Lackawanna Blues

A M E R I C A N C O N S E R VAT O R Y T H E AT E R

Carey Perloff, Artistic Director Heather Kitchen, Managing Director

P R E S E N T S

© 2002 AMERICAN CONSERVATORY THEATER, A NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

written and performedby ruben santiago-hudsondirected by loretta grecogeary theateroctober 27–december 1, 2002

WORDS ON PLAYS prepared by

elizabeth brodersenpublications editor

jessica wernerassociate publications editor

stephanie wooliterary and publications intern

paul walshresident dramaturg

table of contents

. Characters and Synopsis of Lackawanna Blues

. Talkin’ the Blues: An Interview with Ruben Santiago-Hudsonby Maxine Kern

. A Brief Biography of Ruben Santiago-Hudson

. African-American Northern Migrationby Maxine Kern

. African-American Migration and Urbanization by the Numbers

. Lackawanna, New York: A Mid-Century Portrait

. The Bluesby Michaela Goldhaber

. What Is the Blues?

. Reading the Bluesby Stephanie Woo

. Poetry and the Blues

. A Brief Biography of Bill Sims, Jr.

. Broad Spectrum Blues: An Interview with Bill Sims, Jr.by Adam Levy

. The Griot, Then and Now

. Lackawanna Tidbits: A Brief Guide to People, Places, and Things Mentioned inLackawanna Bluesby Stephanie Woo

. Questions to Consider

. For Further Reading…

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characters and synopsis of LACKAWANNA BLUES

Lackawanna Blues was originally produced at the Joseph Papp Public Theater/New YorkShakespeare Festival in April 2001.

castRuben Santiago-Hudson

Bill Sims, Jr.

charactersNarratorMiss Rachel Crosby (“Nanny”)Lady, Nanny’s former employerOl’ Po’ Carl, a former baseball player and one of Nanny’s boardersRicky, a woman who works at Nanny’s boarding house at 101 Ridge RoadLottie, Nanny’s best friend and proprietor of the house at 101 Ridge RoadRuben (“Junior”), the Narrator as a childMr. Lemuel Taylor, a boarder with one leg and a quick-darting tongueNumb Finger Pete, a boarder who lost most of his fingers to frostbiteSmall Paul, a boarder who was taken in by Nanny after being released from prison Freddie Cobb, a former soldier who served in World War IIMelvin Earthman, a man who challenges FreddieNorma, a white woman married to GeraldGerald, a black boxerNorma’s MomPauline, a big, broad-shouldered countrywomanJimmy Lee, Pauline’s fierce-tempered boyfriend, aka “James Hell”Saul, a former beau of NannyDick Johnson, Nanny’s first husbandBill, Nanny’s second husbandSweet Tooth Sam, a neighborhood characterMr. Lucious, a friendly, one-armed man who occasionally visits NannyTina

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the placeLackawanna, New York, a town on the banks of Lake Erie

the timeThen and Now

synopsis

first beat

Testify. Nanny is remembered as a kind, generous, and loving woman with “a heart ofgold.”

Nanny. Nanny explains that, before she opened her boarding houses, she worked cook-ing and cleaning for a white couple with two young boys, whom she loved dearly. EverySaturday night, before leaving for her day off, Nanny would bake a cake or pie as a treatfor the boys. Touched by Nanny’s thoughtfulness, the boys’ mother tells Nanny that sheshould make an additional cake to take home to her own family. Nanny protests, but thewoman insists. One Saturday as Nanny prepares to leave with her family’s cake, heremployer turns on her and orders her to put down the cake, saying she can’t afford to feedNanny’s whole family every week.

Nanny stormed off and never saw those boys again. Determined to be her own boss, shebought a five-bedroom flat and began to rent out the bedrooms. She eventually came tocontrol two rooming houses, a taxi stand, and a restaurant.

1956. In 1956, life in Lackawanna is good. Jobs and money are plentiful thanks to flour-ishing steel plants, grain mills, railroads, and docks. Recognizing the opportunities avail-able to industrious individuals, Nanny regularly returns to her hometown of Farmville,Virginia, to bring families north to Lackawanna, where she houses, feeds, and clothes themwhile finding them jobs.

Ol’ Po’ Carl. Carl, one of Nanny’s borders, used to play baseball in the Negro League.Now he is an old man with a weakness for women and “roaches” (cirrhosis) of the liver.While he no longer drinks, he continues to sell liquor from time to time, so he always hasa bit of money to give the pregnant young women who blame him for their condition.

Carl says he liked Junior’s mother, Alean, too, but she chose Junior’s father, a PuertoRican, instead. When his mother and father split up, Junior and Alean moved into thedeluxe room of Nanny’s house at 101 Ridge Road.

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Ricky Delivering and Discovering Me. One day, while delivering clean sheets to theroom, Ricky discovers Junior alone, sleeping in front of the television. The next day Nannytells Alean that from now on she should leave Junior with Nanny at 32 Wasson Avenue(Nanny’s other boarding house) when she goes to work.

Ride with Me. The Narrator remembers the joy of riding in Nanny’s LincolnContinental through the countryside. On one of those lovely rides, Nanny tells Junior topull a letter out of her purse and read it.

Mr. Taylor’s Letter. The letter is from Lemuel Taylor, who is about to be released fromthe Gowanda Psychiatric Hospital, but has nowhere to go. In the letter Mr. Taylor asksNanny to come fetch him and take him in. After laying down the house rules, Nannyagrees to take a chance on him and agrees to rent Mr. Taylor a room.

As soon as Mr. Taylor moves into the boarding house, he is accosted by Numb FingerPete, who lost all but two of his fingers to frostbite one very cold night while trying to walkhome from South Buffalo. A “numb-fingered, one-legged fight” breaks out between thetwo men. Later that winter, Mr. Taylor left the house. A couple of days later, Nanny andJunior find Mr. Taylor sitting in a corner of a dilapidated building. Mr. Taylor refuses toleave, so Nanny leaves him some warm food and promises to send Junior back with blan-kets and water. When they later returned, however, Mr. Taylor was dead.

Small Paul. Small Paul returned to Lackawanna—and Nanny’s care—after a 17-yearabsence. He’d been away since 1956, apparently a memorable year. Paul recalls highlightsof 1956, including Nat King Cole’s performance before a frenzied all-white audience, theSupreme Court’s decision mandating desegregation, Elvis’s recording of “HeartbreakHotel,” the Yankees’ victory in the World Series, and Paul’s own betrayal by a woman.When he found his woman with another man, Paul stabbed them both and was sentencedto 25 years for double homicide.

Freddie. Freddie Cobb served in the Army during World War II. He is incredibly proudof his service, though because of his race he was never allowed to carry a gun. He remem-bers the horror of having to stack and bury fallen soldiers.

Goodness. The Narrator remembers Nanny’s boundless generosity to lost animals, aswell as humans. One of the many creatures Nanny took in and raised was an orphaned rac-coon. She prepared him a breakfast of scrambled eggs with toast every day. Eventually, nolonger able to tolerate his screaming and aggravation, she tearfully sets out to release himinto the wild.

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beat two

The Dog. The Narrator remembers how the women at Nanny’s did “the dog” (a tight-skirted dance) after the sun went down. He saw a lot he wasn’t supposed to see.

After Hours. For a while, Nanny ran an after-hours joint without trouble from the law,because the police were always there eating, drinking, and gambling right alongside thecolorful characters of Nanny’s neighborhood. The first of every month, Nanny’s blackjackgame and fish-fry was the place to be.

3 a.m. There is a knock at the door. It is Norma, whose husband, Gerald, beats her. Thistime he’s knocked out her two front teeth, and she wants to get away from him for good.Nanny lets Norma and her children stay the night. The next day, Gerald, who is a GoldenGloves boxing champion, arrives, demanding to know where his wife is. Nanny tells him thatif he hits Norma again, Nanny will retaliate. Nanny finds Norma and her children a home oftheir own. Grateful for her help, Norma takes Nanny to meet her well-to-do white parentsin Toronto. Over an elegant lunch, Junior is amazed by the ease with which Nanny fits intosuch gracious surroundings, although she lives most of her life amid liquor, blood, and chaos.

Jimmy Lee & Pauline. “James Hell” and his girlfriend, Pauline, get drunk and fightevery weekend. Typically, he hits her and she goes crying to Nanny, but the next dayPauline invariably returns to Jimmy. One weekend, however, Pauline decides to fight backand cuts Jimmy with a box cutter and runs down the street. Jimmy catches her and slashesher throat. Four days and 64 stitches later, Nanny tells Pauline she needs to find anotherman. Pauline says she can’t: “Jimmy is my ball and chain and I’m his.”

Nanny’s Men. Lottie remembers her high-stepping days going out on the town withNanny, as well as a few of Nanny’s men.

Nanny met Saul at Lackawanna’s Our Lady of Victory Hospital in 1948. She used to getmad at him because he liked to drink every day. She kicked him out when he started cheatingon her with a woman named Inez: “Let the doorknob hit you where the good Lord split you.”

Nanny married her first husband, Dick Johnson, in Farmville in 1926. They fought allthe time; he was an evil, jealous man who continued to spy on her even after they divorced.

Eventually, Nanny married Bill, a ladies’ man 17 years her junior. They stayed togetheruntil his death in 1981, despite his troublemaking. Bill fathered four children with otherwomen, including three while he was married to Nanny (one with her cousin), all of whichNanny helped to raise. One day a young girl Nanny had taken in off the street comes totell Nanny that Bill has made her pregnant; Nanny responds by giving her a meal and help-ing her find a new place to live. After that, Nanny didn’t like to take in women at 32Wasson Avenue, although she never failed to help them.

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Although Nanny became “Mama” to Junior, Bill was never “Dad.” Once on a fishingtrip with Bill, Junior went for a swim while Bill entertained a lady friend in his van. Whenhe returned from the swim, Junior found that his clothes and the fishing pole Bill hadgiven him had disappeared. Furious at the loss, Bill abandons Junior, leaving him to walkhome alone. Junior calls Nanny on a pay phone, and she sends somebody to fetch him.When Bill comes home later, Nanny tells him that if he ever mistreats Junior again, shewill blow the back of his head off.

Sweet Tooth Sam. Sweet Tooth Sam, named for the yellow tooth that sticks out of hismouth, was the crazy man in the neighborhood. He often talked to himself. One day, Sam’sranting about death and demand for his keys alarms others in Nanny’s restaurant and theysend for Bill. Nanny calms Sam with a set of keys and some cornbread. Just as peace set-tles in, Bill runs in and throws Sam to the ground. Nanny tells Bill that she is fine and heleaves. Nanny asks Sam if he wants more cornbread.

Lucious. Lucious tells Junior why he has only one arm: When he was young, Luciouscourted a girl named Annie Mae, who also had another admirer, a white boy named JoeTinsley. One day, Joe hassled Lucious and Annie Mae while they were out walking.Obeying Annie Mae’s request that he restrain himself, Lucious did nothing at first. Butlater, Lucious went to Joe’s farm and beat Joe with a tree branch. Terrified, Lucious fledand hid for days in a swamp, where a snake bit him on the arm. Although the arm had tobe amputated, he feels lucky to be alive.

Grease Scalp. Nanny never needs or wants much—and she is proud of that. She did,however, love to have her scalp greased with Dixie Peach.

Death. Junior visits Nanny on her deathbed in the hospital. In tears, he thanks her forbeing his best friend. She tells them there is plenty of time for thank yous.

Feeling Better. Nanny is feeling a mite better. But she wants whoever took her teeth tobring them back.

Peace/Peas. Nanny dreams of trying to climb over the wall into a “beautiful garden ofpeas.” She asks Junior to convince the doctors to let her go home, where she belongs.

