McWilliams/Food Rules, 3.Black, White, and Tan: The Rules and Rituals of a Jim Crow-Era ‘Spook Breakfast’ in Kansas City, Missouri, 1935–1939

Kansas City is famous for barbecue and jazz--and ‘Boss’ Thomas J. Pendergast, whose machine politics controlled Kansas City from 1925 to 1939. Under certain conditions, Pendergast’s reign allowed for the unthinkable in an era of strict racial segregation: covert interactions between blacks and whites in public dining spaces, particularly during spook breakfast parties that happened after musicians wound up their all-night jam sessions. When the horns stopped blowing and the drums stopped beating, musicians and their fans sat down to copious amounts of food and alcohol. This paper examines the rules and rituals of these parties as they unfolded at the Reno Club near the northeast corner of Twelfth and Cherry on downtown’s edge, and at Old Kentucky Barbecue at Nineteenth and Vine in the heart of the black commercial district. Mixed-race interaction at these venues helped set in motion the forces that ultimately toppled segregation in Kansas City eateries.