Little hall, big legacy: Storied Coast venue shares Mississippi Coast history
Decades ago, the voices of famed musicians such as Etta James, Ray Charles and James Booker echoed through a little blue building on Union Street in Bay St. Louis. The 100 Men D.B.A. Hall carries a history that spans generations.
Built in 1922 by the One Hundred Members’ Debating Benevolent Association, the Hall was both a civic meeting space for Black residents during the Jim Crow era and an entertainment venue that hosted some of the South’s most iconic musicians.
Contrary to its name, 12 men founded the One Hundred Members’ DBA in 1894. The organization supported sick members, ensured respectable burials and, according to its charter, hosted “entertainments for the purpose of replenishing the treasury.”
“It was both a serious place to meet … to help somebody in the community, to help do something about the community … but it was also a place to entertain,” said the hall’s owner, Rachel Dangermond.
The One Hundred Members’ DBA was not the only one of its kind on the Coast. Organizations such as the Prince Hall Freemasons, the Regional Council of Negro Leadership and the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows operated chapters across the region.
These organizations were not lost in history — many still exist in Mississippi.
Gulfport native Bobby Hudson III founded the Griots Society of the Gulf Coast in 2020 as a Juneteenth celebration committee. Now, dozens gather at the New Evening Star Baptist Church in Gulfport for spiritual services, cultural education and community empowerment events.
“We’re focused on preserving the culture, history, practices and achievements of African American communities,” Hudson said.
Hudson said that Black-led civic and social groups helped create identity and build systems for activism during segregation.
“It is just a great example of growing out of necessity,” Hudson III said. “Each organization has a particular plight, or a particular programmatic thrust that they really focus in on.”
Many Black-led mutual aid networks and societies phased out throughout the 1950s, including the One Hundred Members’ DBA.
As a result, the Disabled American Veterans nonprofit bought the 100 Men Hall in 1982. From then on, the building changed ownership two more times before Dangermond purchased it in 2018.
“I walked through those doors, and I said, ‘I’m doing this’,” Dangermond said. “Nothing I did before prepared me to do this, and yet everything I’d done in my life prepared me to do it.”
Dangermond said her first mission was to welcome the Black community back into the space after decades of disuse. She organized free summer camps and events while engaging the history of the building with photography projects and documentaries.
“It was sold and the Black community no longer felt like a part of this place, even though it was built by and for this community,” Dangermond said.
In honor of Juneteenth, the hall will host vocalist and guitarist Twurt Chamberlain on Friday. The free public event will begin at 7 p.m. on the back porch with a performance by singer Sherry Hill, and guests are encouraged to bring lawn chairs.
“When I go in there and I see B.B. King, James Brown and Otis Redding on these walls, and I’m playing on the stage, I try to embody that energy,” Chamberlain said.
The hall is a stop on the Chitlin’ Circuit, a network of venues that catered towards African Americans during segregation. Following his performance in Bay St. Louis, Chamberlain will head to New Orleans to play at the Dew Drop Inn Hotel & Lounge, another stop on the Chitlin’ Circuit.
“I take pride in knowing that I’m sharing stages that were played on by people I really look up to,” Chamberlain said.