Nanny. At home, despite her declining health, Nanny continues to fuss over everyone,making sure they get enough to eat, take their baths, and go to their doctors’ appointments.Junior reprimands her for wearing herself out, but she merely tells him she will be all right.She sends him away to do his work. She’s so proud of him.

One night Junior gets a phone call. Nanny is gone.This Is What I Do. A medley of memories confirms the immensity of Nanny’s contri-

butions to the world. “She always gave us hope. And a hot meal. That’s just who she was.”

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talkin’ the bluesAn Interview with Ruben Santiago-Hudson

by maxine kern

R uben Santiago-Hudson, winner of the 1996 Tony Award for his portrayal of Canewellin August Wilson’s Seven Guitars (seen at A.C.T. in 1995), returns to A.C.T. in

October with his own storytelling center stage in Lackawanna Blues. A solo performance tour deforce, Lackawanna Blues is a sweetly funny, glowing tribute to Miss Rachel “Nanny” Crosby, theselfless and spirited surrogate mother who raised Santiago-Hudson in her upstate New Yorkboarding house.

Lackawanna Blues lovingly transports us back to Santiago-Hudson’s childhood inLackawanna, New York, a thriving steel town on the banks of Lake Erie that, along with othernorthern cities, experienced waves of African-American urban migration in the 1950s and ’60s.Jobs were plentiful, the ports were bustling, jazz streamed from the local nightclubs, and there wasplenty of trouble to be found by anyone who went looking for it. Nanny’s rooming house at 32Wasson Avenue was a safe haven for anyone in need of a place to call home, and she welcomedevery stray man, woman, or child who crossed her path with an “open hand and warm heart.”

Santiago-Hudson embodies more than 20 of the eccentric and colorful characters who passedthrough Nanny’s care, giving voice to the “strange lot” of criminals and prostitutes, drifters, ram-blers, and would-be philosophers who lived and ate in Nanny’s boarding houses. Santiago-Hudson is accompanied onstage by blues master Bill Sims, Jr. (subject of the PBS documentary “AnAmerican Love Story” and winner of an OBIE Award for Lackawanna Blues), whose originalsoulful riffs on acoustic guitar provide a delicate punctuation to Santiago-Hudson’s stirringstories.

Commissioned by New York’s Public Theater, where the play premiered to rave reviews in thespring of 2001 (and won a special citation OBIE Award), Lackawanna Blues has been touringregional theaters across the country ever since. Santiago-Hudson spoke to dramaturg MaxineKern about the original production:

part of what i’d love to communicate to the audience is yoursense of yourself as a storyteller. where does that come from?Well, in African-American culture, as in African culture, storytellers have kept our history.We call then griots. Storytellers would gather people round and would tell people the his-tory—who was who, what was what—and that was the way tradition was passed on. Eventhough we were removed from Africa, a lot of our traditions stayed with us. There’s always

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someone who keeps the history. In the black community, people like to spin tales; this goesway back to when they were slaves and couldn’t write or say too much. Still, at the birth ofa new child they would say, “You didn’t just come up out of the dirt; my father was a princein my village and your grandfather was a king.” They would pass on their tradition and givethemselves a sense of pride.

In [Nanny’s] rooming house, everyone had his or her own story. Everyone came from adifferent place to Lackawanna, and, as Nanny would say, “Everybody got scars—some youcould hide better than others, but eventually they all show. Whatever your past is, what-ever your life is, eventually, it’s all gonna get out.”

Now, it was a very common thing for a black man to be on the run from something asmajor as murder or something as minor as not showing up for court, often because theyhad put him in jail for “loitering.” Three black men talking on the corner were consideredloiterers inciting a riot and would be put in jail. Everyone had a record in the twenties andthirties and forties, because laws were made to make a black person feel inferior, and youcouldn’t vote or spend time with friends, or marry a person of another race. Having arecord, as the old blues man would say, doesn’t make someone a bad person, because every-one had some brushes with the law.

I loved listening to people telling their stories, and I would tell people’s stories becausethey fascinated me. People would say, “Wow, I can’t believe that”—until I would take themback to Lackawanna, and they would come into the rooming house, and there were all thepeople I talked about. There was Small Paul and there was Freddie Cobbs and all the peo-ple I had told stories about and imitated. My college friends had thought I was making itall up, but when they came home with me they just said, “Oh man, snap, man, this is gold.You were raised up here, man. Man, I would trade anything to do this.”

I was like a little prince there. Everyone had his and her hopes on me. “Doc, you canread and write, you have a chance, you can make it.” And then I had Nanny, and ultimatelyshe would not let me fall. To fall was like falling on a trampoline, because I would bounceright back up. I would land right in her heart.

how much were people in the boarding house telling you thestories and thinking that you were the future?Sometimes they weren’t telling it to me, but I’d just be listening and sucking it up.Someone would want to be one better than the next one. “You ain’t nothing. You can’t readand write. And they don’t let you have no gun in that war.” “Yeah, but I was still in the war.They don’t let me have no gun, but bullets were still zipping by my ears. They were shootin’at me.”

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And I was listening to those stories and I thought, Wow, that was pretty deep, you inthe war and you don’t have a gun. And not until I got to be a man did I realize how dev-astating that could be. You’re good enough to be in a war, but you ain’t good enough tohave a gun. You’re not good enough to have a job and you don’t count here. You count therebecause they need every able body. It really destroyed a lot of these guys and they’d bedrinking a lot, chasing those blues. They would find solace, and they would find happiness,fraternizing and being there. They would be safe in this house.

in talking to people, have you found that there are other nannys?Oh, everybody has someone like that. All I was familiar with was Lackawanna, New York,Ward No. 1. I thought Nanny was just the one unique one. But every time I would givereadings and presentations, people would come up to me—little Jewish ladies and Koreanladies—and they would say, “That’s my Aunt Ginny,” “That’s my Grandma,” “That’s BigMama,” and “That’s Aunt Louise.” It’s always a woman. The outward appearance of everycommunity, the muscle and the strength, the spirit is a man, but underneath it all, what’sholding the whole fabric together is a woman.

when did you realize that you had the ability to become thesepeople? when did you realize that you were an actor?I never knew that I could really do justice to their stories. I’d be ego-tripping if I said that.I know I loved to act. When I was in the second grade, the teacher put me in a play and Iloved it. I loved being up there and I loved the accolades and the attention that it got me.Even though Nanny loved me, my real mother had abandoned me. I was looking for atten-tion. And I could do it pretty well. And as I got bigger, I noticed I could do things otherscouldn’t. Accents, memorize 16-, 17-page monologues. Inside me I would have instincts,I’d know this is the way to do something, and people started noticing and saying, “You’respecial, you got a really special thing here.”

Every time, acting wouldn’t let me go. I’d go to do this, do that, and acting would go,“No, no.” And then some professor, some teacher, some reverend would say, “That’s whatyou’re gonna be, you’re gonna be an actor.”

Then Mama Overton, who Nanny brought into my life to help raise me, to help giveme a bit of spiritual guidance and a lot of discipline, always told me, “Whatever you wannabe, you gonna be good at it.”

When I was going to school, guidance counselors told me to learn a skill. “You can’t geta job, the reality in the world is one in a million black people makes it, and you’re not that

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one.” But Nanny said, “No, go to college. You’ve got the opportunity to do that now. I wentto third grade. You go to college. Whatever you need, I’ll be there for you.”

If I told here I needed ten dollars she’d give me twenty and she’d say, “Put that other tenaway for a rainy day.” She gave me responsibility and trust, and that makes a man out ofyou. It’s amazing; it takes a real good woman to teach you how to be a man.

did you find that the men who were telling you stories were likesurrogate fathers?No, no, my real father was always around. He wanted us to live together, but I would neverleave Nanny. Nanny would bring us together when my mother wouldn’t allow him to seeme. He would hug me and talk to me in Spanish and cry like a baby telling Nanny afterI’d gone to bed how he wanted to be with me. But Nanny was my mother. She put band-aids on my knees when they were scuffed up, took me to church, and made my lunch everyday. Hugged me up when I was crying, made sure I had Christmas, my birthday, all myvaccinations—it was Nanny.

hat would she think about LACKAWANNA BLUES?She would think, You give me too much credit. Anyone would have done the same thing.And she would laugh. She’d have a real good time.

is there any part of the script you think she wouldn’t like?She wouldn’t be that happy that I tell the truth about some of the people who wrongedher. She would probably say, “They ain’t like that.” That’s one of the reasons I hesitated along time about telling this story and putting it up in front of people. Sometimes Nannywas so good, it was to a fault. So good, people would say, “She’s crazy. She’s a fool.” Butshe had her own agenda. All the things she did in life she was doing “to make her way inthe life to come.”

was there a time when the real world that knocks you aroundcame into sharp contrast with life with nanny in lackawanna?There was this time when I was going everywhere: the Kennedy Center, the EdinburghFestival, all over Europe and the U.S., in theater and on TV, and getting all these awards.Still I went home to the rooming house, and there was all these winos and alcoholics andsome of them with cataracts on their eyes and they could hardly see, and they’d hear myvoice and they’d say, “Doc, you a star now, I told you.” They would just light up. And evenNanny would be just as proud. I mean, even on her deathbed I’d come in, and she’d just

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smile. “I knew you were gonna come. I told them.” Then all of a sudden the door woulddarken and there would be ten nurses. “Next time when you come, bring ’em all a picture.”She knew that I’d be there, and that made me proud.

so that connection, no matter what you did . . .I was never too big or too arrogant to forget where I come from, that’s why I’m writingabout Lackawanna. There was a pride to that little town. This little gem of a town was thisshiny little star in this universe, but it’s not now. It’s run down since the seventies and sincethe steel industry died. In ten years’ time it can return to its previous status if they’ll justhold on to this lakefront property, if they’ll just hold on.?

Maxine Kern is a freelance dramaturg in New York City. This article was written for the Public Theater’s study guide for the orig-inal production of Lackawanna Blues and is reprinted with permission.

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a brief biography of ruben santiago-hudson

Ruben Santiago-Hudson was born in Lackawanna, New York. His father was PuertoRican and his mother was African American. Because his mother was a drug addict,

however, Santiago-Hudson was actually raised by the person to whom he refers as“Nanny,” the landlady of 32 Wasson Avenue, a boarding house where he lived. Nanny andsome 20-odd inhabitants of the boarding house are the characters in Lackawanna Blues.

Santiago-Hudson received his bachelor’s degree in theater from SUNY Binghamtonand an M.F.A. in acting from Wayne State University. He has lectured on theater at col-leges and universities and served as a private acting coach.

An accomplished performer in theater, film, and television, Santiago-Hudson made hisBroadway debut playing opposite Gregory Hines in Jelly’s Last Jam. He also appeared onBroadway (and at A.C.T.) in August Wilson’s Seven Guitars, for which he won Tony, ClarenceDerwent, Drama League, Outer Critics’ Circle, and FANY awards. Other New York creditsinclude Shakespeare’s Henry VIII and Measure for Measure, East Texas Hot Links, and LackawannaBlues (which received two OBIE Awards and a Drama Desk nomination) at The PublicTheater/New York Shakespeare Festival; Ceremonies in Dark Old Men and A Soldier’s Play at theNegro Ensemble Company; and Deep Down at INTAR. His regional credits include A Raisin inthe Sun at the Williamstown Theatre Festival and Glengarry Glen Ross at the McCarter Theatre.

