It’s all-white clientele is served by a mostly black staff and entertainment, launching the national careers of Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, The Nicholas Brothers, and a host of others.
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The novel, which mixes prose, poetry, and scenes, is the first to be published from the movement that challenges literary form and is considered a model of High Modern literature.
King Oliver records with Louis Armstrong the first time.
Black Swan Records, established just two years before promising to produce and promote Black music made by Black people, folds. Despite this, many of their signature artists, including Fletcher Henderson and Ethel Waters, continue to thrive for decades. This recording of “Lonesome Journey” by Fletcher Henderson and his orchestra was recorded around the time that Black Swan declared bankruptcy, though it’s unclear whether it was a Black Swan recording or not.
Lois Deppe, singer and sax player who will later claim Columbus as his home, becomes one of the first African Americans to be recorded by early studios. Much later, he will become part of the original cast of “Showboat” on Broadway. Here he sings “Motherless Child.”
Mar. 21st– A large dinner at the New York Civic Club is held, formalizing relationships between Black essayists, novelists, poets and philosophers with publishers of both predominantly Black and White publications. Many consider this dinner gathering, attended by over 100 people and Emcee’d by Alain Locke, to be the official jump-off for what we call the Harlem Renaissance.
Written by Eugene O’Neill, the play paints a complex but ultimately out-of-touch and negative view of interracial marriage. It closes in late October of that year and is the last of O’Neill’s plays to feature a Black protagonist.
Faucet’s and White’s fictional works explore the problems facing members of an emerging Black educated class in a segregationist American society.
Popular New Orleans trumpeter Louis Armstrong joins The Fletcher Henderson Orchestra, at the time one of the hottest bands in the country. This version of “Copenhagen” is recorded soon after.
Josephine Baker makes Broadway debut as featured singer/dancer in “Chocolate Dandies.”