{"id":8181,"date":"2023-11-06T15:32:47","date_gmt":"2023-11-06T21:32:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/?p=8181"},"modified":"2023-11-06T15:32:48","modified_gmt":"2023-11-06T21:32:48","slug":"w-c-handy-father-of-blues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/2023\/11\/06\/w-c-handy-father-of-blues\/","title":{"rendered":"W.C. Handy, Father of Blues"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Chicago Defender, established in 1905 by Robert Abbot, is celebrated as one of the most influential Black newspapers.1<\/sup><\/a> An article written by Diana Briggs and published in the Defender on August 16, 1941 features Wyatt Christopher, or W.C. Handy. Handy played a significant role in the popularization of the blues in the early 20th century.2<\/sup><\/a> In the concise article, Briggs hails him as the \u201cFather of the Blues,\u201d and tells of his visit to the Good Shepherd Community Center.3<\/sup><\/a>
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W.C. Handy at the Good Shepherd Community Center7<\/sup><\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

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The article tells of Handy\u2019s relationship with the blues and opinions on other related genres, such as Swing.4 <\/sup><\/a>Briggs openly presents Handy\u2019s strong, uncompromising stance on the Swing style. Handy categorizes Swing as a \u201cprostituted melody of the blues,\u201d used for the purposes of economic piracy on the behalf of whites who profit off of it.5 <\/sup><\/a>Handy describes Swing in an extremely decisive manner, calling it an aborted form of blues.6<\/sup><\/a>
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When considering Handy\u2019s career as a musician, composer, and bandleader, his almost graphic portrayal of swing seems entirely appropriate. Handy\u2019s take on Swing relates to the greater, \u201cmessage for his race\u201d that Briggs notes throughout the article.8 <\/sup><\/a>The information surrounding Handy\u2019s protective attitude towards blues in this article complements his career, which he spent, \u201cmaking the blues a consciously composed art,\u201d and bringing Black music into the mainstream of public culture.9 <\/sup><\/a>As a pioneering artist of the genre who believed that blues, \u201cshall help [the] Negro in the fight for equal rights,\u201d W.C. Handy\u2019s unwavering take on both the importance of blues and the problems of Swing become unquestionable.10<\/sup><\/a>
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1 <\/a>Pride, Karen E. \u201cChicago Defender Celebrates 100 Years in Business.\u201d Chicago Defender<\/span><\/i>, May 5, 2005. <\/span>https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20051201092230\/http:\/\/www.chicagodefender.com\/page\/local.cfm?ArticleID=687<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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2 <\/a>Evans, Dylan. \u201cHandy, W(illiam) C(hristopher).\u201d Grove Music Online, January 20, 2001. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1093\/gmo\/9781561592630.article.12322<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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3 <\/a>Briggs, Diana. “Chicago Hails W. C. Handy, Father of the Blues: Father of Blues Greets Chicago with Message for Race and Music FATHER OF THE BLUES.” The Chicago Defender (National Edition) (1921-1967),<\/span><\/i> Aug 16, 1941. <\/span>https:\/\/www.proquest.com\/historical-newspapers\/chicago-hails-w-c-handy-father-blues\/docview\/492581628\/se-2<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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4 <\/a>Ibid.<\/p>\n

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5 <\/a>Ibid.<\/p>\n

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6 <\/a>Ibid.<\/p>\n

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7<\/a> Ibid.<\/p>\n

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8 <\/a>Ibid.<\/p>\n

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9 <\/a>Robertson, David. <\/span>W. C. Handy : The Life and Times of the Man Who Made the Blues<\/span><\/i>. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2011. Accessed November 6, 2023. ProQuest Ebook Central.<\/span><\/p>\n

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10<\/a> Ibid.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Chicago Defender, established in 1905 by Robert Abbot, is celebrated as one of the most influential Black newspapers.1 An article written by Diana Briggs and published in the Defender on August 16, 1941 features Wyatt Christopher, or W.C. Handy. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5147,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1397],"tags":[1304,33,36,250,1260,40],"class_list":["post-8181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall-2023-mus-345-b","tag-black-music","tag-blues","tag-early-jazz","tag-race","tag-swing","tag-w-c-handy"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7jEhR-27X","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5147"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8181"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8184,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8181\/revisions\/8184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}