In film, Santiago-Hudson has appeared opposite Al Pacino in Devil’s Advocate andcostarred in Shaft with Samuel L. Jackson. Other feature film credits include Winning Girlsthrough Psychic Mind Control (world premiere, Seattle International Film Festival, 2002);Bleeding Hearts, directed by Gregory Hines; Blown Away with Jeff Bridges; Paramount’sComing to America; a costarring role with John Travolta in Domestic Disturbance; Solomonand Sheba; and Which Way Home.

Television audiences have seen Santiago-Hudson in the CBS miniseries “AmericanTragedy,” which also starred Christopher Plummer. He also costarred with David Carusoon CBS’s “Michael Hayes.” He appeared in NBC’s The Hunt for the Unicorn Killer and canbe heard as the voice of the villain Jess Chapel in the HBO animated series “Spawn.” Hehas also played regular roles on “Another World” and NBC’s “Dear John” and has appearedin Little John (Hallmark Hall of Hame), “All My Children” (Dr. Zeke McMillan), “TheRed Sneakers,” “Law & Order,” “Third Watch,” “Touched by an Angel,” “West Wing,”“Early Edition” (recurring), Rear Window, “NYPD Blue,” “New York Undercover,” “TheReturn of Hunter,” Daddy’s Girl, “The Cosby Mysteries,” “Murphy Brown,” “Life GoesOn,” and “Amen,” among many others.

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african-american northern migrationby maxine kern

When the Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863, less than eight per-cent of the African-American population lived in the Northeast or Midwest.

Even in 1900, approximately 90 percent of all African Americans still resided in theSouth. However, migration from the South has long been a significant feature ofblack history. An early exodus from the South occurred between 1879 and 1881 as60,000 African Americans moved north in search of social and economic freedom. Inthe early decades of the 20th century, this movement to the North increased tremen-dously. The reasons for this “Great Migration” are complex. On the one hand, aninfestation of southern cotton crops by boll weevils diminished production and cur-tailed the need for farm labor in the South. Also, growing unemployment andincreasing racial violence encouraged blacks to leave the South. World War I requiredgreater labor for the factories that supplied the combatants, and northern manufac-turers recruited southern black workers to fill factory jobs.

As black communities in northern cities grew, black working people became clien-tele for an expanding black professional and business class. A new black leadershipwas freer to express a sense of racial pride and solidarity with working-class AfricanAmericans. While Jim Crow laws and political terrorism continued to discourageblacks from voting in the South, African Americans in northern cities became animportant political force.

African Americans also went to war. Approximately 400,000 black soldiers servedin the armed forces. Despite their demonstrated military proficiency and bravery,black soldiers were insulted and harassed by white soldiers. As African-Americanveterans returned home, white opposition to wartime gains intensified. College-edu-cated blacks were still few in number, but they generally provided articulate politicaland cultural leadership. Black leaders were united in believing that blacks’ wartimesacrifices entitled them to first-class citizenship. A subsequent increase in racial prideand awareness in the 1920s during an era called the Harlem Renaissance grew froma black cultural community of intellectuals, poets, novelists, actors, musicians, andpainters. Black communities in the North supported black leaders who were electedto many state and local offices. An emerging middle class was growing rapidly.

The African-American cultural and political renaissance lost momentum in the1930s during the Great Depression. While 17 percent of whites could not support

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themselves by 1934, the devastation was much worse for African Americans. In someblack communities 80 percent of the people were on welfare.

A cycle of increased employment and migration arose again by the 1940s with U.S.involvement in the World War II effort. American factories were hiring new workersfor war production, finally relieving the Depression’s stubborn unemployment. Still,blacks benefited less than white workers from rising employment and increasedwages. Discrimination in employment and wage policies continued to create disad-vantages for black workers.

Early in 1941, A. Philip Randolph met with Roosevelt administration officials todemand equal employment for blacks in industries working under federal governmentdefense contracts. He threatened to lead 100,000 African Americans in a march onWashington, D.C., to protest job discrimination. Negotiations were heated, butfinally Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802 forbidding discrimination based onrace, creed, color, or national origin in the employment of workers for defense indus-tries with federal contracts. The order also established a Fair Employment PracticesCommittee (FEPC) to oversee the implementation of the order. Roosevelt’s actionsimmediately opened thousands of steady well-paying jobs to black workers andencouraged a new surge of migration from southern to northern cities.

The need for labor opened factory work to women and drew large numbers fromthe domestic jobs many had taken during the worst days of the Depression. Workingin war industries, black women found that the pay was better and the work was gen-erally less physically demanding than domestic work. Also, many black women whohad lost domestic jobs to white women during the 1930s now returned to reclaimthose jobs as whites left them. African-American men and women fully engaged inthe war effort were determined to pursue a “Double V Campaign”: victory over fas-cism abroad and victory over racism at home. Consequently, the pace of civil rightsprotest quickened during the mid 1940s. Drawing on increasingly liberal racial atti-tudes, the interracial Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), formed in 1942, con-ducted nonviolent sit-ins and demonstrations in Chicago, New York, and othernorthern cities throughout the 1940s. These sit-ins challenged racial segregation andhad some success at integrating public accommodations such as restaurants. SupremeCourt rulings in the 1940s struck down many methods of segregation. In 1944 thecourt outlawed southern Democrats’ whites-only primaries, striking down their argu-ment that the party was a private club and primary elections were open to club mem-bers only. In 1946, the court ruled that segregation in interstate bus travel was uncon-stitutional, and in 1947 it disallowed racial discrimination in the federal civil service.

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The late 1940s also saw the color barrier fall in many areas of society that had beenall white. One of the most dramatic instances occurred in 1947, when JackieRobinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers, becoming the first black to play MajorLeague baseball. In 1949, Wesley A. Brown became the first African American tograduate from the U.S. Naval Academy.

Following the war, the G.I. Bill, funded by the federal government, gave new edu-cational opportunities to veterans and promised greater economic prosperity.Thousands of black veterans enrolled in technical training or colleges and universi-ties, financed by government benefits. These black veterans paved the way for ongo-ing increases in African-American college enrollment. The number of African-American college students increased from 124,000 in 1947 to 233,000 in 1961.

African Americans continued to migrate from the rural South to the urban Northto improve their economic status. From 1948 to 1961, the proportion of blacks withlow incomes (earning below $3,000 a year) declined from 78 percent to 47 percent;at the same time, the proportion earning over $10,000 a year increased from under 1percent to 17 percent. Although black income improved, it remained far below thatof whites. Black median income in 1961 was still lower than white median incomehad been in 1948.

Whites reacted violently to the wartime movement of blacks to urban areas in theNorth and the West. By the late 1940s, as the black percentage of city populationsincreased, more and more whites moved to the new suburbs that often restrictedblack residence. During the late 1960s and ’70s, civil rights activists began to con-centrate on eliminating the remaining barriers to black freedom and opportunity.Although segregation by law (de jure segregation) in the South had been defeated,segregation by custom (de facto segregation) still remained. In the South, legal seg-regation had been supplemented by customary racial segregation, but even in theNorth, where there generally were no segregation laws, custom enforced racial segre-gation.

African Americans had been barred from many restaurants, movie theaters, night-clubs, and other public accommodations by customary practice. Generally, landlordsin white neighborhoods would not rent to black tenants, forcing them to pay higherrents in the only housing available to them in black neighborhoods. Banks deniedfinancing, and real estate agents refused to show houses in traditionally white areasto blacks even if they could afford them.

Discriminatory hiring practices confined most black workers to the least-secure,lowest-paying jobs regardless of their qualifications. Those few opportunities open to

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black professionals like doctors, lawyers, and teachers were in positions and institu-tions serving the black community. As a result of limited opportunities, by the begin-ning of the 1960s, more than half of African Americans had incomes below thepoverty line.

By 1950, the black population comprised approximately 11 percent of the population ofthe United States, while black migrants comprised 40 percent of the population in severalmajor U.S. cities. By the time Ruben Santiago-Hudson was growing up in Lackawanna,New York, where industrial jobs and related employment in black urban communities wereonce again on the rise, a continuing migration had transformed the African-Americanpopulation from a predominantly southern, rural group to a northern, urban one. Racialconflicts and tension were far from eliminated, but opportunity and leadership were alsoon the rise.

Reprinted with permission from the Public Theater’s study guide for the original production of Lackawanna Blues.

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african-american migration andurbanization by the numbers

[E]ven in the mid-fifties America was a changed place from what it had beenonly a decade and a half before. Two hot wars wedged between them and com-ing after them, a cold one, plus the growing significance of the atomic bomb asa force that had suddenly transformed the world into a place that was no longa series of frontiers, [but] a community which would survive or perish by itsown hand were only the impersonal parts of an American’s experience of thecontemporary world that had changed him and his society perhaps radically inthe fifteen or so short years since 1940.

Blues People: Negro Music in White America,by LeRoi Jones

1865 Ninety-one percent of the United States’ five million African Americans live in the South, roughly the same percentage as in 1790. Blackscomprise 36% of the total population in the southern states while they represent just 3% of the total northern population.

1890 Sixty-two percent of northern blacks are urban. In 1960, this figure jumps to 95%.

1910 Chicago’s black population is 40,000; by 1930, it will be 240,000. New York’s black population will grow from 100,000 to 330,000 by 1930. LosAngeles will be the home of 40,000 blacks in 1930, up from 8,000 in 1910. Eighty-nine percent of America’s blacks live in the South, and 80% of those live in rural areas.

1915–20 Five hundred thousand to one million African Americans leave the rural South for new opportunities in the urban North. Thousands more move West, while many of those who stay in the South still migrate—from the country to the city.

1917 Wages in the South range from $.50 to $2 a day, while in the North they range from $2 to $5 a day. Before World War I, Detroit’s estimated black population is less than 6,000. By the end of the 1920s, it will be 120,000.

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1920 In the 11 southern states that formed the Confederacy, there are8,055,000 blacks, and in 11 northern states, there are 1,086,000.

1920s Blacks comprise, at most, 10% of a northern city’s population, compared to 25% to 50% of a southern city. Seven hundred thousand to one million blacks leave the southern United States for the North and the West.

1940 The black majorities that Louisiana, South Carolina, and Mississippi housed have diminished; 23% of African Americans live in thenorthern and western United States.

1950 The black population in the 11 southern states that had formed theConfederacy has risen to 9,052,000, a 13% increase since 1920, while in11 northern states the count is now 4,258,000, a 400% increase.

1960 Forty percent of the nation’s blacks live in the North and the West, and nearly 75% of all blacks live in cities—the same percentage that lived in rural areas at the beginning of the century.

1940–90 Chicago’s black population rises from 282,000 to 1,197,000; New York’s from 477,000 to 1,784,000; Detroit’s from 151,000 to 759,000; and Los Angeles’ from 98,000 to 505,000.

Sources: “Great Migration,” www.africana.com; “Segregation in the United States,” encarta.msn.com.

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lackawanna, new yorkA Mid-Century Portrait

A pamphlet written in the 1940s (still available from the Lackawanna Public Library),offers an overview of mid-20th-century life in Ruben Santiago-Hudson’s hometown.

city at a glanceLackawanna, first known as West Seneca, settled about 1890, given city charter in 1909.Area of city 5.96 square miles.Population 1940 census 24,058.Center of a 50-mile area having a total population of upwards of a million people.Steel city.On highway routes 5 and 20.Two high schools and twelve grade schools, public and parochial, evening classes.Public Library with 26,000 books.Municipal athletic field.Niagara Falls electric power and also natural gas—at reasonable rates.Railroads: Erie, Lehigh Valley, New York Central, Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western,

etc. from Buffalo.Our Lady of Victory hospital and Moses Taylor hospital.Our Lady of Victory National Shrine.

general informationLackawanna, or the Steel City, as it is often called because of the location here of theLackawanna plant of the Bethlehem Steel Company, is a city of 24,058 population, boundedon the west by Lake Erie and on the north by the city of Buffalo. Many advantages are gainedfrom such a situation. As it is five miles southwest of the downtown section of Buffalo,Lackawanna has the shopping conveniences of the larger city. Two transportation companiesserve the area; several routes of the International Railway Company of Buffalo touch the cityline and the Buffalo Transit Company gives in-city and Buffalo service. These lines connectwith others to bus and railroad terminals, and with docks and the Buffalo airport.

