Why the Chitlin’ Circuit Stopped in North Brentwood

Imagine it’s 1954, and you are taking a five-piece R&B band on tour.

You’ve just finished your set at the Howard Theatre at 11 p.m. But the night isn’t over. Instead, you pack the band’s gear into a Plymouth station wagon and head 20 minutes north on Route 1 to Sis’ Tavern in North Brentwood.

Manager Marie “Sis” Walls has a hot plate of fried chicken, chitterlings, collard greens, and cornbread waiting for the band, who take the stage around midnight and jam for a couple of hours.

At the end of the night, Walls takes cash out of the till and pays the band, then helps them to the rooms she’s found for them.

This was the Chitlin’ Circuit, a national network of Black-owned and friendly theaters, clubs and juke joints that provided African American musicians with places to play when Jim Crow made other venues either unsafe or unavailable.

Shows were held late at night after other concerts, or on weekdays between bookings at larger venues. The looser vibe allowed bands to experiment with new sounds or just hone their craft between big shows.

Legendary musicians as varied as Billie Holiday, Ray Charles and James Brown played the circuit around the country. Smaller juke joints like Sis’ didn’t keep playbills or formal booking ledgers, so the only two big names confirmed to have played at Sis’ are Duke Ellington and Pearl Bailey.

But few locations could have been better suited to that role.

Sis’s sat near Route 1, the principal highway connecting Washington and Baltimore at the time, so a band going from a weekend engagement at the Royal Theatre in Baltimore to the Howard Theatre — two of the circuit’s “crown jewels” — would already be passing through.

More important, the tavern stood in North Brentwood, Prince George’s County’s first incorporated African American town. During segregation, that meant performers arriving at Sis’s were not simply finding another roadside nightclub. They were entering an established Black community with its own churches, civic organizations, businesses and audience.

Because the Chitlin’ Circuit was informal, it’s hard to say definitively which venues were included. But Prince George’s County research has identified Sis’ Tavern, Evans Grill in Forestville and Wilmer’s Park in Brandywine as the three main stops here.

The Chitlin’ Circuit gradually came to an end in the late 1960s as desegregation allowed Black musicians to book mainstream venues and major hotels previously closed to them under Jim Crow.

Sis’ Tavern closed in 1970, then ran as Baby Dee’s Guest Club from 1978 to 1996. The building then sat vacant for decades until it was renovated in the 2010s by the Town of North Brentwood and the Hyattsville Community Development Corporation with the help of local, state, and federal grant funding.

Today, the space has come full circle: the historic juke joint is now available for private event rentals.

To learn more about booking Sis’ Tavern, you can contact the town at 667-407-1183 (ext. 1227) or email eventplanner@northbrentwood.com.

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