[Ads-l] Juke Joint (1937), Jook (1930), Jake Joint (1919) and Juice Joint (1911).

[Peter Reitan]

Fred Shapiro's post on "juke box" prompted me to look at "juke joint."  Etymonline suggests that "juke" in "jukebox" and "juke joint" may be from Gullah (joog - wicked, disorderly), and ultimately from Wolof or Bambara (dzug - unsavory).  These theories ring untrue to me, if only for the fact that the people using and naming those joints may not necessarily have seen them as wicked, disorderly or unsavory. Certainly the people busting those places on occasion may have seen them that way, but would not likely, in most cases, have been people familiar with that language or dialect.  It seems to be an open question, in any case.

It is interesting, however, that "jake joint" and "juice joint," with nearly identical meaning of "juke joint," preceded "juke joint" in print - and "juke" sounds like a combination of juice and jake - "ju-" and "-ke" or "juke."

A "jake joint" was a place that sold, specifically, a drink made from Jamaican ginger.  In some places, during early prohibition, the Jamaican ginger drinks  were apparently technically not illegal, so it was an easy way around the law.  During 1930, there were a spate of deaths and cases of paralysis affecting people drinking Jamaican ginger at Jake joints, which put the expression in many newspapers.

"Juice joint" was an expression with the separate meaning of a soft drink shop, or frequently a lemonade stand at a carnival, circus of fair - but was also used euphemistically, for places selling illegal alcohol, or selling alcohol under the cover of an innocent storefront.

Most of the early examples of "juke" or "jook", and later "juke joint" or "jook joint," all came out of Florida, suggesting that may have been coined or popularized there.


"Jake Joint" - 1919

[Begin Excerpt]Startling evidence featured in prosecution of a drug store as an alleged "jake joint" in the injunction case against the Oliver drug store . . . reputation of being a "jake joint." . . . "Jamaica ginger boxes" . . . "drinking jake."[End Excerpt]
Tulsa Tribune, August 12, 1919, page 2. Newspapers.com

An article about life in Harlem, published in the Baltimore Afro-American in 1930, refers to barrooms there alternatively as "gin mills" or "juice joints."  The article suggests the alternate words are used by different strata of society, but it is not clear which stratum used which term.

[Begin Excerpt] Greeks Run Fish Joints, Italians Juice Joints and Every Block Boasts a Beauty Shop. . . .  One sees old ladies, young ladies, white ladies, black ladies, brown ladies, crippled ladies, in fact, ladies of all sorts, hanging around in the rear of these "gin mills" as they [(barrooms)] are affectionately known.  To the gentry of another strata, they are "juice joints."[End Excerpt]
The Afro-American, Baltimore, Maryland, January 11, 1930, page 11. Newspapers.com


"Jook" - 1930
[Begin Excerpt]Jook! That New One on Docket.  County Officials Look Up Word, Which denotes Negro Dance Hall, in Vain.  Enter the jook - spelling somewhat in doubt.  A jook, according to J. B. Rowland, investigator for the state attorney's office, who visits such places looking for murderers, is a combination negro dance hall, gambling house and speakeasy . . . .  In writing up a report, Mrs. Opal Given, secretary to N. Vernon Hawthorne, state attorney, is inclined to spell the word zook or zukke.  She has in mind a negro called Zukker, who recently was arrested for having a scrap.[End Excerpt]
The Miami News, November 15, 1930, page 2. Newspapers.com

"Juke Joint" - 1936.
[Begin Excerpt]Many of those taken in the waterfront cleanup were bailed out in time to be nabbed a second time at the "juke joints."[End Excerpt]
Pensacola News Journal, May 3, 1936, page 1. Newspapers.com

The expression appears frequently in Florida in 1937, when there were legislative attempts to ban "juke joints" (or "jook joints).

A long article published in Fort Myers in 1937 attempts to explain the word for people not in-the-know.  The apparently local, white reporter, refers to it as a country word, used in the Fort Myers region, and unknown to a reporter from Miami who came to town to report on the juke joints.  He explains that "juking" is the term equivalent to the city word, "night clubbing."  He gives a history, saying that the original ones had been Black establishments, but that after the end of national Prohibition, similar places started popping up on main roads with more customer traffic, and more of them for white clientele.  The new places adopted the old term, which had been known regionally, as a natural fit.

He gives what he believes to be the etymology of the word, from "junket" - referring to going out on excursions to various roadhouses - "juking."  No evidence is given.

That article can be found here.
https://www.newspapers.com/article/news-press-juke-joints/24659505/

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