Research Resources on Chicago, Jazz, and the Great Migration
IntroductionSome histories of jazz still cling to the romantic notion that jazz came north to Chicago on Mississippi riverboats after the closing of New Orleans' Storyville district in 1917. It makes a nice story, but the reality is a lot grittier. Jazz came straight to Chicago's 12th Street station via the Illinois Central Railroad, 200 miles east of where riverboats docked on the river. Part of a mass movement of African Americans from South to North -- what came to be called "The Great Migration" -- jazz musicians came north for the same reasons that other people did : failing crops and discrimination in the South; WWI demand for workers in Chicago factory jobs, paying decent money; and ads in the Chicago Defender holding out the hope of a better life up North.
Between about 1916 and the end of the 1920's, at least 75,000 Southern immigrants arrived on the South Side of Chicago -- including musicians. The newcomers immediately became part of an already flourishing African-American community on Chicago's South Side, the economic and entertainment district of which was known as "The Stroll." It was the prospect of work in a community that could afford to pay to have a good time that drew musicians to Chicago, where they assembled in an unprecedented critical mass of jazz talent.
Chicago boasted major musical talent and famous venues well before Storyville closed; sheet music featuring the Pekin Theater at 2700 South State dates from 1904. According to the Chicago Defender, Vendome Orchestra leader Erskine Tate played his first violin recital in Chicago in 1910; Wilbur Sweatman was in Chicago playing clarinet in 1906; and Jelly Roll Morton led the band at the Richelieu starting in 1914 and also appeared at the DeLuxe and Elite #2 Cafes during 1914-15. Various New Orleans musicians had already been north before 1917; Tom Brown's band in 1915 is widely regarded as the first band to come north.
By the time Freddie Keppard, Sidney Bechet, Lee Collins, King Oliver, and other New Orleans musicians arrived in 1918 to rub musical shoulders with the local talent, the classic New Orleans style had already begun to change in deference to local tastes. Chicago venue owners, patrons, and musicians expected hard-driving, uptempo playing, and they expected elegantly turned out musicians in sophisticated surroundings -- places like the Grand and Vendome Theaters, the Dreamland Ballroom, and clubs with posh names like Royal Gardens, Alvadere, Panama, and Sunset Cafe.
The rich musical scene on The Stroll inspired musicians from all over town; it was not unusual for white musicians to head to the Stroll after their North side gigs to see what they could pick up. Among those appearing regularly for "music lessons" in South Side clubs were Jimmy McPartland, Bud Freeman, Frank Teschemacher, Dave Tough, Gene Krupa, Muggsy Spanier, and Eddie Condon, who would collectively be credited with the creation of the "Chicago" jazz style of the 20's. [Introduction © 2003, Chicago Jazz Archive]
- Adero, Malaika, ed. Up South : stories, studies, and letters of this century's Black migrations New York : The New Press : Distributed by W.W. Norton, 1993.
- Adkins, LaTrese Evette. Dangers seen and unseen: Black women's mobility, community, and work during the migration era, 1915-1940. [M.A. thesis] Michigan State University, 1998. UMI AAT 1392175
- Baldwin, Davarian L. Chicago's New Negroes: modernity, the Great Migration, and Black urban life. Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, 2007.
- Best, Wallace D. Passionately human, no less Divine: religion and culture in Black Chicago, 1915-1952. Princeton NJ : Princeton University Press, 2005.
- Black, Timuel D. Jr. Bridges of Memory: Chicago's First Wave of Black Migration Evanston, IL :Northwestern University Press, 2003.
- Black, Timuel D. Jr. Bridges of Memory: Chicago's second generation of Black migration. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2007.
- Blair, Cynthia Marie. Vicious commerce: African American women's sex work and the transformation of urban space in Chicago, 1850--1915. Harvard University, 1999. UMI AAT 9949732
- Davis, Angela Y. Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holliday. New York : Pantheon Books, 1998.
- DeSantis, Alan Douglas. Selling the American Dream: The Chicago Defender and the Great Migration of 1915-1919. Indiana University, 1993. UMI AAT9410408
- Goodwin, E. Marvin Black migration in America from 1915 to 1960 : an uneasy exodus Lewiston : E. Mellen Press, c1990. E185.86.G640 1990
- Grant, Robert B. The Black man comes to the city: a documentary account from the great migration to the great depression, 1915 to 1930 Chicago, Nelson-Hall Co., 1972
- Gregory, James N. The Southern diaspora : how the great migrations of Black and White Southerners transformed America. Chapel Hill : The University of North Carolina Press, 2007.
- Griffin, Farah Jasmine. Who set you flowin'? Migraton, urbanization and African-American culture. Yale University, 1992. Not available from UMI
- Grossman, James R. Land of hope : Chicago, Black Southerners, and the Great Migration Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1989. F548.9.N4G760 1989
- Grossman, James R., ed. Black workers in the era of great migration, 1916-1929 [Microfilm, 25 reels] Frederick, MD: University Publications of America, c. 1985 microfm E374
- Harrison, Alfertdteen, ed. Black exodus : the great migration from the American South Jackson : University Press of Mississippi, c1991. E185.6.B6250 1991
- Holley, Donald. The second great emancipation : the mechanical cotton picker, Black migration, and how they shaped the modern South Fayetteville : University of Arkansas, 2000. HD8039.C662 U644 2000
- House, Roger Randolph, III. 'Keys to the highway': William 'Big Bill' Broonzy and the Chicago Blues in the era of the Great Migration. Boston University, 1999. UMI AAT9928197
- Kalil, Timothy Michael. The role of the Great Migration of African-Americans to Chicago in the development of traditional black gospel piano by Thomas A. Dorsey, circa 1930. Kent State University, 1993. UMI AAT 9419241
- Kenney, William Howland. Chicago jazz : a cultural history, 1904-1930 New York : Oxford University Press, 1993. ML3508.8.C5K460 1993
- Kenney, William Howland. Jazz on the river. Chicago : University
of Chicago Press, 2005.
