As disco swept the nation in the 1970s, the beat-driven dance music also found a home in Fayetteville.
And the dance floor at Delmont Disco Club on Belt Boulevard — lit from below by glowing colorful tiles — was the place to be on a night out.
Delmont was just one of several Black-owned clubs in Fayetteville that set the nightlife scene ablaze at the time.
Owner Robert “Pouncho” Smith said the nightly crowd of mostly young Black professionals was “electric.”
Smith, 75, said hundreds would turn up at the nightclub every Wednesday through Saturday night, each one dressed to the nines and donning dance shoes.
Well-known local DJs like Dr. Don Reid took to the turntables, as disco-goers danced the Hustle into the wee hours of the morning.
Put simply, as Smith did: “It was just fun.”
More on this series: What are Fayetteville’s Black Spaces? Our series will take a look
His career followed in the footsteps of his father, who owned and operated Fayetteville “juke joints,” which Smith described as hole-in-the-wall hangouts where people played music, drank and danced.