Black Wall Street

From Riot to Renaissance in Tulsa's Historic Greenwood District

Hannibal B Johnson

• Publisher: Eakin Press
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781940130262
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: African American Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

Early in the twentieth century, the black community in Tulsa- the "Greenwood District"- became a nationally renowned entrepreneurial center. Frequently referred to as "The Black Wall Street of America, " the Greenwood District attracted pioneers from all over America who sought new opportunities and fresh challenges. Legal segregation forced blacks to do business among themselves. The Greenwood district prospered as dollars circulated within the black community. But fear and jealousy swelled in the greater Tulsa community. The alleged assault of a white woman by a black man triggered unprecedented civil unrest. The worst riot in American history, the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 destroyed people, property, hopes, and dreams. Hundreds of people died or were injured. Property damage ran into the millions. The Greenwood District burned to the ground. Ever courageous, the Greenwood District pioneers rebuilt and better than ever. By 1942, some 242 businesses called the Greenwood district home. Having experienced decline in the '60s, '70s, and early '80s, the area is now poised for yet another renaissance. Black Wall Street speaks to the triumph of the human spirit.

APPENDICES

APPENDIX A

INDUCTEES INTO

THE OKLAHOMA JAZZ HALL OF FAME

(PROFILE INFORMATION COURTESY OF THE OKLAHOMA JAZZ HALL OF FAME)

1989 JAZZ HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES

ZELIA N. PAGE BREAUX

Zelia N. Page was born in 1880 in Jefferson City, Missouri, where she finished college at Lincoln Institute. She received her master’s degree from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. She taught at Langston University, where she served as head of the Music Department, and in the Oklahoma City Public Schools as Supervisor of Music. Ms. Breaux conducted many musicals throughout the United States. She became a legend in Oklahoma City because of her superior musical talents and her complete musical education. Oklahoma City became a center for music education in black schools. Its Douglass High School band became one of the best high school bands in the entire southwest among black schools.

She never lectured. Instead, she encouraged students to learn about and play jazz through ensembles. At that time, and as late as 1954, she was not allowed to teach a class called “Jazz” in high school. Musical greats John Anglin, Sherman Sneed, Al Dennie, Alva Lee McCain, Edward and Charlie Christian, Lloyd and Malcolm Whitby, Juanita Burns Bolar, Leon Nelson, Francis “Doc” Whitby, Cornelius Earl Pittman, and Jimmy Rushing were among those on the long list of talents nurtured by Zelia Page Breaux.

Before her death in 1956, she was recognized as the spirit of the new day for Negro history in America, which came to be known as “The Dawn of a New Day.” This movement embraced the use of the Negro national anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”

CHARLIE CHRISTIAN

Charlie Christian was the man who introduced single-string solos on the amplified guitar. Talent scout John Hammond heard of Christian and arranged for him to audition with Benny Goodman. He got the job.

Christian, born and reared in Oklahoma City, showed talent for the guitar early and became an admired local musician. He was not the first to use the electric guitar, but was the first to put it in the solo spotlight. He played mostly single lines, like horn players. Christian had a warm, full sound, and that, along with other things, set the sound standard for future jazz guitarists. He helped Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker and others build a good portion of modern American jazz. Some of those who knew him called him a “natural” who did not realize that what he was doing was truly something special.

On March 2, 1942, at the age of 24, Charlie Christian died of tuberculosis.

ERNIE FIELDS

Ernie Fields is known nationwide alternately as “The Gentleman of Swing” and “Mr. In The Mood.” His Tulsa-based orchestra was formed in the mid-thirties and made its debut at the famed Apollo Theatre in New York City in 1939. Texas born, but Taft, Oklahoma-raised, Fields toured across the United States for over 30 years. He recorded several hits: “T-Town Blues,” “Butch’s Blues,” “Lard Stomp,” and others during the ’30s and ’40s. His rock and roll version of “In The Mood” topped the Billboard and Cashbox charts in 1959-60. “In The Mood” earned Fields a gold record, designating over a million record sales.

In Big Band Blues, author Albert McCarthy notes Fields’ recordings “suggest that the band possessed the potential for a greater success than it ever achieved.” Jazz scholar Gunther Schuller noted in his book, The Swing Era: “In terms of medium-tempo relaxed swing and, in general a wonderful sense of rhythmic well being, the band was hard to match, let alone beat.”

Fields and his wife of over 50 years, Bernice Copeland, both retired, made Tulsa their home. They raised three children, Ernie Jr., Charles, and Carmen. Ernie Fields died in May of 1997.

LOWELL FULSON

Lowell Fulson, one of the greatest treasures ever produced by Oklahoma, is known throughout the United States and Europe for his pioneering blues style. His compositions influenced the likes of B. B. King, Magic Sam, and Ray Charles. Charles and Stanley Turrentine were members of his band. “Reconsider Baby” was perhaps his best known hit.

Born in Tulsa in 1921, Lowell moved to Atoka, Oklahoma, when he was about five years old. There he learned to play the blues from local guitarists. His style was also influenced by listening to recordings of Blind Lemon Jefferson, Peetie Wheatstraw, and Blind Boy Fuller. His uncle introduced him to a West Texas style of blues. By the time he was 18, he was playing professionally at country balls, clubs, and juke joints.

After meeting and playing with the legendary Texas Alexander, a country blues singer, Lowell began his trek away from Oklahoma. He moved to Texas, then after the war, to California. In Los Angeles, he recorded on the “Big Time” label, then on “Swingtime.”

