It’s 1925, and Louis Armstrong hits the music scene with a splash. With trumpet in hand and a wonderfully unique voice, he took on popular songs and stretched the boundaries of their rhythms and melodies so profoundly that American music hasn’t been the same since. Indeed, Louis Armstrong was America’s first “pop star,” whose appeal ignored the demographics of race in America.
Armstrong’s presence greatly impacted the African-American community. As Charles Black, a lawyer who participated in the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education case and who grew up in racist, anti-black Texas in the 1930’s, notes: “He (Louis Armstrong) was the first genius I had ever seen. It is impossible to overstate the significance of a sixteen-year-old southern boy seeing genius, for the first time, in a black. We literally never saw a black then in anything but a servant’s capacity.”
For many years, however, “the Father of Jazz” kept silent on race issues. He never marched or made appearances with civil rights leaders. When criticized for not taking any public stand, Armstrong would simply reply, “I don’t get involved in politics. I just blow my horn.”
To many whites, Armstrong, with his trademark handkerchief, big smile, and down-home demeanor, represented something less threatening to the status quo. Sadly, this perception turned many black Americans against him. Criticized by activists and black musicians for playing into an “Uncle Tom” stereotype, Louis Armstrong, however, had his own subtle way of addressing racial issues. In 1929, he recorded Fats Waller’s “(What Did I Do To Be So) Black and Blue?” – a song from the musical Hot Chocolates. The powerful lyrics include the phrase: My only sin/Is in my skin/What did I do/To be so black and blue? Out of the context of the show and sung by a black performer in that period, these words were a risky and weighty commentary. Armstrong carefully placed its performance at the end of his concerts for best effect.
It was September 1957 when Armstrong did speak publicly about race relations in America. The country’s attention was on Little Rock, Arkansas, where Governor Orval Faubus and local segregationists defied a Supreme Court ruling desegregating the city’s Central High School. In an interview, Louis said, “It’s getting almost so bad a colored man hasn’t got any country.” President Dwight Eisenhower, he charged, was “two faced,” and had “no guts.” As for Faubus, Armstrong called him an “uneducated plow boy.”
This episode of “Soundtrack to the Struggle” was written by Hollis Monroe. Produced by Ron Adkins. Executive Producers Dennis Green and George Dorman. Hosted by Hollis Monroe.
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