Black Bottom and Paradise Valley Districts also known as the Gotham in Detroit. Segregation across the U.S. designed to marginalize Black Americans and destroy native bonds had the unintended consequence of creating Black financial meccas. One such Black business district was Black Bottom Detroit and the adjacent Paradise Valley to the north. Out of necessity, the creation of independent medical centers, grocers, clothiers, barbers and hotel accommodations by Black business owners kept capital circulating in the Black community and enriched Black cultural ties. The Gotham Hotel was just such an establishment. Purchased from Albert Hartz in 1943, the hotels owners John White and Irving Roane acquired the 9 story 300 room property with the intention of creating a hotel that hosted locals and visiting dignitaries. They ran a clean, professional establishment and kept ownership Black. For twenty years, the who’s who of Black America frequented the hotel while performing at the paradise theater and patronizing Black Bottom businesses. Sammy Davis, Langston Hughes, Adam Clayton Powell and other notables were frequent Gotham guest. The hotel had a reputation for numbers running and illicit activity but these rumors were unsubstantiated and they were accusations brought often by those envious of the Black Bottom economic stronghold and cultural cohesiveness. City officials and others sought to dismantle Black bottom in a long term program which included breaking up black neighborhoods with freeway expansion, engineering civil rights initiatives that destroyed exclusive Black strongholds and attacks on Black business owners.

Contributed by Ms. C. Buford for Black History Month 2020