- Lemann, Nicholas. The promised land : the great Black migration and how it changed America New York : Vintage Books, 1992. E185.6.L360 1992
- Marks, Carole. Farewell, we're good and gone : the great black migration Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 1989. E185.8.M220 1989
- Peretti, Burton William. The creation of jazz : music, race, and culture in urban America Urbana : University of Illinois Press, c1992. ML3508.P450 1992
- Prince, Valerie Renee Sweeeny. Finding a place of my own: Home and the paradox of blues expressiveness (Richard Wright, Toni Morrison, Randall Kenan, Gayl Jones, Ralph Ellison). University of Michigan, 1998. UMI AAT 9909969
- Rodgers, Lawrence Richard. The Afro-American Great Migration novel. University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1989. UMI AAT 8915557
- Rowe, Mike. Chicago breakdown
London : Eddison Press Ltd., 1973. ML3556.R87
Reprinted as: Chicago Blues, the City and the Music New York: DaCapo Press, 1975, 1981.
- Sernett, Milton C. Bound for the promised land : African American religion and the great migration Durham [N.C.] : Duke University Press, 1997. BR563.N4 S474 1997
- John Steiner, "Chicago" in Nat Hentoff and Albert J. McCarthy, eds. Jazz: New Perspectives On The History Of Jazz By Twelve Of The World's Foremost Jazz Critics And Scholars Da Capo Press, 1975
- Stewart, Jacqueline Najuma. Migrating to the movies: The emergence of Black urban film culture, 1893--1920. [Chicago] The University of Chicago, 1999. UMI AAT 9951844
- Trotter, Joe William Jr., ed. The Great migration in historical perspective : new dimensions of race, class, and gender Bloomington : Indiana University Press, c1991 E185.86.G650 1991
Primary source materials
- Using primary resources for research: The Great Migration from the University of Chicago's eCUIP Project.
- The Chicago Jazz Archive's maps and items from the collections about jazz clubs in Chicago 1915-1940's , the first wave of the Great Migration.
- Handwritten letters in response to the Bethlehem Baptist Association's listing in the Chicago Defender offering to assist migrants in finding work and places to live. [scroll down the page; click on image twice to enlarge]
- Article from the Chicago Defender encouraging migration from the South courtesy of the Gilder Lehrman Center at Yale University.
- Documents from the History Matters site:
- March 1925 issue (vol 6, no. 6) of the Survey Graphic: "Harlem Mecca of the New Negro". Search keywords survey graphic harlem at Google Books for excerpts.
- Great Migration resources and maps from the University of Illinois-Chicago.
- Census data and other information from Ancestry Library Edition
- Articles and interviews on the history of jazz in Chicago from the Jazz Institute of Chicago
- 47th Street History from the website of Chicago jazz landmark Gerri's Palm Tavern
- The Library's African-American Studies page
- Documents, images, and video on the Great Migration from the Amistad Digital Resource at Columbia University.
- Chicago and the Great Migration courtesy of Illinois Periodicals Online from Northern Illinois University.
- Chicago's Black Metropolis from DePaul University
- "Great Migration" from the Electronic Encyclopedia of Chicago.
- Chicago: Destination for the Great Migration from the African-American Mosaic at the Library of Congress
- Great Migrations Resource Page from the University of Illinois - Chicago.
- Understanding the Great Migration from the Illinois State Museum
- Alabama and the Great Migration: Resources from the Alabama Department of Archives and History. Bibliography
- Letters and the Great Migration from the National Postal Museum at the Smithsonian.
- Chicago's Black Metropolis courtesy of the National Park Service
- Loren Schoenberg on the Great Migration and Race Records
- The South,the North, and the Great Migration: Blues in Literature.
- The Chicago Defender and the Great Migration
- Prof. Gerald Early's essay on the Great Migration from PBS. Includes an audio interview with Adero Malaika about his film, "Up South."
From the City of Chicago:
The Great Migration in art, photos, literature, and film
- Katherine Horner's Prosperity from Sadness: Two Artists Depict The Great Migration from the University of North Carolina.
- Frank Driggs and Harris Lewine, Black Beauty, White Heat: A Pictorial History of Classic Jazz 1920-1950. New York: DaCapo Press, 1995.
- Up South: African-American migration in the era of the Great War Video and resources from the American Social History Project at CCNY.
- One Book, One Chicago: James Baldwin's Go Tell it on the Mountain from Chicago Public Library.
- By river, by rail Princeton, N.J. : Films for the Humanities & Sciences, 1998. Free preview and purchase information for DVDs on the Great Migration.
Musicians who came to Chicago during the Migration:
- Thomas Brothers, ed. Louis Armstrong in his own words Oxford University Press 1999.
- Louis Armstrong, Satchmo: My life in New Orleans Da Capo Press, 1986.
- Sidney Bechet, Treat it Gentle: An Autobiography Da Capo Press, 1978.
- Warren "Baby" Dodds with Larry Gara, The Baby Dodds Story Rev. ed. Louisiana State University Press, 1992.
- James Dickerson, Just for a thrill : Lil Hardin Armstrong, first lady of jazz Cooper Square Press, 2002.
- Alan Lomax et. al. Mister Jelly Roll: The Fortunes of Jelly Roll Morton, New Orleans Creole and "Inventor of Jazz" University of California Press, 2001.
- Laurie Wright, Walter C. Allen & Brian A.L. Rust's "King" Oliver Storyville Publications Co. Ltd., 1987.
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