Juke Joints Part 3
Courtesy of the Library of Congress
The word juke in juke joint has its origins in West Africa and it means something wicked or evil. The great migration between World War I and World War II resulted in the relocation of Southern cooks from places like Mississippi Delta to northern cities like Cleveland, Detroit, and Chicago. Local bar and grills in northern cities served as the juke joint's double where live- music, down-home food, alcohol, and romance served important roles in helping working class African-Americans recover from the grading working conditions.
