Minneapolis spokesman. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1961-02-24

pressions, earthly but innocent hui
NOR, squealing laughter, a quaint
dialect, the uninhibited use of the
straight razor ("Boy, jus, try to
shake yo' haidr') and Of course
uncomfortable outbursts Of music
(much Of it about as closely relat-
ed to Negro life as The Song Of
the Volga Boatmen"). The image
given, in short, was that Of the
"comical coon"
Long Way Up
It's been a long way up from
there, and the end is not yet. Some
80 years ago, a dozen young colored
people set out from Fisk Univ. in
Nashville on the highly uncertain
initial tour Of a group soon to be
known as the Fisk Jubilee Singers.
Within a few years they were tour
ing Europe, the first group of
American Negro entertainers to
gain such fame and acceptance
The spirituals which previously
had been scorned or even unknown
became a part Of their repertoire
and one Of the melancholy riches
Of Negro life thus came to light.
The other great form Of Negro
musical entertainment, jazz had
less reputable origins and for many
years a more fugitive existence;
but In the twentieth century it
emerged In all its rambunctious
glory, to the enrichment of US all.
Series music classical" for
want Of a better word-developed
also from Negro thematic material;
but our subject here is the broader
range, those performing arts which
gave US colored people known to
the common American.
Antecedents
1t Is somehow a startling fact
that several Of the older perform
ers we remember today sprang
from families with immediate and
direct experience with slavery. Bill
'Bojangles" Robinson, born in
1873, was orphaned as a baby and
raised by a grandmother who was
an ex-slave. Both parents Of Ro-
land Hayes, world-famous tenor,
had been Georgia slaves. Paul Rob-
eson's father had fled from slavery
to the north, where in 1898 the
future athlete, scholar and singer
was born. w. G. Handy was borr
in Alabama only ten years aftel
the Emancipation Proclamation
his father, a Negro minister, Ger,
tainly had full and intimate con,
tact with the peculiar institution
over which the Civil War had beer
so recently fought.
First Generation"
So this group was something Of
a first generation" Of freedmen
and as with any such group-thG
obvious parallel Is with the off
spring Of immigrants, though thG
comparison Is not wholly adequate
there were profound problems o.
adjustment. Great and distinctfv,
talent gave these men a chance t.
rise; great determination brough
success within their reach; bu
Negroes they had been born am
Negroes they remained, in a socie
ty far from willing to accept then
simply as human beings.
Not Unscathed By JlmcrO
Thus as late as 1912 Rolant
Hayes was beaten up by police h
Rome, Ca, when he protested tn
arrest Of his wife on charges o
violating Jim Crow regulations II
a shoe store. OF course there wa
nothing personal about the beat
ing; 1t was no more than a ritua
clubbing Of q smart niger" who's
identity, when discovered, causes
some embarrassment to the whites
(although not to Gov. Talmadge
who quickly announced that hi
state was going to keep Jim Grow
laws and protect them." and tina
any Negro who might not like 4
should stay out Of Georgia')
Hayes, who never lost his love FOL
Georgia, was willing to pass OF
the beating with q few mild words
Making History
Canada Lee, born In 1907, wal
one Of the pioneer serious NegrC