Café Society

As well as running the first racially integrated night club in the United States,[3] Josephson also intended the club to defy the pretensions of the rich; he chose the name to mock Clare Boothe Luce and what she referred to as "café society", the habitués of more upscale nightclubs, and that wry satirical note was carried through in murals done by Anton Refregier, a Russian immigrant who created the San Francisco Rincon Annex murals.

[3] Relying on the keen musical judgment of John Hammond, the club's "unofficial music director",[3] Josephson helped launch the careers of Ruth Brown, Lena Horne, dancer Pearl Primus, Hazel Scott, Pete Johnson, Albert Ammons, Big Joe Turner, and Sarah Vaughan, and popularized gospel groups such as the Dixie Hummingbirds and the Golden Gate Quartet among white audiences.

Its defining star in the early 1940s was Josh White, who first appeared there with a gospel group, the Carolinians, then went on to head the bill as a solo performer for four years.

As part of the challenge to integrate America's segregated society, Josephson's club was the scene of numerous political events and fundraisers, often for left-wing causes, both during and after World War II.

[1] In Summer 1948, jazz pianist Calvin Jackson played with singer Mildred Bailey and dancer Avon Long.