The nearness of the two cities also serves the cultural interests of Lackawannians asBuffalo has large libraries, Kleinhans Music Hall with concerts by many outstanding musi-cians and musical groups, the Albright Art Gallery, two large museums, etc.

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Two advantages are gained by the city’s location on the lake: cheap transportation forraw materials and finished products is furnished for industries, and the large body of watertends to keep the climate temperate.

Lackawanna is a one-industry town—steel. It is served by a good hotel, two banks,many small shops and stores, restaurants and taverns. Railroad yards, ⁄-mile wide, dividethe town with a wide overhead viaduct as the connecting link.

Lackawanna is a city of diverse nationalities and cultures. Over 22% of the populationcomes directly from Poland, Yugoslavia, Italy, Hungary, and Austria. Many others are chil-dren or grandchildren of these people. Over 7% of the population are Negroes. This mix-ture of nationalities and races has been an important factor in the development of a finecommunity spirit and abundance of life for those who live and work here. . . .

religionBecause of the many nationalities in Lackawanna, many language groups are representedin its churches. There are eight Roman Catholic churches of which three are Polish, andone each of Italian, Magyar, and Croatian. Our Lady of Victory Basilica is famous thecountry over for its beautiful architecture.

There are three Orthodox churches: one Polish, one Russian, and one Serbian.Six of the ten Protestant churches are Negro and one Magyar Hungarian. . . .

historical The ground on which the city of Lackawanna now stands was formerly occupied by theSeneca Indians. Ridge Road, now the Main Street, began as an Indian trail to Lake Erie. . . .

Two developments vitally affected the growing district of West Seneca. It became afreight terminal for railroads leading to the West. It became a freight terminal for railroadsleading to the West and the Federal government erected a long breakwall at the easternend of Lake Erie. . . .

Attracted by these facilities, the Lackawanna Steel Plant came to West Seneca in 1900and erected a large plant on the shore of Lake Erie.

Due to a controversy over improvements, the Township of West Seneca split into eastern andwestern parts. The Western changed its name to Lackawanna because of the Steel Company.When the company changed its name to the Bethlehem Steel Corporation, the Town retainedthe name of Lackawanna. In 1909, Lackawanna was granted a charter and became a city.

Excerpted from Lackawanna: Steel City of the Great Lakes, published by the Lackawanna Chamber of Commerce (c. 1947).

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During Ruben Santiago-Hudson’s childhood in the 1940s and ’50s, the population ofLackawanna, New York, represented a lively microcosm of ethnic diversity, drawn to thetown largely by the availability of jobs at the steel plant and other industries. More than22% of the town’s residents hailed from Poland, Yugoslavia, Italy, Hungary, and Austria,while more than 7% were African American. A survey of mid-1950s headlines from thelocal paper, the Lackawanna Leader, reveals coverage of a wide variety of issues, fromCroatian rallies in support of the fight against Communism to a voter registration appealissued to African Americans by the Civic Liberties League. On August 13, 1953, theLeader acknowledged the town’s Suburban Jr. Olympics winners: seven of the eleven vic-tors were African American. A month later, the Leader reported the defeat (6 to 2) of theRochester Ukrainians by the Lackawanna Hispanos in the opening game of the IntercitySoccer League of Upper New York State, while Funeral H. Buchheit topped the Knightsof Columbus bowling scores. And in 1955, two young African Americans, Charles Hill(first place) and Bill Bilowus (second place), represented Lackawanna in the county-widehorseshoe finals at the Hamburg Fair.

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The Bethlehem Steel Company remained an active presence in the Lackawanna commu-nity in 1953, as suggested by this job advertisement that appeared weekly in theLackawanna Leader:

Wouldn’t you like to get a job where you can earn good money right fromthe start, even with no previous experience?

Where you have opportunities to advance as far as your abilities will takeyou?

Where your work is steady, interesting, and your fellow workers friendly?Hundreds of jobs like that are waiting for the right men to fill them at

Bethlehem Steel’s Lackawanna plant. In an hour or less, our employment peo-ple can tell you about the work, and the many benefits available, such as lifeinsurance, sickness and accident insurance, Blue Cross hospitalization, BlueShield surgical benefits, paid vacations, liberal pension plan.

Come in and talk it over with us. Bring your Social Security card and, ifyou’re a veteran, your discharge papers.

The employment office is in the main office building, on HamburgTurnpike, just over the Buffalo city line. You can park your car free, right acrossthe road. Look for the big sign.

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the bluesby michaela goldhaber

“It takes a man that’s had the blues to sing the blues,” many musicians would say. Theblues grew up in the Mississippi Delta, out in the cotton fields, along the railroads,

on the mule trails, and in the levee camps. The bitter poetry and powerful music of theblues were often necessary to give African Americans the necessary “pep” to work sun-up-to-sun-down jobs.

Black “mule skinners” used songs to keep moving for long, hard hours with heavy loads,and the mules would holler along as they were worked to death building levees to keep theMississippi River from flooding. “Roustabouts” loading and unloading cargo along theMississippi would sing to keep their muscles going, load after back-breaking load. And theblues has always been dance music. When the work was done, people would gathertogether in a ramshackle club or a tool shed, dancing and grinding to the sweet sad soundsof the blues.

What is the blues about? Mostly human relationships. Women who done men wrong,men who done women wrong, an appeal for love and warmth in a cold, hard world. Manyblues singers say they simply think about a bad experience with a loved one, and out comesa song. “The blues is about a woman,” said the legendary bluesman Sam Chatmon. “If yourwife or someone misuses you, you make up a song to sing. Instead of tellin’ her in words,you’ll sing that song.” Another blues great, Memphis Slim, said, “Blues is a kind ofrevenge. . . . We all have had a hard time in life, and things we couldn’t say or do, so wesing it.”

The sound and inspiration of the blues are similar to those of gospel, the music of theAfrican-American church. Though a churchgoer might call a blues musician a “guitar-picking child of the devil,” blues music had its roots in church music. The blues was con-sidered sinful because of the intimate physical dancing that usually accompanied them, aswell as the sexual imagery of their lyrics, as in this Chatmon song:

Says I told you to your faceI had another good girl to shake it in your place.Babe, it’s your last timeShaking it in the bed with me.

Where gospel offers the problems of the world up to God for a solution, blues songs arelaments, moaning the troubles of this world without hope of solution.

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Any good blues musician is constantly changing his songs, so no two performances arealike. The blues are intimate music, a conversation between the bluesman and his guitar.Great blues musicians like Muddy Waters also admit their debts to earlier songsters. Thereare only so many tunes and themes shared among a handful of singers, and blues scholarsenjoy following the lines of tradition, as clear to them as family trees, along which eachblues song or style of playing was passed.

Despite the rough life of the blues musician on the road, and the music’s sinful associ-ations, there have also been great women who ventured into the blues. “Ma” Rainey, BessieSmith, Memphis Minnie: these powerful blueswomen gave as good as they got, demand-ing a place to tell their stories and wail their sorrows.

Beginning in 1914 a great exodus of African Americans began as people moved fromthe rural South to the big cities of the North. Sharecropping in the South was still only astep above slavery, and in the big cities there were jobs that paid more in a week than afarmer could expect in a year. This song seems to capture the frustration of the time:

I ain’ gon raise no mo’ cotton,I declare I ain’ gon try to raise no mo’ corn.Gal, if a mule started to runnin’ away with the world,Oh, lawd, I’m gon let him go ahead on.

Blues musicians could actually earn money for playing music at dance halls and bars andcould even record their own songs. Yet white record producers were ready to swindleAfrican-American performers, cheating them of royalties and paying them next to noth-ing. Even a successful musician still needed to hold down a day job to support himself.

The sound of the blues changed when it moved to the city. Country musicians playedby ear, with a free and improvisational style. City blues, in contrast, had to be written downfor recording sessions, and therefore became more formal. Also, the noise and crowds ofcity clubs made amplification necessary. Muddy Waters was a pioneer in exploiting thechallenges of city playing, using electric guitars and adding instruments to create a new,bigger sound for the blues.

The blues expresses the harshness of life, including its violence, as shown in this songby Waters:

I’ll take my .32-20 and lay you in your grave,And the day of resurrection you gonna rise again. . . .Everybody keeps on hollerin’ about old Dangerous Doom.When I, oohhh, get my .32-20, I’m gonna be dangerous, too.

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Like rap today, the blues was frank about the dangers of life for African-American peo-ple, and the anger they felt. As Alan Lomax writes in The Land Where the Blues Began:

The world of the blues was no child’s garden of verses. It was frontier, it wasghetto; it was also shaped by old African traditions, that had trained boys inAfrica to be the armed defenders of their village and their nation and now pre-pared American black youngsters to fight for their neighborhoods and to sur-vive in the harsh worlds of slavery . . . and, often, prison.

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what is the blues?

The weirdest music I had ever heard.W. C. Handy, quoted in Big Road Blues:

Tradition & Creativity in the Folk Blues, by David Evans

To the detached musicologist, defining the blues is a simple task: a basic I-IV-V chord pro-gression laid over a 12-bar framework. For the rest of us who identify with the music on amore personal level, it’s a great deal more complicated than that.

Ever since the blues first developed from African-American field hollers, feeling hasbeen the most essential ingredient. Rough-hewn rural heavyweights Blind LemonJefferson and Charlie Patton, vaudeville-trained belters Bessie Smith and “Ma” Rainey,and Memphis bandleader W. C. Handy played incalculable roles in defining the idiom. InRobert Johnson’s mesmerizing hands, the blues jumped out of the Delta stark and menac-ing; barrelhouse pianists Roosevelt Sykes and Big Maceo gave it thunderous power, andebullient alto saxist Louis Jordan injected a dose of happy jumping jive.

Whether drawing from the mighty postwar roar of Chicago giants Muddy Waters andHowlin’ Wolf, the immaculate guitar excursions of B. B. King and his vast legion ofacolytes, the daunting harmonica exploits of Little Walter and the two Sonny BoyWilliamsons, or the soul-slanted, honey-voiced croons of Bobby “Blue” Bland and LittleMilton, the blues has grown, adapted, remained abreast of the times as the decades sailedby. It remains a living, breathing entity as we cross the threshold into a new millennium,its future assured as long as folks search for relief from their suffering or require a rollick-ing soundtrack for their Saturday night soirees.

The blues is as honest a musical form as it is uplifting. The blues is life—with all its upsand downs intact.

“What Is the Blues,” by Bill Dahl, www.blues.org/history/index.html

The blues occurs when the Negro is sad, when he is far from his home, his mother, or hissweetheart. Then he thinks of a motif or a preferred rhythm and takes his trombone, or hisviolin, or his banjo, or his clarinet, or his drum, or else he sings, or simply dances. And onthe chosen motif, he plumbs the depths of his imagination. This makes his sadness passaway—it is the Blues.

Ernest Anserment (1918), quoted in Blues People:Negro Music in White America, by LeRoi Jones

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The blues is seldom far away, though it may be lying dormant, half-forgotten like an inac-tive cancer. When times are good the blues disappears, but when trouble comes the bluescomes too, and the Negro realizes that it has never been far away.

