In the wake of the First World War, a sea change was underway in the United States. Millions of African Americans, driven by the brutal realities of Jim Crow segregation in the South, left their homes in the Great Migration and sought opportunity in Northern cities. From Chicago to Detroit, Newark to Philadelphia, Black neighborhoods throbbed with new energy, but nowhere was that energy more concentrated than Harlem, a district in northern Manhattan that became both a repository of dreams and a crucible of explosive creativity.

This Christmas, we celebrate swing — and the birth of Cab Calloway. Get to know more about him here.

Swing meets spooky!
In the 1930s, Fleischer Studios gave life (and death!) to a new kind of magic: blending the vibrant sound of swing with the surreal imagination of their cartoons. Check a bit of the their story here