Black Bottom and adjoining Paradise Valley were the heart of Black Detroit from the 1920s to the 1950s, a self-sufficient district of Black-owned businesses, hotels and legendary music clubs before urban renewal and freeway construction razed them. This was where Detroit’s Black economic and cultural life flourished.
Visitor Info
Interpretive historical markers now stand in the Paradise Valley Entertainment District and along the former Black Bottom footprint. Self-guided marker tours document the district’s jazz clubs and Black enterprises.