It was “come one, come all” for free attractions with performances by the Joyland Jazzers and dance halls.  The park would showcase a merry-go-round, Venetian swing, whip and ferris wheel. It was called “a better alernative to the city cabarets,” though the owners of those venues would put up a fight against the new family-friendly parks. Some politicians and vaudeville owners lobbied against Joyland’s license renewals because it was taking away their local customers.

Eventually, the cakewalk became the only approved way to mock the white masters in the "big house." the dance would be held at the master’s plantation house and he would, in turn, serve as a judge. Which dance was performed? Well, that was determined by the type of cake presented.

That same cake was awarded to the winning couple. Slaves and servants were encouraged to mock the masters at the cakewalk. The dancers wore their best clothing and imitated white men and women. 

Some plantation owners would bake a special cake called a hoecake wrapped in cabbage leaf for the cakewalk and invited the neighbors over to again, watch the slaves perform. The prize included a hoecake for the males and molasses pulled candy for the ladies.  The winning slaves would get the cake or candy, possibly giving birth to the term "that takes the cake!"  

In his first assignment, Stewart was asked to protect a racist politician from a Black assassin. His character soon moved TV and became a part of the “Justice League” cartoon for 5 years. John Stewart’s version of the “Green Lantern” character was ranked as the 55th greatest comic book hero of all time by the Imagine Games Network.

He was known to work with and befriend famous artist Andy Warhol in 1980. There was also rumors of a love affair with Madonna in 1982.

After Warhol’s death, Jean-Michel Basquait became depressed and died of a cocaine and heroine mix in 1988. He was 27 years old. After his death, a Basquiat painting has been sold at Sotheby’s in New York for a reported $14.6 million.

On Sept. 21st, the theater opened to a performance of “Richard III.” Thespians of the African Grove would star in future productions of plays ranging from “Othello” to “Don Juan.” The performance of “Othello” would mark the first time a black man played this role in popular theater. Two years later, William Brown wrote the first African-American stageplay called “The Drama of King Shotaway.”

Star players of the African Grove Theater were James Hewlett, a former steward like Brown, and Ira Aldridge, the first known Shakespearean actor. Hewlett and Aldridge had secretly observed the white actors from afar as they performed Shakespeare to learn their method of acting-out the literature. However, the scripts would be adapted to fit the audience; If the script called for a “straight haired” person, the words would be changed to “wooly-haired.”

The popularity of the theater grew to include the interest of white patrons. However, they were required to sit in a separate section of the theater – rules of the house. When racial tensions rose after the theater was successful, Brown moved its location several times around the city.

One night, in its final location, the African Grove opened next door to a white production of “Richard III” and featured the same play on opening night. The owner of the Park Theater next door convinced the police to shut it down. And in 1826, the African Grove was burned down without explanation.

DeLavallade found her gift through her cousin, Janet Collins, who was the first black prima ballerina at the famous Metropolitan Opera in New York. At age 14, she decided to begin studying ballet. Soon after, DeLavallade would sign with the Lester Horton Dance Company in 1949. Becoming one of the biggest names in ballet, DeLavallade held a sensual quality in her dancing and would be called “one of most ravishing women in the world” by Duke Ellington. Many of her roles in the ballet were created especially for her.

In 1954, DeLavallade met the man who would become her husband – actor and dancer, Geoffrey Holder (“Boomerang,” “Annie,” “Live and Let Die”). Soon after, she joined the ranks of her cousin and starred on stage in “Samson and Delilah” and “Aida” at the Met. But, of course, every profession for blacks during that time period was not without discrimination: When DeLavallade and dancer Glen Tetley planned to perform on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” they were denied as a dance couple because she was black, and he was white. She would dance with Alvin Ailey colleague Claude Thompson instead.

DeLavallade would share the stage with names like Josephine Baker, Alvin Ailey and Lena Horne. It was Horne who introduced DeLavallade to 20th Century Fox, where she starred in “Carmen Jones,” “Porgy and Bess” and “Lonesome Dove.” And while she taught at Yale Repertory, DeLavallade would teach then-students Meryl Streep, Sigourney Weaver and Henry Winkler the art of drama.

DeLavallade and Holder are currently hosting the “A Memoir in Four Movements” exhibition at the Dusable Museum of African-American History in Chicago.