Lucian: As usual, your modesty – always becoming; wish more people in modern public life understood that – skips over a significant role you played in Black history in bringing the African-American descendendents of your sixth great-grandfather Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings into the family fold. For those who wish to know more, here's you meeting your Black relatives on The Oprah Winfrey Show.
Hell, both my father's and mother's patetnal lines (Patterson and Hostetter) go back to pre-Revolutionary origins, but I only (finally) got Black family with our next generation when my niece married an African-American and had two amazing daughters I am proud to be related to.
BTW, I am celebrating Black History Month by reading Peter Guralnick's masterful biography of one of my favorite singers and songwriters, Sam Cooke, "Dream Boogie."
"It is Black History Month" except here in Flori-duh. 😡😡 There are no Black people here anymore, along with no more gay, trans and non-Xtians. Florida...only for straight, male white people now.
Memphis schools had not yet integrated when I graduated in 1965, but the date was set, plans were made, and our prom was cancelled. When we asked why the teachers said the quiet part out loud ... the Board and the Mayor want to stop all proms before integration because they don’t want any opportunity for white kids to dance with black kids. You know where DANCING can lead. Of course proms were reestablished for seniors a few years after I graduated.
I have to hand it to the Board for their perspicacity. It took no time at all for white kids and black kids to fall in love and lust, get married, and have babies. Fear that white and black kids will quickly learn to love each other goes back to The Emancipation Proclamation if not before.
If not for the tireless and unrelenting work of black women we might be suffering under the second republican reign of trmp. Every liberal should express immense gratitude to black women for saving our asses more than once in elections. But as Lucian wrote, we could make lists forever about what we owe to Black History. I echo everything Lucian wrote.
Memphis is a city plagued by many tragedies, and it has been music that often saved it. From WC Handy, Furry Lewis, Bukka White, BB King, Albert King, Rufus Thomas, Carla Thomas, Otis Redding, Booker T, the Staple Singers to now L’il Buck and Memphis Jookin’ the kids have always had entree into Black Rhetoric and Black Culture. And for fifty years, hip hop has been the dominant music form, certainly one of the most honest pathways to learn about the lived experience of the artists.
Black History is American History. It deserves its own library because we have neglected teaching it for far too long. My Mama called that a sin, a shame, and a disgrace.
Another word perfect memory. I remember getting the news Otis had died. A woman I only sort of knew knocked on my door. When I opened it, I knew we were feeling the same emotion. We hugged. And cried. Two white kids mourning a black man.
You're right, they're absolutely terrified of black history and black culture. You wouldn't fight that hard to suppress it if it didn't scare you to death.
Another great piece. I can't wait to forward to family and friends. Hope they subscribe.
Here's something funny. I invited a Black psychologist to my home in NJ for lunch and a swim in the 40's. Our Black maid, Mammy, brought up from St. Pete., refused to serve her! (I made her.) Speak of prejudice.
Right on, right on, right on... There are too many great black artists to mention that have shaped music, philosophy and all our lives. A nod goes to James Brown. THE MAN. I have nothing in common with the 1%. I know where the commonality is.
I got goosebumps in 1967 when I heard “Try a Little Tenderness” the first time, and I got them again tonight just reading the lyrics. Thanks for another great piece and for this wonderful memory.
One of your best pieces yet. Thank you! Watched the whole video with our 14 year old who is learning the bass guitar. Amazing lesson in music and black history.
Feb 7, 2023·edited Feb 7, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV
I can't love this enough. Motown was in the house when I was little, then it was in my first car, in my first apartment. The first concert I went to was Sly and the Family Stone. The next day the Courier Journal
published a review. The critic said a lot of things, nothing good. The worst of it, he compared the band arriving late to a tactic Hitler used, to raise the hysteria of the crowd with anticipation before his speeches. He compared the band to Nazis. Yes, Lucian, Fear makes people do and say stupid things. https://youtu.be/xag5RKD0VHk Didn't sound like Nazis to me.
Fantastic essay. Thank you. Seeing Miles in a small club, seeing Sun Ra playing in a Philly church with his entire Arkestra dancing in the aisles, seeing many other black musicians give their hearts and souls through music is a spiritual experience. And it accesses a higher level of power than the squalid political BS that guys like George Wallace, Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis spread so abundantly upon the land...
Lucian: As usual, your modesty – always becoming; wish more people in modern public life understood that – skips over a significant role you played in Black history in bringing the African-American descendendents of your sixth great-grandfather Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings into the family fold. For those who wish to know more, here's you meeting your Black relatives on The Oprah Winfrey Show.
https://youtu.be/7uCvaTV-L0U
Take a bow, Lucian. You've earned it!
