Requiem for San Francisco's 'Harlem of the West'

The Fillmore District (aka Western Addition) of San Francisco was a thriving African American community known as “Harlem of the West,” 1945-65. The 24-hour rhythms of its nightclubs, restaurants, hotels, markets, specialty stores, theaters and music shops drew commerce from across the region.
The intimate Jazz and late-night music clubs were hangouts for luminaries of Black entertainment including Duke Ellington, Nat King Cole, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. The beating heart of The Fillmore was Jimbo’s Bop City, an alcohol-free after-hours club where young Turks of the Bop revolution gathered, building innovative musical forms.
But the “Harlem of the West” was ended by a harsh act of civic urban class warfare under a false banner of redevelopment. “A Requiem for Harlem of the West” celebrates its heyday and was produced with photos supplied by authors of the definitive book, Harlem of the West by Elizabeth Pepin Silva and Lewis Watts (Chronicle Books, 2006).