Harold Bradley, Jr. was born two weeks before the Wall Street Crash. Times were tough, especially for
Blacks in Chicago, but Harold found opportunities to learn and grow. Introduced by his mother, he
talked jazz with Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway, and studied art with legendary illustrator E. Simms
Campbell.

Harold loved music. He was a gifted painter. And he was a natural athlete. He attended the University of
Iowa on a football scholarship. On the gridiron, he was named the Hawkeye’s Most Valuable Player. On
campus, however, Harold was barred from dorms and most Iowa City apartments. Celebrated activist
Helen Lemme gave Harold room and board, and mentored him in sociology and civil rights.

After graduation and a short stint in the Marines, Harold was recruited by the NFL. He led the Cleveland
Browns to two national championships. The sports world hailed him as a football star, Harold relished
the opportunity to be a role model, proving that a Black man can succeed in the white man’s world.

He never lost his drive to create. He and his wife, Hannelore, a Jewish Holocaust survivor devoted to
activism, moved to Italy. Harold continued painting, did theatre, television, and appeared in films,
including Cleopatra with Elizabeth Taylor and Barabbas with Anthony Quinn. He also began a popular
music career, singing gospel, blues, and jazz standards.

The couple eventually returned to Chicago to teach. Harold hosted a series of cultural affairs TV
programs. “Close-Up,” “Soul Side,” and “People Beat” featured discussions on racism in America and
other issues within the Black community.

And when others ponder retirement, Harold and Hannelor returned to Italy, where Harold recorded a
string of blues and jazz albums. He performed for the Pope and for Nelson Mandela, and was named by
the Italian government as an “ambassador to the Italian public on African-American music styles and
culture” before his death in 2021.

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It’s 1985, and guitarist and activist Little Steven Van Zandt forms a supergroup to protest
apartheid in South Africa. That country’s system of white minority rule and institutionalized
racial segregation was in place for nearly 50 years. Despite world-wide condemnation,
embargos, and diplomatic isolation, the South African regime held firm. Van Zandt believed this
stubbornness led to apathy among the world community.

ase in point, a long-standing entertainment embargo against the luxury resort Sun City began
to show cracks. Major artists like Frank Sinatra, Rod Stewart, and Elton John broke ranks and
performed there. Van Zandt cited Sun City as a symbol of the oppression and denial of basic
rights to the country’s black majority.

In writing his protest song, Van Zandt drew parallels between South Africa’s apartheid and
America’s own engrained, systemic racism. Producers worried that the song would draw
backlash, and be unfavorably compared to USA For Africa’s “We Are the World.” Van Zandt
countered that his song, “is about change, not charity; freedom, not famine.” He gathered
dozens of artists who agreed, and came together as Artists United Against Apartheid.

Jazz legends Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Ray Barretto, and Gil-Scott Heron joined with (among
others) Miles Davis, Bruce Springsteen, Afrika Bambaata, and Run-DMC. The resulting single
and album a modest success in the United States, but found a strong international audience. It
debuted at the United Nations and raised over a million dollars for anti-apartheid organizations.
Most importantly, said Van Zandt, it raised awareness of apartheid injustice.

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It’s 1920, and the Jazz Age has begun. First sprouting in New Orleans, jazz music quickly spread as thousands of African Americans migrated from the Deep South to new opportunities in the North. Jazz found fertile ground in Harlem, where it became an integral element in the new social, cultural, and artistic movement taking root. 

Jazz and the Harlem Renaissance co-existed beautifully. Jazz represented a new art form, the first new art form that was completely American, and, most importantly, that originated in the Black community. It was only natural that the young musicians, writers, poets, and artists of this new Renaissance would embrace the music that so represented their own ideals. 

Jazz music embodied improvisation, a break from traditions, a sense of freedom, a blurring of traditional boundaries. As historian Jack Rutland described, “the music was at the center, blurring lines.” Harlem became the capitol of the Jazz Age. Cab Calloway, Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington, and hundreds more changed forever the way we listen, from their bandstands all over the neighborhood. 

“Walls of class, race, and gender were coming down,” said Rutland. “There were Black schoolteachers, Black entrepreneurs, Black police officers,” and Black artists in all disciplines. These artists “would gather in salons and cafes and read and show their work and collaborate with each other,” and the art borne from this era of cooperation still affects society today. The art was the heart of the Harlem Renaissance, and Jazz was at its core. 

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