Black Swan Records- First Black record label

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Projects
The Vanishing of Harry Pace

It was Motown before Motown, FUBU before FUBU: Black Swan Records. The label founded 100 years ago by Harry Pace. Pace launched the career of Ethel Waters, inadvertently invented the term rock n roll, played an important role in W.C. Handy becoming "Father of the Blues," inspired Ebony and Jet magazines, and helped desegregate the South Side of Chicago in an epic Supreme Court battle. Then, he disappeared. The Vanishing of Harry Pace is a series about the phenomenal but forgotten man who changed America. It's a story about betrayal, family, hidden identities, and a time like no other.

From the team who brought you Dolly Parton’s America, Jad Abumrad and Shima Oliaee, this series was produced in collaboration with author Kiese Laymon, scholar Imani Perry, writer Cord Jefferson, and WQXR’s Terrance McKnight. Jami Floyd is our consulting producer; our fact checker is Natalie Meade. Based on the book Black Swan Blues: the Hard Rise and Brutal Fall of America’s First Black Owned Record Label by Paul Slade. The series features interviews with Pace's descendants and over forty musicians, historians, writers, and musicologists, all of whom grapple with Pace’s enduring legacy

 

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@ogc163 @DEAD7 @Rhakim @EndDomination

Your man John McWhorter appears briefly in this episode.

 

[CoryMack]

…

 

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I finished all six episodes.

Good podcast.

I found myself getting angry, again, at the extent whites went through to undermine black businesses and economics. It’s just soul burning and these black business owners got no protection or recompense from our so-called government.

Also enlightening to me was the extensiveness of minstrelsy. Did not know that it was the most popular form of entertainment of the day. I was really taken aback by the c00n songs and imagery and have made a decision to strike it from my own vocabulary.

It was nice to hear the voice of Margo Jefferson, whom I personally know, and grew up with. Her family moved in Harry Pace’s circles, her father being the head of Provident Hospital at the time.

One little thing I think is misleading is the title “the Vanishing of Harry Pace.” Harry Pace didn’t vanish. Chicago’s black community knew who he was and what became of him. We had him in our history books all along and even his inner circle knew that he passed at the end of his life. It was only his family that was not in on the secret.

Also, loved the segment on Roland Hayes and Ethel Waters. They along with Harry Pace lived very extraordinary lives and count as motivation, at least for me, to strive harder.

 

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How Harry Pace navigated Black Swan, as well as other black business owners at the time, is a thread in and of itself. These black business stories are absolutely fascinating.

 

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Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield - the Black Swan, for whom the label was named after, given at the suggestion of WEB Dubois.

Absolutely astonishing the energy by Americans to deny the value of black life that Greenfield and Hayes eventually left America to not only be embraced by Europeans but their talent so remarkable that both got invited to sing before the English monarchs.

 

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Just a little family fact, my relative Jessie Binga, tried to acquire Supreme Life Insurance after Pace stepped down. Midian Bousfield has taken over along with Earl dikkerson. At the time, Jessie Binga, who owned Binga State Bank, was the wealthiest black man in Chicago. They invited him to be President of the Board of Supreme Life. Almost immediately, he brought in his own accountants to audit the business. Apparently, it was at a point of neglect because Bousfield wasn’t really managing the company well. So Jessie had set out to take over the company. However, dikkerson was able to thwart him and keep the business out of his hands. Which happened to be a saving grace, because Jessie’s downfall came not too long after with the Great Depression and was also targeted by whites because of his power. Jessie eventually was sent to prison, later pardoned, but lost everything and died a janitor. We still have the grand piano he gifted my great grandfather on his seventh birthday. Gonna do a segment on him in my other thread.

Jessie’s nephew, Binga Dismomd, went on to become a Harlem doctor and fixture among the Harlem Renaissance and would eventually be the founder of the black summer community of Sag Harbor in East Hampton.

 

[get these nets]

I finished all six episodes.

Good podcast.

I found myself getting angry, again, at the extent whites went through to undermine black businesses and economics. It’s just soul burning and these black business owners got no protection or recompense from our so-called government.

Also enlightening to me was the extensiveness of minstrelsy. Did not know that it was the most popular form of entertainment of the day. I was really taken aback by the c00n songs and imagery and have made a decision to strike it from my own vocabulary.

It was nice to hear the voice of Margo Jefferson, whom I personally know, and grew up with. Her family moved in Harry Pace’s circles, her father being the head of Provident Hospital at the time.

One little thing I think is misleading is the title “the Vanishing of Harry Pace.” Harry Pace didn’t vanish. Chicago’s black community knew who he was and what became of him. We had him in our history books all along and even his inner circle knew that he passed at the end of his life. It was only his family that was not in on the secret.

Also, loved the segment on Roland Hayes and Ethel Waters. They along with Harry Pace lived very extraordinary lives and count as motivation, at least for me, to strive harder.

Glad you enjoyed the series.
I like the podcast format being used for long form biographies.

One of this country's biggest exports has always been entertainment.The gatekeepers for that industry promoted ugly stereotypes about Black people, which spread around the world. That type of media bombardment for centuries becomes deeply ingrained in people's psyches, including our own.

This is why John H. Johnson was one of the most important men in history. Ebony and Jet( and Ebony Jr ) had circulation outside of the country, and showcased the best about Black people.

*Look forward to the post/discussion about Binga.