The Meaning of the Blues, by Paul Oliver (1960)

The blues sound and text were transformed into a third component of African-Americancultural resistance and renewal in performance. Blues performance was an important man-ifestation of African-American “orature.” Molefi Kete Asante, in The Afrocentric Idea,defines “orature” as “the comprehensive body of oral discourse on every subject and in everygenre of expression produced by people of African descent. It includes sermons, lectures,raps, the dozens, poetry, and humor.” Blues performers meshed orature and music by engag-ing instrumental, voice, and visual styling. They affected certain mannerisms and sang theirsongs in ways calculated to enhance their ability to communicate with their audience inti-mately and profoundly. Blues performers often played musical instruments and danced, butit was in singing the blues lyrics that they evoked the spoken word, the nommo of traditionalAfrican philosophy, in order to unleash its magical powers to heal and transform. They usedthe word as a catalyst for claiming and shaping their own culture. Performance was the truetest of the blues artists; it was the medium through which they honed their skills and per-fected their calling as communicators of black cultural resistance and renewal.

“Looking Up at Down”: The Emergence of Blues Culture, by William Barlow

The rural blues were a vocal music used to articulate the personal and social concerns thatarose in the daily lives of African Americans. As black music scholar John W. Work, Jr.,has put it, “The blues singer translated every happening into his own intimate inconven-ience.” Blues lyrics were drawn from two major sources—the folk artists’ individual obser-vations of the world around them and the black oral tradition. Thus, there was both animmediate and a historical dimension to the content of the early folk blues. They were amix of personal sentiments and collective memory. They were focused on the present, butthey were framed in the folklore of the past. Many rural blues were “cautionary folktales”designed to uphold traditional values and foster group cohesion; they were commonsenselessons on how to survive in America as have-nots.”

“Looking Up at Down”

Textually speaking, blues can best be characterized as lyric songs, as distinct from narrativesongs. Their message is delivered from a first-person point of view, stressing the emotionaldimension. Blues do not normally tell stories in the sense of a series of events, although they

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may portray an event or situation in such a way that its underlying story can be reconstructedby the listener.The real emphasis of the blues is on feelings and perceptions.The question nat-urally arises whether these feelings and perceptions are products of his imagination. Muchmisunderstanding has arisen over the question of whether or not blues texts are “autobio-graphical.” Obviously they are not, if by “autobiography” one means an actual life history (oreven episodes in a life history) told by the singer. Blues rarely give any kind of lengthy descrip-tive detail or balanced account of events. Yet there is much evidence that many blues are com-posed as the result of personal experiences and do reflect the feelings of the singer or composerabout these experiences. There is evidence too that blues can be an expression of the singer’sfeelings at the actual time of performance. Blues singers have claimed to have composed songsinspired by the experiences of others as well. There is also much obvious exaggeration andimaginative expression in the blues. Often the singer will create a dramatic persona whospeaks in the first person. The important thing is that the lyrics appeal emotionally to thesinger and to his audience, not that they reflect an actual event. The blues singer takes realis-tic, though not necessarily real, situations and treats them imaginatively. Although he appearsto sing for himself, most of his lyrics are meant just as much for those around him.

Big Road Blues

Although they call it the blues today, the original name given to this kind of music was“reals.” And it was real because it made the truth available to the people in the songs—ifyou wanted to tell the truth. Most good blues is about telling the truth about things. Justas gospel music is songs about people in biblical times, the blues is songs about black folkstoday—and these songs are dedicated to the truth. I’m telling stories that were told to meor events that happened to me—just like all blues singers. The blues is one of the fewthings that was born here in America by black people. It’s our music.

St. Louis bluesman Henry Townsend, quoted in The Meaning of the Blues

In singing about himself and for himself the blues singer may be considered egocentric,selfish, and self-pitying, but though there are examples of such attitudes the blues has awider significance. The blues singer like the poet turns his eyes on the inner soul withinand records his impressions and reactions to the world without. His art is introverted andonly when the blues becomes a part of entertainment and of jazz does it become extrovert.As if aware of the dangers implicit in these declarations of his inner self, the blues singeris as brutally self-examining as the true philosopher, recounting his desires, acknowledginghis faults, stating his thoughts with almost frightening honesty.

The Meaning of the Blues

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reading the bluesby stephanie woo

When lives are upset, families broken, love is lost, the blues comes fallingdown. The blues dogs the footsteps of the migrant, walks in the shadow of thedestitute, sits at table with the hungry, shares the bed of the forsaken. It is thecomrade-in-arms of those whose work is strenuous, monotonous, and ill-paid;it is the partner of the share-cropper, the section-hand and the road-sweeper.

The Meaning of the Blues

The archetypal artistic expression of the 20th-century African-American experience, the bluesis defined as much by its literary content as its musical notes. As Paul Oliver writes in The

Meaning of the Blues, blues tell the stories of “the everyday lives of the black masses—theirworking conditions, living conditions, prison experiences, travels, and sexual relationships.”While singing the blues may be a powerful means of unburdening the heart, the blues is not, how-ever, simple sob stories, neither cries for help nor plaintive calls for an answer to the question,“Why me?” More than a historical record, the lyrics of the classic blues form—like the individualtales recounted in Lackawanna Blues—capture in their first-person stories the universality ofhardship and lost love.

Below are a few examples of the literary power of the classic blues lyric.

Between 1923 and 1928, blues singer Gertrude “Ma” Rainey (1886–1939) recorded morethan 100 songs. Her “Black Dust Blues” is a good example of the traditional blues lyricstructure, which consists of two different lines, with the first repeated twice, forming ana-a-b pattern. Some claim that the delay in resolution and explanation caused by with-holding the concluding statement creates tension within a song, helping to communicatethe depth of emotion embodied by the blues. The format of some of the vignettes inLackawanna Blues (e.g., Small Paul’s initial statement that he has been away for 17 years,followed by his later revelation that he spent those years in prison) in some respects mir-rors this construction.

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black dust bluesby Ma Rainey

It was way last year, when my trouble began It was way last year, when my trouble began I had done quarrelled with a woman, she said I took her man

She sent me a letter, said she’s gonna turn me roundShe sent me a letter, said she’s gonna turn me roundShe’s gonna fix me up so I won’t chase her man around

I began to feel bad, worse than I ever beforeI began to feel bad, worse than I ever before Lord, I was out one morning, found black dust all round my door

I began to get thin, had trouble with my feet I began to get thin, had trouble with my feet Throwing dust about the house whenever I tried to eat

Black dust in my window, black dust on my porch mat Black dust in my window, black dust on my porch mat Black dust’s got me walking on all fours like a cat

In February 1920, Mamie Smith (1883–1946) made the first blues recording, on the Okehlabel. Later that year, she recorded “Crazy Blues” (by Perry Bradford), which sold 75,000copies in its first month of release and more than a million copies in less than a year. Thesuccess of these recordings with both black and white audiences led Okeh to establish a“race records” or “race music” division within the company, a practice quickly duplicated byother record companies. Not only did Smith help to make the blues a mainstream musicalmovement, the first to reach white audiences with music originally from the black com-munity, she represented the entrance of African-American women into the field of pro-fessional entertainment. She also helped bridge the gap between the rural southern bluesstyles that traveled north with the immigrants of the Great Migration and the more urbantradition already in place in the cities of the North.

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crazy bluesby Perry Bradford

I can’t sleep at nightI can’t eat a bite’Cause the man I loveHe didn’t treat me right.

Now, I got the crazy bluesSince my baby went awayI ain’t got no time to loseI must find him today.

Chicago bluesman Big Bill Broonzy (1893–1958) recorded “The Sun Gonna Shine in MyDoor Someday” in 1935, which could easily be the anthem of many of the personalitieswho find their way to Nanny’s doorstep in Lackawanna Blues.

the sun gonna shine in my door somedayby Big Bill Broonzy

Just sittin’ here hungry and ain’t got a dime,Lord, look like my friends would come to see poor me sometime;’Cause it doesn’t matter who, Lord of Heaven,Mama, the sun gonna shine in my door someday.

When I was in jail, expecting a fine,When I went ’fore the judge, not a friend could I find,’Cause it doesn’t matter who, Lord of Heaven,Woman, the sun gonna shine in my door someday.

Lord, I lost my father and my brother, too,That’s why you hear me singing; Lord, I’m lonesome and blue,’Cause it doesn’t matter who, Lord of Heaven,Mama, the sun gonna shine in my door someday.

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Cried aloud, Lord, Lordy, Lord,Now, I used to be your regular, woman, now I got to be your dog,’Cause it doesn’t matter who, Lord of Heaven,Woman, the sun gonna shine in my door someday.

Lord, I’m in trouble, no one to pay my fine;Lord, when I get out of this county jail, I’m gonna leave this town of mine,’Cause it doesn’t matter who, Lord of Heaven,Mama, the sun gonna shine in my door someday.

Lord, I’ve been driven from door to door,Now, it look like my friends don’t want me around no more,’Cause it doesn’t matter who, Lord of Heaven,Woman, the sun gonna shine in my door someday.

I was with my buddy through thick and thin,Lord, my buddy got away, but I got in;’Cause it doesn’t matter who, Lord of Heaven,Mama, the sun gonna shine in my door someday.

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poetry and the blues

Blues as a verse form has as much social reference as any poetry, except for thestrict lyric, and that also is found in blues. Love, sex, tragedy in interpersonalrelationships, death, travel, loneliness, etc., are all social phenomena. And per-haps these are the things which actually create a poetry, as things, or ideas:there can be no such thing as poetry (or blues) exclusive of the matter it pro-poses to be about.

Blues People: Negro Music in White America, by LeRoi Jones

T he early development of the blues coincided with the blossoming of black American art andliterature known as the Harlem Renaissance. During the 1920s, Harlem became a cultural

mecca to which black writers, painters, and musicians flocked from all over the country.Writer Langston Hughes (1902–67), who claimed among his influences Paul Laurence

Dunbar, Carl Sandburg, and Walt Whitman, is particularly known for his insightful portrayalsof black life in America from the 1920s through the ’60s. The first black man to earn a living bycreative writing, Hughes was among the earliest African-American writers to recreate blackspeech and music in literature. He wrote poetry, essays, songs, plays, short stories, and novels aboutthe defeats and triumphs of the people he loved. Unlike other notable black poets of the time,Hughes refused to differentiate between his personal experience and the common experience ofblack America.

The blues was a major influence on Hughes, and references to the “black and laughing, heart-breaking blues” (The Big Sea) abound throughout his work. In fact, Hughes supposedly was firstinspired to write poetry after hearing the blues on a Kansas City street corner at the age of nine.Hughes viewed the blues as an expression of the “Negro soul,” a major theme of his work as wellas that of other Harlem Renaissance writers. In his blues poetry, Hughes undertook the difficulttask of communicating the poetry of the blues through the written word alone.

Source: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum Lesson Plan: Langston Hughes and the Blues, www.rockhall.com/programs/plans.asp; “Langston Hughes,” The Academy of American Poets, www.poets.org/poets/poets.cfm?prmID=84.

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bound no’th bluesby Langston Hughes

Goin’ down de road, Lord,Goin’ down de road.Down de road, Lord,Way, way down de road.Got to find somebodyTo help me carry this load.Road’s in front o’ me,Walk . . . and walk . . . and walk.I’d like to meet a good friendTo come along an’ talk.Road, road, road, O!Road, road . . . road . . . road, road!Road, road, road, O!On de No’thern road.These Mississippi towns ain’tFit for a hoppin’ toad.

homesick bluesby Langston Hughes

De railroad bridge’sA sad song in de air.De railroad bridge’sA sad song in de air.Ever time de trains passI wants to go somewhere.

