Civil Rights Movement and Jazz

Civil Rights Movement and Jazz

Connor Brem

The 1920’s were a hustling and bustling time for the American people. The stock market was booming, technology was taking the world by storm through moving pictures, automobiles and the radio and the cultural scene was exploding like no one had imagined it would. The recently found peace from the World War was putting everyone in a good mood and the rise of jazz in the popular scene was a fruit of that time. Jazz had been brewing for a period of about 30 years as a new generation of freed slaves were finding their way back into society and practicing the very culture they had been brought up in. The jazz movement was one that propelled the African American population to place of recognition and popularity. Prominent figures such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and James P. Johnson led the way as jazz continued to grow in popularity as well those who performed it. 

       Louis Armstrong, also known as Satchmo, was the most prominent jazz figure of the 1920s due to his stellar trumpet playing and uniquely raspy voice. Armstrong was in innovator in the jazz scene as he was taking songs that people knew and loved and turning them into jazz hits. “But millions of people all over the world also loved Satchmo for his easygoing way of taking catchy melodies and play them as swinging jazz. When he sang pop songs such as “Blueberry Hill” or the French “C’est Si Bon” they became hits.”(Bolke) Armstrong was from one of the poorest districts in New Orleans known for their low class African American population but put that neighborhood in the spotlight as he took over the world.

        James P. Johnson was another great African American jazz artist of the 1920s. Johnson is most known for his piano playing and his composition of “The Charleston” which inspired the famous dance that is synonymous with the roaring twenties. The Charleston was a dance that made its way into the popular dance scene no matter what race the patrons were. Some of the most famous white actors and celebrities could be documented dancing the Charleston at some point all coming from the artistic prowess of an African American man. Because of his successes he furthered the African American people into the spotlight during a time when they were no more than overlooked. As Martin Williams best puts it, “Jazz is a music evolved by black men in the United States. It has been in general best played by American black men, and its development has been dependent on their artistic leadership. …It is a music which obviously has a deep meaning for extraordinary numbers of men all over the world.”(Williams)

Williams, Martin. The Jazz Tradition. New and Revised ed. Oxford Oxfordshire: Oxford UP, 1983. Print.

Bölke, Peter, and Negrone Jos. Bendinelli. Jazz Icons. Hamburg: Edel Germany, 2011. Print