For one night, Miami can relive the heyday of Overtown’s famous Black hotel
Johnny “Cool” Ray Smith remembers the first time he went to Sir John’s Knight Beat in Overtown. It was the first night he’d moved to South Florida from Palatka in northeast Florida.
“When I got to Hollywood, some young guys knew about the Knight Beat Miami,” Smith told the Herald. “The Knight Beat, honey, was something else,” he said. “The first time I went there, there was so much excitement.”
Smith, 87, recalled going to the nightclub located in the Sir John hotel in Miami’s historic Black neighborhood in the early 1960s to dance the Lindy Hop, a swing dance that originated in Harlem in the 1920s. Smith said he would mimic James Brown, even down to the attire and the perms — which they called “processes” back then.
Smith now lives in Homestead, but remembers his time at the nightclub fondly. He recently called into a radio station to share his memories when he heard the nightclub mentioned.
Sir John and Knight Beat are long gone; the hotel shuttered decades ago, but its impact as a stop on Chitlin Circuit during segregation made it important to Miami’s Black history, as well as its significance as a place for Black recreation, since Sir John was a Greenbook hotel that had a pool. But Daniel Washington, one of the artists-in-residence at the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center, is hoping to recreate that experience at the center on Thursday.
The event, called A Night at the Sir John’s Knight Beat, will feature live music by Washington and his band Idyllic Funk performing 1950s and 1960s tunes from artists like Louis Armstrong and Miles Davis, plus dancers and live poetry from a South Florida poet named Butterfly.
The history of Sir John
Originally built in 1951 as the Lord Calvert Hotel, the Sir John Hotel sat in the heart of Overtown and was a key stop on the Chitlin Circuit for Black artists during segregation and had a listing in The Greenbook, a guide for Black travelers to know where they could find lodging during segregation.
Famous celebrities such as Sammy Davis Jr. and Lena Horne who performed in Miami Beach would often return to the Overtown neighborhood and perform at the nightclub because Black people were not allowed to stay on the beach.
“It was the most popular nightclub in Overtown for quite a number of years,” historian Marvin Dunn said. “It was the spot that big name entertainers and athletes came to appear. So it was the cultural center of Overtown during its heyday.”
Dunn said he’d seen a few entertainers at the club when he was much younger, but by the time he was old enough to go on his own, the club had gone into decline.
Smith recalled the club having Black and white guests at a time when segregation was still law. But Dunn said that even in the Black-owned club, Black patrons had to sit in the back of the club while white patrons sat in the front.
“The club was segregated, even in Overtown, whites and blacks didn’t sit in the same area, at least not initially,” he said.
Grant Gravitt Jr., 62, son of late music producer and TV producer Grant Gravitt Sr., recalled his father telling him stories of listening to the acts in Miami Beach and following them to Overtown just to hear them at the Knight Beat, too.
“He took pride in being able to go to different places, because he knew the musicians, he knew the people running the clubs, and you know, if you were supportive of them, they were supportive of you,” he said.
Gravitt said his dad described the Miami Beach audience as a bit more reserved than the Overtown crowd. “[My dad] felt like he was seeing something that he was privileged to see,” he said.
Dunn said after integration the club lost its luster and Black people who once frequented it began going to white establishments.
The Knight Beat closed in 1973 due to financial challenges, the Miami Herald reported in 1988. The Sir John was demolished in the mid-1970s.
Beyond its significance for Black performers, Jacquetta Colyer, 74, a resident of the Oakland Grove neighborhood and former executive director of The Historic Hampton House, recalls the hotel being a place where she could learn to swim at a time when Miami’s swimming pools were segregated.
Colyer recalled learning to swim through a program at YMCA in Liberty City that would take Black children to Greenbook hotels that had pools.
“One of the city pools actually closed in order not to have to have little black children swim with little white children,” Colyer recalled. “There’s always been this issue of swimming and teaching children how to swim and learning how to swim in Dade County. My parents wanted to make sure that their children knew how to swim, so that’s how we learned how to swim.”
Stories like those of Colyer, Gravitt and Smith and others who frequented Sir John are what Washington is hoping will be shared during Thursday night’s event.
“It’s just an honor to do this show in the midst of what’s going on today,” Washington said.
If you go:
What: A night at the Sir John’s Knight Beat
When: 7-9 p.m. Feb. 27
Where: Marshall Davis African Heritage Cultural Arts Center, 6161 NW 22nd Ave., Miami
Cost: $50