I went down to de station.Ma heart was in ma mouth.Went down to de station.Heart was in ma mouth.Lookin’ for a box carTo roll me to de South.

Homesick blues, Lawd,’s a terrible thing to have.Homesick blues isA terrible thing to have.To keep from cryin’I opens ma mouth an’ laughs.

Originally published in Measure, June 1926.Reprinted in Fine Clothes to the Jew, 1927.

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compensationby Paul Laurence Dunbar (1896)

Because I had loved so deeply,Because I had loved so long,God in His great compassionGave me the gift of song.

Because I have loved so vainly,And sung with such faltering breath,The Master in infinite mercyOffers the boon of Death.

minstrel manby Langston Hughes

Because my mouthIs wide with laughterAnd my throatIs deep with song,You do not think I suffer afterI have held my painSo long?

Because my mouth Is wide with laughter,You do not hearMy inner cry? Because my feetAre gay with dancing,You do not know I die?

untitledby Langston Hughes

The millsThat grind and grind,That grind out steelAnd grind away the

Lives of men—In the sunset their stacksAre great black silhouettesAgainst the sky.In the dawnThey belch red fire.The mills—Grinding new steel,Old men.

Excerpted from The Big Sea: An Auto-biography,by Langston Hughes.

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my sort o’ manby Paul Laurence Dunbar (1896)

I don’t believe in ’ristercratsAn’ never did, you see;The plain ol’ homelike sorter folksIs good enough for me.O’ course, I don’t desire a manTo be too tarnal rough,But then, I think all folks should knowWhen they air nice enough.

Now there is folks in this here world,From peasant up to king,Who want to be so awful niceThey overdo the thing.That’s jest the thing that makes me sick,An’ quicker ’n a winkI set it down that them same folksAin’t half so good’s you think.

I like to see a man dress nice,In clothes becomin’ too;I like to see a woman fixAs women orter to do;An’ boys an’ gals I like to seeLook fresh an’ young an’ spry,—We all must have our vanityAn’ pride before we die.

But I jedge no man by his clothers,—Nor gentleman nor tramp;The man that wears the finest suitMay be the biggest scamp,An’ he whose limbs air clad in ragsThat make a mournful sight,

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In life’s great battle may have provedA hero in the fight.

I don’t believe in ’ristercrats;I like the honest tanThat lies upon the healthful cheekAn’ speaks the honest man;I like to grasp the brawny handThat labor’s lips have kissed,For he who has not labored hereLife’s greatest pride has missed:

The pride to feel that yore own strengthHas cleaved fur you the wayTo heights to which you were not born,But struggled day by day.What though the thousands sneer an’ scoff,

An’ scorn yore humble birth?Kings are but puppets; you are kingBut right o’ royal worth.

The man who simply sits an’ waitsFur good to come along,Ain’t worth the breath that one would takeTo tell him he is wrong.Fur good ain’t flowin’ round this worldFur every fool to sup;You’ve got to put your see-ers on,An’ go an’ hunt it up.

Good goes with honesty, I say,To honor an’ to bless;To rich an’ poor alike it bringsA wealth o’ happiness.The ’ristercrats ain’t got it all,Fur much to their su’prise,That’s one of earth’s most blessed thingsThey can’t monopolize.

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a brief biography of bill sims, jr.

The blues has many distinct origins and sounds. Delta blues, Chicago blues, WestCoast blues, East Coast blues, rhythm and blues, and on and on, each with its own

unique flavor. If you ask Bill Sims what type of blues he plays, his answer is simply, “I playthe Blues.”

In 1946, the Rev. William Sims moved his family from the hard life of sharecroppingin rural Georgia to Marion, Ohio, where Bill was raised. The Reverend brought with himthe rich musical traditions of his childhood: the blues and gospel. He passed it all on to hisson, who started playing piano at the age of four on the old piano in the living room. At14, Bill, Jr., turned professional when he joined the Jacksonian Blues, a rhythm and bluesband considered the top in Ohio. He left the band to attend Ohio State University, wherehe majored in music. He had the privilege to play with many great blues and R&B legendsthat performed at the university. He learned his lessons well sitting in the piano chair ofMuddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Freddie King, the Ojays, Jerry Butler, and many more.

In 1971, Bill joined The Four Mints, a doo-wop rhythm and blues group. Some of theirsongs made it to the charts, including “You’re My Desire” and “Row My Boat.” The grouptraveled the country, opening for the mega-bands of the 1970s such as Gladys Knight andEarth, Wind, and Fire. In 1976, Bill left The Four Mints to explore other musical venues.Incorporating his vast musical expertise and love for world music, Bill founded TheLamorians, an avant-garde jazz band that relied heavily on traditional African drumming.

In 1988, Bill came full circle and returned to the blues. He founded his own band, BillSims and the Cold Blooded Blues Band, in which he is both lead guitarist and lead vocal-ist. He is currently considered one of the best musicians in the New York City blues scene.Besides regularly performing at the best blues clubs in the city, Bill tours extensively bothdomestic and internationally. His virtuoso musicianship can be heard in most homes acrossAmerica in the advertising spots of Coca-Cola, Reebok, Folgers, and ESPN. In 1992, Billreleased his first CD, Blues before Sunrise. In 1999 his much-awaited CD Bill Sims wasreleased on Warner Brothers records to coincide with “An American Love Story,” a ten-hour PBS special on Bill.

When asked why he plays the blues, Bill simply replies, “Because my daddy played theblues.” Luckily for music lovers everywhere, the tradition continues.

Reprinted with permission from Bill Sims, Jr.’s Web site, www.billsimsjr.com.

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broad-spectrum bluesAn Interview with Bill Sims, Jr.

by adam levy

“I’m happy to be talking about music for a change,” says Bill Sims, beaming over hismorning cup of coffee. The day before we spoke, People magazine had interviewed

him about “An American Love Story,” the recently aired PBS documentary on Sims andhis interracial family.

If you’ve seen the series, you’ve heard a taste of Sims’s music. A more comprehensivesampling of Sims’s wide-angle approach to the blues—from the front-porch banjo strainsof “Nobody’s Fault but Mine” to the ’70s-style soul groove of “Smoky City” to the NewOrleans parade rhythms that drive his cover of Charlie Patton’s “Black Mare”—can befound on his debut album, Bill Sims [Warner Bros.]. The record is dripping with authen-tic blues flavors and serves as a strong vehicle for Sims’s honey-mustard voice and hissnarling, Albert King–influenced guitar style.

“So much of blues today is about having a good time, dancing, and drinking beer,” saysSims. “But I like to present a broader spectrum of the blues because I grew up hearing allof it, and I think it’s important for people to be aware of the more complete history of themusic. ‘I’ve Got My Mojo Working’ and ‘Everyday I Have the Blues’ are great songs, butthey’re not the whole story. Many different artists were affected by the blues, and I like toshow the relationship between, say, Charlie Patton and Miles Davis, or between Lead Bellyand Bob Dylan.”

Sims is partial to slower tunes, such as Howlin’ Wolf ’s “Mr. Airplane Man” and AlbertKing’s “As the Years Go Passing By”—both of which are featured on Bill Sims. “I like thestuff with a lot of open space,” he confirms. “Today’s blues musicians seem to be scared ofspace. The blues has become more guitar oriented, and guitar players tend to want to fillup every bar with screaming licks. But that’s not where the blues comes from. It’s a vocaltradition, and the guitar is there to support the vocal. The blues is about telling a story—whether it’s sad or joyful—and when the story gets so emotional that you don’t want to sayany more, you can push the envelope a little farther with the guitar. For example, B. B.King sings the song, and then plays a solo. The guitar is an extension of his voice—it’s notthe focus of the song.”

Sims’s support system is a 1956 Les Paul. It’s tempting to think that anyone wouldsound great on such a primo ax, but Sims dismisses the notion that it’s all in the wood. “I’lltell you a story,” he says. “In 1969, I met Robert Lockwood, Jr., who had come to play in

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a little club I was running in Ohio. That afternoon, we were sitting around jamming, andI had my Ventura acoustic that I bought when I was 15. I said, ‘Man, this guitar sucks.’Robert said, ‘Here, let me see it.’ He played it, and all this incredible music came out of it.So then he said, ‘The guitar’s fine. I guess you just can’t play’. Ooh, that hurt. But he wasright, and he taught me a valuable lesson: The guitar’s not the instrument, I’m the instru-ment. I’ve never complained about a guitar since.” . . .

“I feel like I’m putting the time I spend performing into my ‘retirement fund,’” says the50-year-old bluesman. “With the blues, the older you get, the more valuable you become.All I have to do is stay healthy and stay alive, and when everybody else is retiring at 65, I’llbe just hitting my prime.”

Excerpted with permission from Guitar Player magazine (January 2000).

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the griot, then and now

The legions of folk musicians and songsters who created and sustained the blues intheir infancy were African-American variations on the famous West African “griot”

tradition. The griots were talented musicians and folklorists designated to be the oral car-riers of their people’s culture; in some regions, such as the western Sudan, they were ahereditary caste. Griots preserved the history, traditions, and mores of their respectivetribes and kinship groups through songs and stories. They composed songs of praise fortribal chieftains or powerful clans. But they were also known for their complaint songs,which often got them branded as dissidents by their tribal leaders. Griots were bothadmired and feared by their fellow tribe members since they were thought to consort withtrickster gods and even evil spirits. While many griots confined themselves to one village,others roamed about their homelands entertaining and educating people in one villageafter another. Since they lived in a culture organized around an oral tradition, the griotsfunctioned as the “libraries” of West African tribal societies by supporting among them-selves successive generations of living books. A well-known West African proverb states:“When an old man dies, a library burns to the ground.”

“Looking Up at Down”: The Emergence of Blues Culture,by William Barlow

griots, griottes go electric, yet preserve ancientrolesThe ancient West African profession of griots and griottes—individuals who orally passon history—can be traced back nearly 1,000 years, yet these esteemed historians-musiciansare thriving and expanding their audiences, with the help of modern technology such asthe Internet and communications satellites.

“Widely popularized by Alex Haley’s narrative Roots, griots are best known outsideAfrica for genealogy and musical performances,” said Thomas Hale, professor of African,French, and comparative literature [at Penn State University]. “But over the centuries, theyhave performed a variety of important functions for African rulers and communities—pro-viding advice, serving as a spokesperson, reporting news, and praise-singing—that servedas a social glue for African societies.

“No profession in any other part of the world is charged with such wide-ranging andintimate involvement in the lives of the people,” he said. “What distinguishes griots frompoets in the western tradition is that the speech of these African wordsmiths combines

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both poetic art and, in many cases, a much less clearly defined occult power that listenersrespect and sometimes fear. This verbal art ranges from short praise songs for people insociety today to long epics about heroes of the past.” . . .

In modern times, the griots’ expansion from the courtyards of West African nobility toa global audience occurred slowly at first with the introduction of the railroad and theautomobile, according to Hale.

“Air travel in the 1950s greatly increased their performance opportunities and contexts,followed by the benefits of radio and tape recorders in the 1960s and ’70s, allowing morepeople to hear the griots’ work,” he said. “Television, the communications satellite and theInternet are now helping to create a global audience for griots.”

Another example of technology’s impact: the evolution of [griots’] musical instrumentsas newer materials become available and cost-effective. Griots are adding amplifiers totheir instruments so they can play before audiences in larger venues. Nylon fishing line,which lasts longer and is easier to obtain, has replaced strips of antelope hide on the 21-stringed kora, an instrument played by many griots.

