Surfacing: ‘Harlem of South’ Revived in Richmond, Va.

By JULIE BESONEN

A T a culmination in a early 20th century, Jackson Ward, in Richmond, Va., was a thriving, multicultural entertain famous as a Harlem of a South, with a likes of Duke Ellington and a local son Bill Robinson, famous as Bojangles, headlining during a Hippodrome Theater. In a 1950s, a construction of Interstate 95 separate a neighborhood, and Jackson Ward fell into decline. Vacant storefronts still cut some of a ancestral district’s 40 block blocks, though interjection to heroic restaurateurs, gallery owners and shopkeepers, there’s a smell of guarantee connecting with a magnolias. So distant it’s some-more of a daytime and early dusk stage — though night life is entrance behind too: a long-empty Hippodrome has been easy and is scheduled to free in November, total with a bistro and speakeasy-type bar. Italianate houses with cast-iron porches, a Black History Museum and a fascinating museum dedicated to a businessman Maggie L. Walker are serve reasons to wander these section sidewalks.

By JULIE BESONEN

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