Freedmen’s Town is a nationally registered historical site. The site was originally a community located in the Fourth Ward of Houston, Texas that began in 1865 as the destination for former enslaved people from surrounding plantations in Texas and Louisiana after the Civil War. Freedmen’s … Read MoreFreedmen’s Town, Houston, Texas (1865- )
Milton Jackson, also known as Milt or Bags because of the bags under his eyes, the leader of the Modern Jazz Quartet, was born on January 1, 1923, in Detroit, Michigan, to Manley Jackson and Lillie Beaty Jackson. He started playing the guitar at the … Read MoreMilton/ Milt or Bags Jackson (1923-1999)
Commonly known as Al Jarreau, Alwin Lopez Jarreau was an African-American jazz singer and musician who received a total of seven Grammy Awards. Jarreau is best known for participating in the charity song “We Are the World” and his 1981 album Breakin’ Away. Born March … Read MoreAl Jarreau (1940-2017)
The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) is a cooperative organization of musicians that became the leading influence on musical genre of free jazz. It is a non-profit organization founded in May of 1965 in Chicago, Illinois, by Muhal Richard Abrams, Jodie Christian, … Read MoreAssociation for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (1965– )
On July 14, 1946, four African American sharecroppers were lynched at Moore’s Ford in northeast Georgia in an event now described as the “last mass lynching in America.” Yet the killers of George Dorsey, Mae Murray Dorsey, Roger Malcolm, and Dorothy Malcolm were never brought … Read MoreThe Moore’s Ford Lynching (July 1946)
Of the 167 enlisted black soldiers of the 25th Infantry discharged from the U.S. Army “without honor” by order of President Theodore Roosevelt after the shooting in Brownsville, Texas in 1906, Pvt. Dorsie Willis was the only to live long enough to see justice. According … Read MoreDorsie Willis (1886-1977)
Mabel Mercer was one of the most important jazz cabaret singers of the 20th Century. Her personal singing style emphasizing interpretation, diction, lyrics, and projection over vocal proficiency influenced numerous leading singers including Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, Nat “King” Cole, Lena Horne, Tony Bennett, Rosemary … Read MoreMabel Alice Wadham Mercer (1900-1984)
In the extended article that appears below historians Daudi Abe and Quintard Taylor explore the history of African Americans in King County from 1858 to 2014. They analyze the forces which encouraged people of African ancestry to settle in the county and discuss the rapid … Read MoreFrom Memphis and Mogadishu: The History of African Americans in King County, Washington, 1858-2014
Image Courtesy of Ruby Bishop Ruby Carol Bishop is a legendary jazz performer in the Pacific Northwest. Graced with ebullient humor, loving her adoring audiences, and always dressed in sparkly sequins, Bishop at 94 continues to play piano in Seattle nightclubs while belting out jazz … Read MoreRuby Bishop (1919 – 2019)
The International Sweethearts of Rhythm was an interracial, all-female jazz band active for 12 years, from 1937 to 1949. The band began at the Piney Woods Country Life School, established in 1909 to train black children in central Mississippi. The original members of the Sweethearts … Read MoreInternational Sweethearts of Rhythm Jazz Band (1937-1949)
