[Dixielandjazz] Questions about laws regarding musicians and segregation

[Ken Mathieson]

On this topic, it's worth noting that Benny Carter was hugely important 
in the merging the separate Black and White Musicians' Unions in Los 
Angeles in the early 1950s. He was one of the few musicians in either 
union who was total respected in both. As chairman of the Black Union's 
negotiating team, he was massively important in conducting discussions 
that led to the amalgamation, which in turn led to the acceptance of 
black players into the studio orchestras of the film, TV and recording 
industries and their acceptance, based solely on talent and reliability, 
of black composers and orchestrators. The successful amalgamation 
established in the LA negotiations became the template as desegregation 
of the AFM spread across the USA. It was typical of Benny's modesty that 
he would make light of his role when the topic came up in conversation 
and stress that it was a team effort on both sides, even though I 
suspect he was, within himself, immensely proud of the achievement.

This is covered in Chapter 8 of Volume 1 of Berger, Berger and Patrick's 
biography of Carter - Benny Carter, A Life in American Music, which is a 
very well researched and detailed account of Carter's career, but even 
in such a meticulously researched work, there's very little detail about 
the roles of those involved or the processes of the amalgamation. I 
suspect the ever-modest and tactful Benny wasn't prepared to make 
statements that others might see as biased or controversial and just 
didn't say much about it.