The bar at the Palm Tavern, a Negro restaurant on 47th Street

James "Genial Jim" Knight, a Pullman porter turned businessman and policy king, was owner of Bronzeville's Palm Tavern. In the early 1930's, Knight was elected the first "mayor of Bronzeville" - a tradition that continued for three decades and that has been recently revived. With its spotless white tablecloths, gloved waiters, and posh pseudo-tropical setting, the Palm Tavern was a meeting place for black Chicago's political, professional, and artistic elite.