From the very first page of
Down on James Street (actually page iv the pagination is slightly off), from the clothes, the suspenders, his pointy two-tone shoes and the fact that George is heading out to James Street to a dance sponsored by the Young Worker’s League, we know we are going to be reading about the 1930s.
Unbeknownst to his more conservative parents, George is a member, and they think he is spending the evening with a friend. What he will find is Dorothy at the front door, a young Black miss “ready to lindy hop” who takes the bold initiative of inviting him to partner with her, and then, inside, a happy bunch of “young workers” (although no one is identified as to what they work at).