<\/p>\n
Inside the storied walls of Douglass Theatre, Dee Van raised a glass and toasted Charles Henry Douglass, the theatre\u2019s namesake and Macon\u2019s first Black millionaire, on what would have been his 156th birthday Feb. 17.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Van, alongside others in attendance, felt the theatre\u2019s rich history hanging in the air that evening.<\/p>\n
February marks the historic theatre\u2019s 105th anniversary, an \u201calmost unheard of\u201d feat for a Black institution, according to executive director Shelton Land.<\/p>\n
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\u201cEvery chair, every wall, every rug, every light socket has a story,\u201d\u00a0 Land said, noting that Douglass Theatre served as a \u201cmecca of Black entertainment\u201d in its heyday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Music icons such as Otis Redding, Little Richard and James Brown dazzled audiences at The Douglass during a time when Black performers weren\u2019t welcomed on most stages.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Van\u2019s grandmother, now 98 years old, would travel to Macon from South Carolina to see jazz performances at The Douglass. She shared with her granddaughter many stories from her youth about the theatre, which Van said offered a glimpse into a world she couldn\u2019t imagine.<\/p>\n
\u201cBack then there was no place you could go,\u201d said Van, who grew up in New York but recently moved back to Georgia. \u201cRemember, we couldn\u2019t even sit in the front of the bus.\u201d<\/p>\n
Douglass built the theatre in 1921 during the segregation era as a place for Black performers. It began as a silver screen entertainment venue in the first two decades. Many greats \u2014 the likes of Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith \u2014 came through the theatre\u2019s doors, Land said. Performances were attended by literary legends such as Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At the time, the railroad ran through Macon and made it a central stop for travelers. An adjacent hotel, also run by Douglass, appeared in the \u201cgreen book,\u201d which was used by Black travelers during the Jim Crow era to find businesses and housing that would accept them while they traveled.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople came here, they felt safe, they were able to thrive and to share in their creativity,\u201d Land said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Douglass died in 1940, leaving millions to his wife Fannie Appling Douglass who took over management of the theatre. For the next 30 years The Douglass remained a cultural hub, elevating Black artistry and talent.<\/p>\n
Macon native and publisher of Macon Black Pages, Alex Habersham recalled visiting The Douglass as a child. He described the theatre as a \u201cone-stop shop\u201d where he would go see cowboy movies.<\/p>\n
The theatre located on Broadway (now Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard) served as Macon\u2019s Black Wall Street, according to Habersham, who said thousands of people filled the street on Saturdays.<\/p>\n
But by 1973, the illustrious theatre closed its doors \u2014 the stage went dark and the nearly 800-seat venue sat empty.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The theatre was eventually ransacked and by the early \u201880s it was scheduled for demolition. But the Macon community wasn\u2019t ready to say goodbye to a formative slice of entertainment history. In 1996, a $2.3 million renovation breathed life back into the long-dormant theatre.By 1997, it reopened as a restored space with more than 300 seats.<\/p>\n
People once again filled the seats as a new era of talent took the stage like Margaret Haugabrook, who performed at the theatre in 2000.<\/p>\n
Haugabrook remembers the first time she laid eyes on Macon from thousands of feet above in a plane on the way to Atlanta.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw Macon from the sky,\u201d she said. \u201cIt looked like a jewelry box.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her pilot pointed to the specks of light glowing from below and noted that the city was home to Little Richard, Haugabrook said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were a lot of gems that came out of Macon,\u201d she added. \u201cAnd came right here through the Douglass Theater.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Florida native didn\u2019t know at the time that she would one day call Macon home and even perform on the same stage as musical stars once did.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what it was built for, so it\u2019s that energy that was put in there,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s still up there, just waiting for us to tap into it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Today, a new generation continues to tap into the theatre\u2019s resilient history.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Land\u2019s predecessor, Gina Ward, served the theatre for more than two decades.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The women who led the Douglass throughout its long history were \u201cnurturers of the culture,\u201d Land said, adding that he had \u201csome big high heel shoes to fill.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPreserving a legacy is one thing,\u201d he said. \u201cBut sharing it is another.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \n\t\t\t<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source maconmelody.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Community members gather in Macon\u2019s historic Douglass Theatre for a Greek Step & Stroll Off. The theatre celebrates 105 years this February. Photo by Jason Vorhees. Inside the storied walls of Douglass Theatre, Dee Van raised a glass and toasted Charles Henry Douglass, the theatre\u2019s namesake and Macon\u2019s first Black millionaire, on what would have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2299130,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[430578,430579,24367,361138],"class_list":["post-2299129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-bibb-county","tag-douglass-theatre","tag-georgia","tag-macon"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/The-Souths-\u2018mecca-of-Black-entertainment-celebrates-105-years-\u2013.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2299129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2299129"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2299129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2299131,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2299129\/revisions\/2299131"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2299130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2299129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2299129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2299129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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