To Ya: The Classic Story of Jazz as Told by the Men Who Made It

urn:iso:std:iso:639:ed-3:eng

63-64

text excerpt

Then, in 1917, came the death march of the famous Red Light District, played by the order of the Secretary of the Navy, Daniels.

The scene was pitiful. Basin Street, Franklin, Iberville, Bienville, and St Louis became a veritable shambles of Negro and white prostitutes moving out. With all they had in the world reposing in two-wheel carts or on wheelbarrows, pushed by Negro boys or old men, the once Red Light Queens were making their way out of Storyville to the strains of "Nearer My God to Thee" played by a massed combination of all the Negro jazzmen of the Red Light dance halls.

By nightfall the once notorious Red Light District was only a ghost--mere rows of empty cribs… Now and then a Negro organ-grinder came out to give one of Old Man Giorlando's untuned organs an airing, but the green shutters were closed forever. The old Red Light District of New Orleans became history.

excerpt from 'Hear Me Talkin' To Ya: The Classic Story of Jazz as Told by the Men Who Made It' pp. 63-64 (157 words)

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