Episode 3: Power Cedes to Power

“He helped people. He loaned people. He wasn't to be trifled with” Charlie Fitzgerald built multiple businesses across Myrtle Beach – the hotel, the club, the cab company, the high-stakes poker game – and loaned money to white folks in town to bend the rules in his favor. How long would this last before Charlie became a target? Subscribe to Pushkin+ to binge the entire season early & ad-free in Apple Podcasts or at Pushkin.fm/plus.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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How did a Black man in 1940s Jim Crow South open a club where Black and white people danced together? Charlie’s Place was revolutionary, and that meant it was dangerous.  In this 5-part series, host Rhym Guissé explores the unbelievable true story of Charlie Fitzgerald, a mysterious Black businessman whose nightclub became an unlikely site of integration in 1940s Myrtle Beach.  Charlie broke down racial barriers through the power of music and dance, hosting some of the greatest musicians of our time: Little Richard, Count Basie, Ray Charles, Duke Ellington, and many more. But who was Charlie? How did he rise to power? And what price did he pay for achieving the impossible—an integrated club in the Jim Crow South? This is a story of joy and passion that erupted into violence and changed a community forever.  Subscribe to Pushkin+ to binge the entire season early & ad-free in Apple Podcasts or at Pushkin.fm/plus.