3/18/2024 0 Comments Players club ronnie scenes(Photo courtesy of the West Coast Blues Society)Įven though most of the original clubs have been torn down, Seventh Street seemed on track for a live-music revival with the opening of 7th West - a bar, restaurant, music venue, and beer garden operating as a community hub - in August 2018. Ronnie Stewart, historian, blues musician, and executive director of the West Coast Blues Society, poses with the plaque commemorating his contributions to the Oakland blues scene. That tickles me to death to know that the Rolling Stones covered black songs that were created and written at Bob Geddins’ studio at Seventh and Center,” Stewart says. “It’s black history that influenced white history. For example, blues artist Jimmy McCracklin honed his skills on Seventh Street, and went on to inspire country and rock artists such as Alan Jackson and the Rolling Stones. “One of our goals is to perpetuate the history in Oakland’s contribution to the world of culture,” Stewart says. Another 88 plaques were installed on sidewalks earlier this year, but the unveiling ceremonies planned for April 3 and 4 had to be canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. The first 88 brass Walk of Fame plaques were unveiled in March 2015. His organization worked with the city of Oakland to secure funding for “The Music They Played on 7th Street: Oakland Walk of Fame,” acknowledging the musicians, club owners, record companies, and businesses that made the street a creative force. Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. “Seventh Street was the center of black entertainment for the West Coast,” Stewart says. Ronnie Stewart, the executive director of the West Coast Blues Society, has been fighting tirelessly since 1989 to preserve the street’s musical legacy. Today, if you look around Seventh Street with its vacant land and parking lots in the shadow of the BART tracks, it’s hard to picture its glory days. ‘Seventh Street was the center of black entertainment’ But like so many thriving black neighborhoods in the late-20th century, economic and political forces came together to gut it in a few short decades. During the day, it was the place for African Americans to buy groceries, stop by the pharmacy or have lunch, all at black-owned stores.Īt night, it was a lively blues music scene, competing with San Francisco’s Fillmore District for the title of “Harlem of the West,” boasting performances by Billie Holiday, Aretha Franklin, and Sammy Davis Jr. Between the 1940s and ’60s, Seventh Street in West Oakland was the center of black life and culture in the city. The Orbit Room sign was the last vestige of a once-bustling African American business district. It featured the name “Esthers” in saucy red script and “Orbit Room” in purple space-age bubble letters, a cheerful orange rocket taking off from the “T.” Before 2015, East Bay commuters traveling to San Francisco on BART could look forward to passing the vibrant, unforgettable sign for Esther’s Orbit Room every morning.
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