Just as photos of Nashville saloons are rare, photos of known bartenders are even rarer. This photo from June 1907 is connected with a suspicious shooting of an African American patron,
Upon examining any page of the arrest record for the Nashville Police before Prohibition, it can be determined that public drunkenness was widespread. Most pages of the record appear like the one below showing that most of the arrests were of African Americans.
Much of the newspaper coverage on saloon violence was associated with places frequented by African Americans. Coverage about any mob actions driven by alcohol downtown like described below were rare. Until the last few years before prohibition, Nashville newspapers largely ignored the downtown bars on Cherry Street (4th Avenue).
Among the many reasons saloons were perceived negatively before prohibition was because of their supposed connection to criminal activity. The article below alleged that Joe Watson's Saloon in Hell's Half Acre had gang support helping defend the business.
Reformers in Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Nashville had nothing but complaints when discussing the neighborhood of Black Bottom. Compared to other African American areas, Black Bottom was seen to be full of saloons, brothels, and other places of sin.
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