Louis Armstrong Discrimination

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Louis Armstrong, who is considered the father of Jazz for promoting Jazz not just in the US, but performing and promoting it worldwide, was himself a victim of racism in the early 20s. Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans which was a segregated part of the country (Clark 32), and was considered dangerous for a black child to wander the streets let alone experiment with instruments. “White thugs and police officers routinely attacked Blacks who wandered out of the ghetto” (Lipsitz 2011: 61). He, somehow found a “safe passage throughout the city” (Lipsitz 2011: 61), and through this passage he would help brass band members carry instruments to practice. This was the peak of racism and segregation. From simple things to drinking water and …show more content…

Adding on to the unpleasant situation, in one of Armstrong’s concerts in Tennessee a suspected member of the KKK exploded dynamites right outside the hall. No one was hurt but it still showed the prevalence of discrimination (Josephson 2008: 45). While growing up, he was once refused a musical contract as the one of the band leaders thought he was “very dark skinned”. This form of segregation was not only limited to Louis Armstrong but other such artists as well. One of Armstrong’s most famous songs deals with emotions towards discrimination. In 1929 he recorded ““(What Did I Do To Be So) Black and Blue?,” whose lyrics included: “ My only sin, Is in my skin, What did I do, To be so black and blue?” The lyrics brought out what other black artists at that time were thinking. Later in the years, and due to his popularity, Armstrong was made the cultural ambassador during the cold war spreading the message and the music across the world. However, after the Little Rock Nine crisis in 1957 where guards denied nine black kids an entrance to a high school, Louis Armstrong canceled his tours and publicly stated “the way they’re treating my people in the South, the government can go to hell.” Armstrong’s pain and feelings of emotion led to him being an integral part of spreading the message of equality and

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