[Dixielandjazz] Louis Armstrong & Little Rock

[Clive Smith]

Dear all y'all

As mentioned in a posting last week, I did make it to the meeting
where Larry Lubenow talked about Louis' part in the infamous Little
Rock Nine Crisis, which was held in the Langston Hughes Center in
Queens. David Margolick, a contributing editor of Vanity Fair, acted
as moderator and did a fine job of keeping Larry on track and jogging
his memory. David's NY Times article of September 23 is a good summary
of what we heard and which Steve Barbone put on the site for all to
read.

IMO it was not as deep as I had expected and this was due to the fact
that Larry seems only to have met Louis that one time when he got
Louis' reaction to what was going on in Little Rock. And what a
reaction that reaction caused !

During the session I sat next to a lovely, little old lady called
Selma Heraldo. When the meeting closed we started to chat and I
learned that she has lived in her present house for 84 years - the
Armstrongs were her next door neighbors and were very close friends.

There was a very professional camera at the back of the room so it may
be that this meeting was being recorded for posterity. If you are
interested in following this up, you might try calling the Armstrong
Museum at (718) 478-8274

Clive Smith