Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Winter 2005-2006 - (Page 8)

LOUISIANA STATE MUSEUM Lessons from Louis Armstrong in Post-Katrina New Orleans What Would Louis Do? The Louisiana State Museum’s Jazz Collection contains a treasure trove of special artifacts — highlighted by Louis Armstrong’s first bugle and cornet from his early years in New Orleans. These artifacts speak to the musical side of his life. But increasingly, the public is gaining a greater appreciation for the ways in which Armstrong — as the ambassador of jazz — used his music to overcome social divisions and intolerance, not only in the United States but also around the world. His life story inspires many who grew up poor and African American amid the system of legal segregation, nicknamed Jim Crow. Despite — or perhaps because of — his social environment, Armstrong used his music to unite people across barriers of ethnicity, class, religion, and politics. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina’s devastation, jazz has emerged as a symbol of the city’s unique cultural life, its hope, and its unity, just as Armstrong used it on the international stage. One cannot help but ask, how would Armstrong as a New Orleans native respond to this great catastrophe and the social problems that it has revealed? Throughout his career, Armstrong usually shied away from public comment on such politically-charged issues as segregation. The one occasion on which he did not hold back was in 1957 when he openly criticized President Eisenhower’s reluctance to use the National Guard in protecting students integrating Central High School in Little Rock. Most of the time, Armstrong used coded lyrics and subversive humor to mock racial injustice. As a popular jazz musician, entertainer, and international celebrity, Armstrong was in a unique position to overcome the demeaning injustices of segregation. Indeed, the Louisiana State Museum Jazz Collection contains a number photographs that reveal the subtle ways in which Armstrong challenged and overcame the divisions wrought by Jim Crow. Using Jazz to Unite People Consider the photo of Fate Marable’s New Orleans Band on the S.S. Capitol from around 1919 (see page 10). Marable’s band was hired by the Strekfus Brothers, who owned a line of excursion steamboats in St. Louis, to perform on boats that cruised the upper Mississippi River during the seasonable warm months. The Strekfus brothers had recently replaced a white band with Marable’s all-black group — most of whose members were from New Orleans. While the Strekfus’ motives in using the African American band were likely financial, their decision had unintended social consequences. Armstrong claimed in his autobiography Satchmo: My Life in New Orleans, “Fate 8 LOUISIANA ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES\Winter 2005-06

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Winter 2005-2006

Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Winter 2005 Contents Letters Editor’s Column Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities Louisiana State Museum After Katrina: “It’s time somebody woke us us up.” Missing New Orleans On Perilous Ground The Buildings of Louisiana (Architectural History by Karen Kingsley) Historic New Orleans Collection Louisiana Association of Museums Back to New Orleans Diary of a Displaced Person Jazz Notes (Music History by Bruce Raeburn) Cradle of the Stars The Terrible and the Brave Bookstand (Book Review by Thomas Uskali) Sound Advice (Music Review by Ben Sandmel) Forum (Commentary by James Lee Burke)

Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Winter 2005-2006

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.