Jazz Music and Civil Rights

Jazz Music and the Civil Rights Movement

Kelsey Knauth

1920s: the decade of economic prosperity, impactful technological advances, women’s suffrage, expressionism, and jazz music. The Civil Rights movement is not what usually comes to mind when discussing this time period; gangsters, flappers, and big-band music are the dominant themes at the forefront. Most people think that the movement didn’t exist until the 1950s but according to Mark R. Schneider “the civil rights movement is as old as the first slave’s resistance to an overseer.” (Schneider- 3) The rise of Jazz music in popular culture led to common ground between whites and blacks, temporarily letting them forget segregation and focusing on their love of the music. This allowed those African Americans to rise to fame, gain status, and use their voice to aid in the battle for civil rights in the 1950s and 60s.

Although African Americans were freed from slavery in 1865, their daily lives were severely restricted by the local and state Jim Crow laws that prohibited integration of whites and blacks in most public environments. These limitations gave the African American population very few choices for employment, but many during the 1920s found work in entertainment, namely in the upcoming jazz genre.  Racism and discrimination were a common occurrence in the music industry but many white music lovers appreciated the jazz music of black performers, creating a foothold for African Americans in the battle for civil rights in the coming decades. According to Gilbert Osofsky “Some observers, Negro and white, looked to this outburst of literary and artistic expression as a significant step in the direction of a more general acceptance of Negroes by American society.” (Osofsky -231) It is even said that “black musicians were hired to play in white establishments” (House-113), though unpaid a lot of the time. Unions, like Local 208 in Chicago, were formed to help “raise the consciousness of musicians, strengthen their occupational identity and formalize employment relations” (House-118) for African American musicians, giving them a professional feel and a form of protection. These unions were an early attempt at fighting “racial bigotry” in the music industry.

According to Carl Van Vechten “it became quite a rage [for ‘white slummers’] to go to night clubs in Harlem.” (Osofsky -235) Another journalist wrote that “white people from downtown could be entertained by colored girls.” (Osofsky -235) Whites were looking beyond their skin color and enjoying the music that the African American artists had to offer. These jazz musicians “took up the cause, using their celebrity and their music to promote racial equality and social justice.” (Teichroew-1). Louis Armstrong was among these musicians that used his music to send a message to his white audience, namely in his song “(What Did I Do To Be So) Black and Blue?”

“My only sin is in my skin. What do I do to be so black and blue?” is an example of Louis Armstrong’s activism through song.  Other musicians were not as vocal about social equality but would make subtle protests. Duke Ellington, for example, would refuse to play for segregated audiences, at times. (Teichroew -1)

            Max Roach, Charles Mingus, John Coltrane, Billie Holiday, and other jazz musicians continued to use their stardom in later decades to protest segregation and work for social equality. Jazz was more than a genre of music, but a means to assist blacks in their fight for equality; it was a common interest that spread across racial borders and gave a taste of unity to the segregated time period. 

Citations:

House, Roger. Labor: Studies in Working-Class History of the Americas; Work House Blues: Black Musicians in Chicago and the Labor of Culture durin the Jazz Age. 9. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 2004. 101-118. Web. <http://labor.dukejournals.org.lib-ezproxy.tamu.edu:2048/content/9/1/101.full.pdf html>.

Osofsky, Gilbert. American Quarterly: Symbols of the Jazz Age: The New Negro and Harlem Discovered. 17. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1965. 229-238. Web. <http://www.jstor.org.lib-ezproxy.tamu.edu:2048/stable/pdfplus/2711356.pdf?acceptTC=true>.

Schneider, Mark. "We Return Fighting": The Civil Rights Movement in the Jazz Age. Richmond, Virginia: Coghill Composition Company, 2002. Web. <http://books.google.com/books?id=jZOGZpiBfWsC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ViewAP

Teichroew, Jacob. "Jazz and the Civil Rights Movement ." Jazz and the Civil Rights Movement . 1-2. Web. 14 Nov. 2012. <http://jazz.about.com/od/historyjazztimeline/a/JazzCivilRights.htm>.