Syncopation is a 1942 American film from RKO directed by William Dieterle and starring Adolphe Menjou, Jackie Cooper, and Bonita Granville.

In 1906, the Congo Square Building in New Orleans, which was previously used as a slave market, is transformed into an African-American unemployment bureau.

Close by there is also an African-American musical college, where little Reggie Tearbone, seven years old, is learning to play Bach on his cornet.

The whole family go to Chicago, but Reggie stays behind, having gotten a permanent spot in King Jeffers' Basin Street Band.

Ragtime has developed from the regular jazz, and Kit meets the young street musician Johnny Schumacher when she is out walking alone.

Johnny gets a job with a big jazz orchestra traveling around, playing the cornet, but Kit does not want to join him on the road.