Such shifts lead to concerns over the potential loss of traditional values and styles, butperhaps they are inevitable in order for griots to reach their global audiences, Hale said.They are in demand not only for performances before expatriate African communities inthe United States and Europe, but also before [western] audiences hungry for world cul-ture and music.

“Griots may be vehicles for conveying the past to the present, but they are no morelocked into traditional technology than the blacksmith who discovers welding or theweaver who adopts color-fast thread,” he said. “Where it suits their needs, many griotshave embraced modern technology without hesitation.

“The traditional nature of the profession masks an inherent adaptability that hasenabled griots to survive for so many centuries through the political phases of colonialism,independence, and neocolonialism, as well as the many waves of Islamic and Western cul-tural influences that continue to sweep across the Sahel and Savanna regions today,” saidHale.

“Griots, Griottes Go Electric, Yet Preserve Ancient Roles,” by Vicki Fong, excerpted with permission from Intercom, Penn State’sfaculty/staff newspaper (January 27, 2000).

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griots and the bluesThere seem to be many interesting parallels between the attitudes of the savannah com-munities to the griot and those of the black community to the blues singer which . . . bearcomparison. Blues singers are not necessarily socially acceptable in the black community,but they are certainly known to most members of it. They, too, are the source of humor andentertainment, of gossip and comment, and a singer like Lightnin’ Hopkins is very mucha griot in personality, with a similar flair for spontaneous and devastating comment on thepassing scene. . . . Like the griot, there are individual performers, duos, and small groups,similarly depending on stringed instruments, the occasional horn, and rhythmic accompa-niment. Those qualities of light rhythm, swing, and subtle syncopation which characterizethe music of many blues singers, those aptitudes for improvisation in music and in verse,those repertoires of traditional song, stock-in-trade lines and phrases and sudden originalwords and verse—all these are no less recognizably the hallmarks of the griots.

Savannah Syncopators: African Retentions in the Blues, by Paul Oliver

The African songsters who synthesized the blues from earlier genres of black folk musicwere descendants of the griots, carrying forward the historical and cultural legacy of theirpeople even while they were setting a new agenda for social discourse and action. Theirsongs were the collective expression of the experiences of a new generation of AfricanAmericans born after slavery but still living with its legacy, still caught up in a life-or-deathstruggle for survival and freedom. As one folk historian put it, “The blues started whenblack people began to discover that being free as they thought . . . well, being free wasn’tas free as it was said to be.”

“Looking Up at Down”

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LACKAWANNA tidbitsA Brief Guide to People, Places, and Things Mentioned in Lackawanna Blues

by stephanie woo

“still cool enough to slow drag in front of the juke box with missjerda or bop to reete-petite with miss jadie”Sung by Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Jackie Wilson, “Reet-Petite” was a minor hit for theR&B soul singer in the late 1950s. A high school dropout who got his break as a memberof The Dominoes, Wilson was perhaps best known for the song “(Your Love KeepsLifting Me) Higher and Higher.”

“and they were jumping: cleveland, buffalo, chicago, erie, toledo,detroit, gary, lackawanna.”Cleveland, Ohio; Buffalo, New York; Chicago, Illinois; Erie, Pennsylvania; Toledo, Ohio;Detroit, Michigan; Gary, Indiana; and Lackawanna, New York all border Lake Erie, thesmallest (by volume) of the five Great Lakes. The basin of Lake Erie is very fertile and,therefore, intensively farmed. As a result, it is the most densely populated of the five basins.The industrial benefits of accessible transportation and power, combined with the draw ofrich soil, created a pocket of prosperity surrounding Lake Erie, especially during the post-war boom of the mid-20th century.

“i got to get to detroit, that’s where joe louis is from.”From 1937 to 1949, Joe Louis, the “Brown Bomber,” reigned as the heavyweight boxingchampion of the world. Over the course of his career, Louis successfully defended his titlemore times than any heavyweight boxer in history. He won five world championships and 23of his first 27 fights (all of which were victories) with knockouts. Louis lost his heavyweighttitle to Ezzard Charles in 1950 and retired at the age of 37 to a life as a Las Vegas casino host.

“i was playing ball in the negro league traveling all over.”Negro leagues were established in the late 19th and early 20th centuries for black baseballplayers who were barred by racial discrimination from playing in the national majorleagues. While there were many different Negro leagues, organized primarily by geogra-phy, the first financially successful, and thus best-known, Negro National League wasfounded in 1920 by baseball Hall of Famer Andrew “Rube” Foster.

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“when i come here she had a little jitney, was picking up men andtaking them back and forth to work at the mills, buffalo brakebeam, and what have you.”A jitney is a small motor vehicle, such as a bus or van, that transports passengers on a routefor a small fare. A rail industry manufacturer of brake beams and other rail accessories,Buffalo Brake Beam has likely employed many inhabitants of the greater Buffalo area,including residents of Lackawanna.

“maxie’s bar and grill where billy holiday, lionel hampton, and billyeckstine performed and devoured the famous fish sandwiches withwilted lettuce and that special sauce was right across the street.”Billie Holiday (1915–59), “Lady Day,” is considered one of the greatest jazz and blues singersof all time. Swing master Lionel Hampton (1913–2002), “King of the Vibraphone,” was thefirst musician to record on that instrument. Leading his own big band from the 1940s throughthe mid 1960s, he was known for the rhythmic vitality of his playing and superb showman-ship as a performer. Singer and bandleader Billy Eckstine (1914–93) is remembered for fos-tering the careers of such artists as Sarah Vaughn, Dizzy Gillespie, and Miles Davis and as aperformer of popular songs, including “That Old Black Magic” and “You Go to My Head.”

“we passed the welcome sign in bold black letters ‘gowandapsychiatric hospital.’”In 1894, the New York State Department of Mental Hygiene claimed 500 acres of land inCollins, New York (30 miles south of Buffalo) from a Quaker community.The first of more than100 buildings that would comprise the Gowanda Psychiatric Hospital was completed in 1898.At its peak, the Gowanda Hospital housed more than 4,000 of New York’s 100,000 mentally illpatients. In the late 1950s (around the time Lackawanna’s Lemuel Taylor would have beenreleased), however, new antipsychotic drugs gave many patients a newfound ability to functionin society, and their release helped to reduce the population. In 1982, as the institution thencared for just over 600 patients, part of the center was commandeered for use as a medium-security prison. The Department of Corrections claimed the remaining space in 1994.

“nanny pulled into the visitor’s parking lot she handed me alittle brown bag with my liverwurst and onions on wonder bread, anickel bag of lay’s potato chips, and an rc cola wrapped in tin foil.”All three of these major food products were first created in the United States in the early20th century: Wonder bread was launched by the Taggart Baking Company in

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Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1921. H. W. Lay & Company (now Frito-Lay) introducedLAY’S® brand potato chips, originally made by a small business in Atlanta, Georgia, andthe first potato chips sold nationally, in 1938. Founded in a basement in Columbus,Georgia, in 1905, Royal Crown Company Inc., maker of RC Cola, eventually became thethird largest cola company in the United States.

“a lot of things was going on that year ya’ know in ’56 nat kingcole was performing in front of an all-white audience and a mobattacked him. . . . talking about get your kicks on route 66, he gothis kicks the heck out of there that night.”Hailed as one of the best and most influential pianists and small-group leaders of theswing era, Nat King Cole (1917–65) attained his greatest commercial success as a vocalistspecializing in warm ballads and light swing. Cole’s popularity allowed him to become thefirst African American to host a network variety program, “The Nat King Cole Show,”which debuted on NBC in 1956. The show fell victim to the bigotry of the times, how-ever, and despite good ratings was canceled after one season; few sponsors were willing tobe associated with a black entertainer.

Cole was sometimes criticized by other blacks for not taking a more aggressive standagainst unfair treatment of racial minorities. He did not refuse to perform before segre-gated audiences, believing that goodwill and an exhibition of his talent were more effec-tive than formal protests in combating racism. In 1956, at the height of his fame, Cole wasattacked by a group of white men while performing in Birmingham, Alabama. He neverperformed in the state again. In 1996, Alabama chose Cole’s song “Unforgettable” for usein a state tourism campaign.

While born in Montgomery, Alabama, Cole grew up in Chicago and later lived in LosAngeles, situating his life along the lines of U.S. Route 66, the famous highway thatstretched across the United States with Los Angeles and Chicago as its endpoints.Conceived by Cyrus Stevens Avery of Tulsa, Oklahoma, as an effort by local boosters tolink the former Indian Territory with Illinois and California, Route 66 was completed in1926 from a patchwork of hundreds of existing roads. Immortalized in fiction, photogra-phy, film, television, and song, the towns and truck stops along Route 66 came to repre-sent the “real” America of the 1930s through ’60s, and traveling its 2,400-mile lengthremains a rite of passage for young Americans. Cole released the song “Route 66” with itsfamous refrain—”Get your kicks on Route 66”—in 1946.

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“in that same year the supreme court ordered the mandatorydesegregation. everything is equal, no more colored this, no morewhite that. you can go anywheres you want to go. at least theylet you think that.”During the late 1940s and early 1950s, lawyers for the National Association for theAdvancement of Colored People (NAACP) pressed a series of important cases before theU.S. Supreme Court in which they argued that segregation meant inherently unequal (andinadequate) educational and other public facilities for blacks. These cases culminated in thecourt’s landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (May 17, 1954),in which it declared unanimously that separate educational facilities were inherently unequaland therefore unconstitutional. This historic decision was to stimulate a mass movement onthe part of blacks and white sympathizers to try to end the segregationist practices and racialinequalities that were firmly entrenched across the nation and particularly in the South. Themovement was strongly resisted by many whites in the South and elsewhere.

After a black woman, Rosa Parks, was arrested for refusing to move to the Negro sec-tion at the back of a bus in Montgomery, Alabama (December 1, 1955), blacks staged aone-day local boycott of the bus system to protest her arrest. Fusing these protest elementswith the historic force of the Negro churches, a local Baptist minister, Martin Luther King,Jr., succeeded in transforming a spontaneous racial protest into a massive resistance move-ment. On November 13, 1956, following a protracted boycott of the Montgomery buscompany, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a federal court ruling declaring segregation onbuses unconstitutional. Blacks returned to the buses on December 21, more than a yearafter the boycott began. But their troubles were not over. Snipers shot at buses, forcing thecity to suspend bus operations after 5 p.m. A group tried to start a whites-only bus serv-ice. There was also a wave of bombings.

During the period from 1955 to 1960, some progress was made toward integratingschools and other public facilities in the upper South and the border states, but the DeepSouth remained adamant in its opposition to most desegregation measures.

“ask john brown. history, son, look it up.”John Brown (1800–59), whose body “lies a-mold-ring in the grave” in the well-known folksong “John Brown’s Body,” was a militant white abolitionist active in the era preceding theCivil War. Acquiring fame after murdering five slavery supporters in revenge for the killingof abolitionists in Lawrence, Kansas, Brown devoted much of his life to educating youngblacks and furthering the abolitionist cause. On October 18, 1859, seeking to end slaveryby force, Brown amassed a force of 18 men and commandeered the arsenal and armory at

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Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia). After a battle with U.S. Marines led byColonel Robert E. Lee (future commander of the Confederate forces in the Civil War),Brown’s defenses were overcome, and in December 1859, he was hanged for his multiplecrimes, of which murder and treason were just two.

“colored men been shakin’ their asses forever, hannibal shook hisass all over europe, look how many people got killed behind that.”Hannibal (247 b.c.e.–183? b.c.e.), one of the great military leaders of antiquity, com-manded the Carthaginian forces against Rome in the Second Punic War. A native ofCarthage, an ancient empire centered near what is now the city of Tunis in northernAfrica, Hannibal is remembered for his great march across the Alps from Spain to Romein the winter of 218–17 b.c.e. The trek claimed the lives of 15,000 of his 40,000 troops.Hannibal’s leadership claimed even more lives in battle, including 50,000 Romans whoperished at the Battle of Cannae in 216.

