Note on the Segregated Theater Experience

As the "Note on Black Theaters” suggests, fire insurance maps can indeed illuminate the vastly different experiences of Black and white moviegoers in Columbia during the early 1900’s. “Colored” businesses such as theaters were indicated with an asterisk or “(c),” setting them aside from the white businesses in in the 1910 city directory. Newspapers such as The State would not even mention Black theaters let alone promote them. In addition, Black theaters such as the Majestic and Royal were built on blocks of Washington Street and Assembly Street that were densely populated by “colored” people in order to keep them away from the white theaters on Main Street, as seen in the 1910 and 1919 fire insurance maps. These “colored” theaters were built on residential blocks while white theaters such as the Broadway were built in the middle of commercial blocks packed with businesses. Black theaters were also built in much smaller structures than their white counterparts, which were usually located in one of the largest buildings on their respective blocks. It becomes very clear how predominantly white society valued “colored” theater audiences when looking at the surrounding structures, as Black theaters were located around lots of timber buildings, which held a much greater fire risk than the brick buildings that surrounded most of the white theaters. In fact, the Royal Theater was in a timber building itself while every single white theater was constructed in a far safer brick building. It is clear from both the city directories and fire insurance maps, Black theaters faced much greater disadvantages than white theaters in size, location, and construction materials. Black theaters were not simply segregated from white ones but must also have felt like second-class accommodations to their patrons, which tells us a lot about social life in Columbia in the early 1900s.