ABOUT THE FILM

In the 1920s and 30s in thriving, industrial Ensley, Alabama, there was an area known as Tuxedo Junction, where the trolley lines interchanged. It was there that the black community gathered, coming in from all over the region, dressed to the nines in gowns and tuxedos, to dance, eat, shop, and listen to the all-black jazz band there, that included local legend, Erskine Hawkins. He would make his claim to fame for a song he wrote to fill space between sets, also named “Tuxedo Junction,” that would become the most well-known jazz tune of the time, partially due to the famous Glenn Miller Band covering it. 

It turns out that hundreds of black musicians can be traced to Tuxedo Junction, due to one man, John "Fess" Whatley, the printing teacher at the only black high school in Alabama (est.1900) who also took it upon himself to also teach music…as a trade. 

Later, in the 1950s in Ensley, two local R&B kids, Paul Williams and Eddie Kendricks, grew up only blocks from Tuxedo Junction’s Nixon Building, singing on the corner for fun. They ended up taking their talents to Detroit and becoming the founding members of the Temptations, which led the entire Motown movement. 

Today the region is in despair, the building that hosted the nighttime parties in shambles, and the once-standing heritage sign marking the site, missing. Furthermore, most locals are not aware of this rich history just outside the Birmingham limits and the impact the Black artist community had on the history of music in America.