The Civil Rights History Project: Survey of Collections and Repositories

[St. Louis jazz musicians oral history project]

Repository: Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. National Ragtime and Jazz Archive

Collection Description (CRHP): Some interviewees discuss race relations and discrimination toward black bands and musicians.

Collection Description (Extant): During the early 1980s the Illinois Arts Council funded an oral history project through which St. Louis area jazz musicians were interviewed. The corresponding tapes and transcripts of the interviews were subsequently added to the [SIUE] Jazz Archive. The oral history memoirs highlight the careers of these musicians and give descriptions of musical life in the St. Louis area during the twentieth century. Carol Clarkin, Dan Havens, Charles Rose, and Deane Wiley were the primary interviewers in the project, and Carole Wiley was the project coordinator. Bob Bennett, Therese Zoski Dickman and Doug Meyer have continued conducting oral history interviews.

Collection URL: http://www.siue.edu/lovejoylibrary/musiclistening/NRJA/index.shtml

Date(s): 1980s-present

Extent: 20 interviews

Language: English

Interviewees: Claude Abney, Willie Akins, Sam Andria, Theodore Bibb, Eubie Blake, Gilbert Bowers, George Brunis, Robert Carter, Leo Chears, Bobbie Danzie, Eddie Johnson, Leon King, Singleton Palmer, Hayes Pillars, Jimmie Pounds, Eddie Randle, Vertna Saunders, Leon Smith, Lloyd Smith, Ralph Sutton

Rights (CRHP): Contact the repository which holds the collection for information on rights

Subjects:

African American musicians
African Americans--Missouri
Discrimination in employment
Discrimination in public accommodations
Discrimination in sports
Jazz

Genres:

Interviews
Sound recordings
Transcripts