Hell, both my father's and mother's patetnal lines (Patterson and Hostetter) go back to pre-Revolutionary origins, but I only (finally) got Black family with our next generation when my niece married an African-American and had two amazing daughters I am proud to be related to.
BTW, I am celebrating Black History Month by reading Peter Guralnick's masterful biography of one of my favorite singers and songwriters, Sam Cooke, "Dream Boogie."
"It is Black History Month" except here in Flori-duh. 😡😡 There are no Black people here anymore, along with no more gay, trans and non-Xtians. Florida...only for straight, male white people now.
Memphis schools had not yet integrated when I graduated in 1965, but the date was set, plans were made, and our prom was cancelled. When we asked why the teachers said the quiet part out loud ... the Board and the Mayor want to stop all proms before integration because they don’t want any opportunity for white kids to dance with black kids. You know where DANCING can lead. Of course proms were reestablished for seniors a few years after I graduated.
I have to hand it to the Board for their perspicacity. It took no time at all for white kids and black kids to fall in love and lust, get married, and have babies. Fear that white and black kids will quickly learn to love each other goes back to The Emancipation Proclamation if not before.
If not for the tireless and unrelenting work of black women we might be suffering under the second republican reign of trmp. Every liberal should express immense gratitude to black women for saving our asses more than once in elections. But as Lucian wrote, we could make lists forever about what we owe to Black History. I echo everything Lucian wrote.
Memphis is a city plagued by many tragedies, and it has been music that often saved it. From WC Handy, Furry Lewis, Bukka White, BB King, Albert King, Rufus Thomas, Carla Thomas, Otis Redding, Booker T, the Staple Singers to now L’il Buck and Memphis Jookin’ the kids have always had entree into Black Rhetoric and Black Culture. And for fifty years, hip hop has been the dominant music form, certainly one of the most honest pathways to learn about the lived experience of the artists.
Black History is American History. It deserves its own library because we have neglected teaching it for far too long. My Mama called that a sin, a shame, and a disgrace.
Another word perfect memory. I remember getting the news Otis had died. A woman I only sort of knew knocked on my door. When I opened it, I knew we were feeling the same emotion. We hugged. And cried. Two white kids mourning a black man.
One of your more powerful pieces, but I am afraid that you are preaching to the choir, and those with the most need to read this will never see it.
Simply beautiful, Lucian, simply beautiful. It was enough to nearly bring this crown man to tears. In the words of the immortal Sam Cooke…
https://youtu.be/wEBlaMOmKV4
You're right, they're absolutely terrified of black history and black culture. You wouldn't fight that hard to suppress it if it didn't scare you to death.
Another great piece. I can't wait to forward to family and friends. Hope they subscribe.
Here's something funny. I invited a Black psychologist to my home in NJ for lunch and a swim in the 40's. Our Black maid, Mammy, brought up from St. Pete., refused to serve her! (I made her.) Speak of prejudice.
Right on, right on, right on... There are too many great black artists to mention that have shaped music, philosophy and all our lives. A nod goes to James Brown. THE MAN. I have nothing in common with the 1%. I know where the commonality is.
One word: Henry Tanner-19th c. painter
Another: Little Richard - the pivot
and another: Scott Joplin - another pivot
Goes without saying: Frederick Douglass (literature etc.)
Without black culture the USA would be Canada or New Zealand - nice enough, but geeez
Gotta have black soul-power, black stories, black language
I got goosebumps in 1967 when I heard “Try a Little Tenderness” the first time, and I got them again tonight just reading the lyrics. Thanks for another great piece and for this wonderful memory.
One of your best pieces yet. Thank you! Watched the whole video with our 14 year old who is learning the bass guitar. Amazing lesson in music and black history.
If you want a real treat and have not seen it, go to iTunes and rent Standing in the Shadows of Motown. A history worth watching.
I think that DeSantis has a new slogan. MAWA. Make America White again. Pathetic.
I can't love this enough. Motown was in the house when I was little, then it was in my first car, in my first apartment. The first concert I went to was Sly and the Family Stone. The next day the Courier Journal
published a review. The critic said a lot of things, nothing good. The worst of it, he compared the band arriving late to a tactic Hitler used, to raise the hysteria of the crowd with anticipation before his speeches. He compared the band to Nazis. Yes, Lucian, Fear makes people do and say stupid things. https://youtu.be/xag5RKD0VHk Didn't sound like Nazis to me.
Fantastic essay. Thank you. Seeing Miles in a small club, seeing Sun Ra playing in a Philly church with his entire Arkestra dancing in the aisles, seeing many other black musicians give their hearts and souls through music is a spiritual experience. And it accesses a higher level of power than the squalid political BS that guys like George Wallace, Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis spread so abundantly upon the land...