[Dixielandjazz] Questions about laws regarding musicians and segregation

[Marek Boym]

Hello Bert,
The Northern States had no segregation laws, which is not to say they
didn't practise segregation.
In the Southern States the laws varied.  One black musician, I believe Don
Albert, opened a racially mixed club in Texas.  The police closed it down,
Don Albert took  the case to a State Court - and won!  It turned out that
Texas laws did not prohibit it, probably because it had not occurred to it
legislators that anybody might have even  thought of such a thing.
Musicians Union was segregated throughout, except for the New York chapter;
however, even there, black musicians established their own union, any many
black musicians ended up paying membership fees to both!
Cheers

On Mon, 11 Nov 2019 at 17:28, Bert <mister_bertje at hotmail.com> wrote:

> In nearly all books about the history of Jazz music the subject of
> segregation and it's impact on jazz and jazz musicians comes forward.
> But nowhere I can find what the laws/rules actually were exactly.
>
> As I am doing correction work (language, but also fact checks)  for Dr.
> Jazz Magazine, I quite often see these subjects and sometimes things get
> confusing.
>
> So the general picture I get:
>
>
>    - It was officially not allowed for Afro-American and white musicians
>    to play on stage together
>    - They were allowed to work together in recording studios
>    - The laws in Southern States seems to have been more strict than in
>    the north of the USA.
>
> But then the conflicting stories appear:
>
>    - Bill Moore (Afro-American) allready played regular in the California
>    Ramblers (mostly white band) in the early 1920's.
>    - some stories (true or false?) of white musicians (esp. Bix) sitting
>    in with King Oliver.
>    - Jelly Roll Morton recorded with NORK
>    - Fletcher Henderson and Jack Teagarden were close friends, Teagarden
>    was also friends with Hawkins and Jimmie Harrison. Their daily routine was
>    to go out together and practice in Hawkins apartment, probably get very
>    drunk together. As a result Teagarden started to help out in the Henderson
>    band.
>    - There is also report of Pee Wee Russell helping out in the Fletcher
>    Henderson band.
>    - Rex Stewart describes Coleman Hawkins idolation for Adrian Rollini
>    and his bass sax. (Makes sence, since I found 48 records of Hawkins playing
>    bass sax himself!) According to Rex, Hawkins and Rollini quite often jammed
>    together in Harlem, where Rollini with Dixie went out at least once a week.
>
> So, to me this leads to questions:
>
>
>    - was it officially forbidden for white and black musicians to share a
>    stage? If yes, was it actively enforced? (Like prohobition, it was law, but
>    not all the States did actually enforce the law)
>    - was it the same in all the states?
>    - To share a stage during jam sessions was not illegal for musicians
>    from different backgrounds?
>    - is there a certain timeframe when these regulations/laws
>    started/ended?
>
> Any help on these questions would be greatly appreciated,
>
> Bert Brandsma
>
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