[Dixielandjazz] African-Americans in Jazz

[JimDBB at aol.com]

In a message dated 7/21/2003 8:44:46 PM Central Standard Time, 
TCASHWIGG at aol.com writes:

> When I sent out photos of the band to many Hotel entertainment managers, I 
> was told flatly "Lose the Niggers and you can work here" or "If you want to 
> lose 
> this chain of Hotels for booking, just put one Mollunjohnny on our stages 
> and 
> out you go."
> 
   I wonder about this.  I worked in this business for many years.  Many of 
the groups I worked with had black=afro musicians in them and my own bands were 
usually half and half.  And this came about just through the natural course 
of events.  I didn't deliberately hire or not hire black-afro musicians, I 
hired who I liked, who was available and that sort of natural flow of things.

I worked with bands in many hotels and similar situations...I was never ever 
told "lose the niggers and you can work here".  I never ran into any 
discriminatory situations.  I did run into things that showed clear prejudice against 
musicians in general but not because of race.

Jim Beebe