“1956, the yankees played the dodgers in the world series, yankeeswon. jackie robinson.”Originally a player in the Negro League, Jackie Robinson was the first black man to playmajor league baseball in the United States. First appearing as first baseman on April 15,1947, for the Brooklyn Dodgers, Robinson was the MVP in 1949, helped the Dodgers winthe World Series in 1955, and became an inductee in the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962.By 1959, all but one of the teams in the major leagues had at least one black teammate.

“corporal fred j. cobbs. honorable discharge. nuremberg, germany.nineteen forty—”Captured by U.S. troops in World War II, the city of Nuremberg, Germany, in 1945–46was the site of a series of trials held by Allied forces to prosecute those accused of com-mitting crimes against humanity during the war.

“they didn’t give me no gun to shoot at them but that ain’t stopthem from shooting at me.”Reports declare that even American enemies received better treatment from the U.S. mil-itary than black American soldiers did during World War II. While allowed to enlist andin some cases even to fight (the Tuskegee Airmen of the 332nd Fighter Group, forexample, had one of the best records in the war), blacks in the American military enduredprejudice and segregation, both at home and abroad. Even German prisoners of war were

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allowed, under guard, into stores from which black soldiers were barred and, when trans-porting prisoners by bus, black troops often had to move to the back of the bus while theprisoners could sit wherever they wished.

“dee, smalls, buffalo shorty would show out in their canary-yellow suits or their doo-doo brown double-breasted pinstripeswith burnt orange stacy adams shoes with white stitches, dobbsor stetson hats and a healthy dose of old spice slapped on theirfreshly magic-shaved faces.”Founded in 1875 in Brockton, Massachusetts, the Stacy Adams Shoe Company producedfootwear for sophisticated gentlemen from Prohibition through the “roaring ’20s” and intothe jazz era (the shoes were reportedly especially popular with swing dancers). The com-pany continues to manufacture men’s dress shoes and clothing. Dobbs is a venerable brandof classic felt and straw hats still popular today (currently represented by NFL star DeionSanders). The John B. Stetson Hat Company, best known for its cowboy- and western-styled toppers, has been doing business since 1865. Old Spice, the classic cologne in thefamiliar cream-colored, cone-shaped bottle, is distributed by Procter & Gamble. CarsonInc., today the leading global manufacturer of hair and skin products formulated specifi-cally for people of color, was founded in 1901 with a single product: Magic Shave after-shave.

“as he bounced up the stoop wineheads and roomers separated likethe red sea to let this golden gloves champion make hisunannounced yet fully anticipated entrance into the arena.”Started in Chicago in 1928 to challenge the city’s antiboxing law, the Golden Gloves area series of amateur boxing tournaments in which the contestants work their way up fromthe local level to, if lucky, national competition. A valuable training ground for many oftoday’s most distinguished boxers, past Golden Gloves champions include MuhammadAli, Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, and George Foreman.

“love is a lot of things, nanny. they say ‘love is a many blendedthings.’”The famous 1955 film Love Is a Many Splendored Thing follows the romance of anAmerican war correspondent (William Holden) and a Eurasian doctor ( Jennifer Jones) inHong Kong during the Korean War. Like that of Pauline and Gerald’s relationship inLackawanna Blues, however, the course of their love affair is far from smooth as friends and

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family urge them to end their crosscultural relationship. The film won three AcademyAwards, including one for best song for the title track.

“he better go somewhere . . . punchin’ at me like he ezzie charlesor somebody.”Purportedly lacking a powerful knockout punch, boxer Ezzard Charles was never a verypopular personality. Although he never weighed in at more than 200 pounds, he never-theless managed to end Joe Louis’s long reign as heavyweight boxing champion of theworld in 1950. After three successful defenses, Charles lost his title to Rocky Marciano in1951.

“boy, that’s a zebco.”The Zebco fishing rod was the brainchild of K. D. Hull, who sought to create a fishingreel without backlash. He managed to convince the Zero Hour Bomb Company (hence“Zebco”), which manufactured electric time bombs for oil well drilling, to take on his ven-ture and the company offered the public the first Zebco fishing rod in 1945.

“ol’ sweet tooth, who was aptly named because of this prominentyellowed tooth that stuck out of his mouth overlapping his darkbrown and red bottom lip perfectly tenderized by wild irish roseand thunderbird”Richards’ Wild Irish Rose (18% alcohol) and Gallo’s Thunderbird (20%) are still amongthe most popular inexpensive fortified wines available. Originally, fortified wines weremade by adding brandy to still wines in order to raise the alcohol content, so the wineswould not spoil during shipping. Today, they are produced by combining flavors, sugar,high-proof grape-based distilled spirits, and other unknown chemicals to a wine base toproduce beverages with 18 to 20 percent alcohol. These wines are sold in small screw-topbottles for $1–$2 for a 375 ml bottle (about 12.5 ounces).

“take a big comb and part her hair, scratch that line of exposedscalp then run a line of dixie peach right down the middle.”Dixie Peach, a brand of heavy pomade used to soften the scalp and straighten thick, curlyhair, was particularly popular during the 1940s and ’50s and is still available today.

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questions to consider

. Why do you think the play is titled Lackawanna Blues? What is the significance of music,particularly the blues, in the play? How does it advance or comment on the events of thestory? What is the effect of the live music included in the performance? Do you think ofBill Sims, Jr., as a character in the play? What does he represent?

. What is Nanny’s role in her community? Why is she important to the other characters?How does she affect their lives? Most of the people depicted in the play are not membersof her actual family, and those who are (i.e., her husband Bill) are not the focus of her altru-ism. Why do you think Nanny “adopts” and helps these particular people?

. Do you have a person like Nanny in your life? If you were to write and perform a playabout people in your own life, whom would you choose to portray? How would you expresstheir life stories and their importance in your own life?

. How does Santiago-Hudson let the audience know when he is changing from one char-acter to another? What physical and vocal gestures does he use to communicate the uniquequalities of each character? How would the play be different if it were performed by sev-eral actors instead of just one? Who is your favorite character in the play?

. What is the significance of the detailed historical context Small Paul provides for hisstory? How does that significance apply to the stories of the other characters in the playand to the play as a whole? Where else does the play refer to specific historical events andmovements? How are the characters in Lackawanna Blues affected by those events andmovements? How do the experiences of these particular characters represent the experi-ences of other Americans during the 1950s? Today?

. How are the issues of race and racial discrimination explored in the play? What kindsof discrimination did the characters in Lackawanna Blues have to deal with during the1950s? How did they deal with it?

. What is the effect of the opening and closing choruses spoken by multiple characters? Whatmood does the opening chorus set and what expectations does it create? Are these expectationsmet? Do the closing lines reinforce the same feelings? Do they introduce new ideas or affirmwhat the audience has already seen? Why do you think the playwright framed the play this way?

8. How is Ruben Santiago-Hudson like a traditional African griot?

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for further reading…

on the blues

Barlow, William. “Looking Up at Down”: The Emergence of Blues Culture. Philadelphia:Temple University Press, 1989.

Charters, Samuel B. The Country Blues. New York: Da Capo Press, 1959.

Cohn, Lawrence, ed. Nothing But the Blues: The Music and the Musicians. New York:Abbeville Press, 1993.

Davis, Francis. The History of the Blues. New York: Hyperion, 1995.

Evans, David. Big Road Blues: Tradition & Creativity in the Folk Blues. New York: Da CapoPress, 1982.

Jones, LeRoi. Blues People: Negro Music in White America. New York: Quill, 1963.

Lomax, Alan. The Land Where the Blues Began. New York: Pantheon Books, 1993.

Murray, Albert. Stomping the Blues. New York: Da Capo Press, 1976.

Oliver, Paul. The Meaning of the Blues. New York: Collier Books, 1960.

_____. Savannah Syncopators: African Retentions in the Blues. New York: Stein and Day,1970.

on the great migration

Adero, Malaika, ed. Up South: Stories, Studies, and Letters of This Century’s BlackMigrations. New York: The New Press, 1993.

Bunch-Lyons, Beverly A. Contested Terrain: African-American Women Migrate from theSouth to Cincinnati, Ohio, 1900-1950. New York: Routledge, 2002.

Harrison, Alferdteen. Black Exodus: The Great Migration from the American South. Jackson:University Press of Mississippi, 1991.

Lemann, Nicholas. The Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How It ChangedAmerica. New York: Vintage Books, 1991.

Wolcott, Victoria W. Remaking Respectability: African-American Women in InterwarDetroit. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2001.

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on african-american poetry and drama

Branch, William B., ed. Crosswinds: An Anthology of Black Dramatists in the Diaspora.Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993.

Dunbar, Paul Laurence. Selected Poems. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, 1997.

Hamalian, Leo and Hatch, James V., eds. The Roots of African-American Drama. Michigan:Wayne State University Press, 1991.

Harrison, Paul C., ed. Totem Voices: Plays from the Black World Repertory. New York: GrovePress, 1989.

Hughes, Langston. The Big Sea: An Autobiography. New York?: Hill and Wang Pub., 1993.

McKay, Claude. Selected Poems. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, 1999.

Rampersad, Arnold, ed. The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes. New York: Vintage Books,1995.

Reed, Ishmael. Writin’ Is Fightin’. New York: Atheneum, 1988.

on lackawanna, new york

Grant, H. Roger. Erie Lackawanna: The Death of an American Railroad, 1938–1992. PaloAlto: Stanford University Press, 1996.

Lackawanna Leader. Various articles. 1953–56.

Leary, Thomas. From Fire to Rust: Business Technology and Work at the Lackawanna SteelPlant, 1899–1983. Buffalo & Erie County, 1987.

Lackawanna: Steel City of the Great Lakes. Lackawanna, NY: Lackawanna Chamber ofCommerce, c. 1947.

films

Lomax, Alan, director/writer. The Land Where the Blues Began. American PatchworkSeries, Public Broadcasting Services, 1990.

Sims, Bill and Cicily Wilson. An American Love Story. American Playhouse Series, PublicBroadcasting Services, 1998.

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web sites of interest

“African Griot.” Gambian Griot School of Music and Dance.home01.wxs.nl/~verka067/african_griot.html.

Bill Sims, Jr. www.billsimsjr.com.

The Blues Foundation. www.blues.org.

Blues Lyrics and Hoodoo. luckymojo.com/ blues.html.

“Great Migration.” Africana.com: The Gateway to the Black World. www.africana.com/Utilities/Content.html?&../cgi-bin/banner.pl?%20banner=Blackworld&..Articles/tt_348.htm.

Harlem Renaissance. www.nku.edu/~diesmanj/harlem_intro.html.

The Heptune Classical Jazz and Blues Lyrics Page. www.heptune.com/lyrics.html

“Langston Hughes.” The Academy of American Poets. www.poets.org/poets/poets.cfm?prmID=84.

The Once and Future Blues: Dedicated to the Past, Present, and Future of Blues Music.www.oafb.net/onceblu1.html.

Our Lady of Victory National Shrine. www.ourladyofvictory.org; www.ca-catholics.net/churches/buffalo-lackawanna/index.htm.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum Lesson Plan: Langston Hughes and the Blues.www. rockhall.com/programs/plans.asp.

acknowledgments

Buffalo and Erie County Public Library

Michael Malyak, volunteer researcher, and Sal Bordonaro, Lackawanna Public Library

Lackawanna Chamber of Commerce