He recorded several hits, including “Guitar Shuffle,” “Low Society Blues,” “Blue Shadow Falling,” and “Everyday I Have the Blues.” Musical greats who have paid tribute to Lowell by recording some of his over 100 compositions include Elvis Presley, Sam Cooke, Leon Russell, B. B. King, T-Bone Walker, and Otis Redding.

JAY MCSHANN

Jay McShann, born in Muskogee in 1916, heard music from an early age. Both his mother and father played an old upright piano in their home. Self-taught, McShann began playing blues piano at age 12 after hearing a Bessie Smith recording. When he was 19, he formed his first band. He hired Charlie Parker, who played with him until the early 1940s. After a stint in the military, McShann returned to his music and recorded on the West Coast.

McShann was the subject of a documentary in 1978, “Hootie Blues,” and was proclaimed the “last” Blue Devil as a result of Bruce Rickers’ documentary film, “The Last of the Blue Devils,” a study of Kansas City music which also focused on the Oklahoma City Commonwealth band. His renewed popularity began following this documentary.

After the death of Count Basie in 1984, Jay McShann stood alone as the greatest practitioner of the Kansas City jazz piano style. His magical blend of Oklahoma blues, powerhouse piano, and rich voice has generated a worldwide following.

He is the recipient of the 1987 Jazz Masters Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. He has received awards from the Smithsonian Institution and a citation from Congress.

McShann travels extensively, appearing at music festivals worldwide. During his last visit to Tulsa, Jay McShann conducted a two-day workshop at the jazz lab of the McLain High School Fine Arts Center and performed at the Greenwood Cultural Center.

JESSIE MAE RENFRO SAPP

Among the vast array of brilliant performers of African-American sacred music produced by Oklahoma is Jessie Mae Renfro Sapp. The soloist ranks alongside such greats as Mahalia Jackson, James Cleveland, and Shirley Caesar. Her professional career spans over 50 years.

Born into a musically-inclined family, she was immersed in gospel music-playing and singing from an early age. “Looking for something different,” she sang jazz as a teenager in Dallas, but after two years, she returned to the gospel music that was such an important part of her childhood.

Beginning in 1951, Jessie Mae Renfro Sapp recorded with Peacock Recording Company of Houston, Texas, which was in those days one of the most important purveyors of African-American sacred music. One of her albums, “He’s So Wonderful,” remained on Billboard gospel charts for almost three years. In her many years as a performer, she appeared in churches and auditoriums in almost every one of the United States.

CLAUDE WILLIAMS

Claude “Fiddler” Williams is often referred to as the “inventor of the jazz violin.” A veteran of early bands fronted by Count Basie and Nat King Cole, Williams is proof that music can improve with the age of the performer. Williams toured nationally and internationally well into his eighties.

Williams got his start with road shows traveling in the southwest and moved to Kansas City in 1929 with Andy Kirk’s Clouds of Joy. In 1936, he joined Count Basie’s band, becoming its first guitar player. The band journeyed to New York and cut several sides for Decca. This was the first recording for Count Basie.

After leaving Count Basie’s band, Williams returned to playing the violin. He recorded with Jay McShann, B. B. King, Budd Tate, Paul Quinichette, and the Claude Williams Quintet.

Williams performed at the 1992 “Juneteenth on Greenwood” Heritage Festival in Tulsa.

1990 OKLAHOMA JAZZ HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES

THE BLUE DEVILS

The Blue Devils are perhaps Oklahoma’s most famous jazz band. Having roots in Oklahoma City in the early 1920s, they went on to become nationally acclaimed, influencing scores of musicians along the way. Count Basie said that the first time he heard the Blue Devils “was probably the most important turning point in my musical career—once a Blue Devil, always a Blue Devil.” The Blue Devils produced such great artists as Walter Page, Oran “Hot Lips” Page, James Rushing, Eddie Durham, Buster Smith, Lester Young, Abe Bolar, and Alvin Burroughs. They recorded only one session. That was November of 1929. The personnel from that band became the nucleus of the Bennie Moten band in the early 1930s, which later formed the core of the Count Basie Band.

Part of the reason for their vast influence came from the new verve that they brought to jazz through their many innovations. Walter Page brought the string bass into prominence in big bands. James Rushing permanently changed the big band vocal style. Buster Smith became the prominent influence on a cadre of musicians in the midand late-thirties, including the young Charlie Parker. Many people credit the Blue Devils with beginning the “riff ” structure which has become one of the hallmarks of jazz. With these innovations and the abundance of talented soloists, the Blue Devils have become legendary among the “territorial bands.”

AL DENNIE

Al Dennie was born near Arcadia, Oklahoma, on September 27, 1903. He was one of many great musicians introduced to music by Douglass High School teacher Zelia Breaux. Dennie moved to Kansas City and received further training from a Tuskegee graduate, Professor Dawson. His professional beginnings go back to his days with such seminal Kansas City bands as Chauncie Downs and the Rinky Dinks, George Wilkerson’s Musical Magnets, Jessie Stone’s band, and Bennie Moten’s band.

Along with Bennie Moten, he organized the Jap Allen Band. This group toured extensively throughout the Midwest, soon becoming featured in many of the historic band battles which were such an important part of Kansas City’s daily musical menu. He also played a prominent role in the Paul Banks Orchestra, another important early territorial band.

Dennie was one of the first people to notice the developing talent of a seventeen-year-old piano player named Jay McShann. Jay’s first lessons in big band music were taken from Al Dennie in Tulsa. Dennie spent much of his life in Kansas City, playing and keeping company with jazz legends from Kansas City and all across the country.

CLARENCE LOVE

Clarence Love was born o...