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[CHAPTER 43]
[Page 1]
South Rampart Street.
“In New Orleans”, wrote the Negro post, Langston Hughes, in his biography, The Deep Sea, “I wanted to live in Rampart Street, the leading Negro Street. So he found a second-story flat where transient and permanent rooms were rented out. But on Saturday nights, when the landlord held fish-frys and sold homebrew, transient couples seeking rooms became so numerous that his own permanent one had to be commandeered until the rush was over.
Hughes remained in New Orleans for a time, listening to “marvelous blues records” featuring such singers as Blind Lemon Jefferson, Lonnie Johnson and Ma Rainey, on his land lady’s old victrola. From his South Rampart Street address he made visits to neighboring voodoo shops and drug stores selling High John the Conqueror Root, Good Business Water, Follow Me Seeds, and Wishing Powder. To the occult powers of the last-named he firmly attributed the strange force which sent him Havana-ward the next day on the S. S. Nardo.
South Rampart Street, between Canal and Clio Streets is what might be called a “Negro Paradise.” Running the entire length of this part of the street one may find scores of establishments catering to Negroes. The majority of these are tailor shops, pawn shops, department stores, bakeries, rummage shops, shoe stores and shoe repair places, hat and cap stores, fish and meat markets, fruits stands, grocery stores, hardware stores, and drug stores. There is also the Ace Theater, Jewish-owned, where
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