BRATTLEBORO — Eighty years ago, during the presidential election campaign, pianist Mary Lou Williams did something that had never been done before. She headlined an integrated traveling musical revue that toured the country in support of Franklin Roosevelt’s candidacy for U.S. president. In the 1940s, most stage and concert performances were segregated. However, this multi-racial revue traveled across the United States and visited numerous northern cities.
The newspaper, St. Paul Recorder, wrote in September 1944, “The Revue is geared to these modern times, and the cast is an outstanding example of Democracy in Action for its interracial character. It has done much to cement a better understanding of these racial problems in our country.”
New Yorker magazine wrote, “The FDR Victory Bandwagon is on tour with a series of one-night stands in auditoriums all over the country. The revue includes singing, dancing, boogie-woogie, and humorous skits. This was first tried last spring when a show in Harlem was held to help Adam Clayton Powell launch his campaign for U.S. Congress. They come in and hear Mary Lou Williams sing ‘The Ballot Box Boogie in the Key of Franklin D’ and go home singing it. Pretty soon, the whole town is pro-Roosevelt.”
Adam Clayton Powell became the first African American elected to Congress from the Northeast.He ran on a platform of civil rights, fair employment practices and a ban on poll taxes. At the time, poll taxes existed in approximately half of the United states.Citizens who did not pay a poll tax could be denied their voting rights.This practice continued until it was banned by the 24th Amendment in the 1960s. Poll taxes effectively denied voting rights to many poor people throughout the country.
The Bandwagon Revue consisted of Mary Lou Williams and her five-piece band. The M.C. was Will Geer, (who would later play Grandpa in the TV show, “The Waltons”).Performers included folk singers Woody Guthrie and Cisco Houston, the Blues singer Laura Duncan, baritone singer Rollin Smith, comedian Bernie Hern, Metropolitan Opera dancers, and Afro-Cuban dancers. As an advertisem*nt said, “These artists join hands to give you two full hours of grand entertainment and promote interracial feelings of harmony.”
The tour did not go on without controversy. The name of the revue changed depending upon the venue. Roosevelt’s name was dropped in Republican-leaning cities. There was an attempt by a conservative women’s organization to ban the show in Boston. The group claimed that the integrated performances were disrespectful and demeaning to the people of the city.
The FBI kept tabs on Ms. Williams.In 1947, she attempted to organize an all-female interracial jazz band to perform in Atlanta, Georgia. She went so far as to petition Georgia’s governor, with the hope he would override the local laws that banned integrated public performances.The governor responded by saying a public interracial musical performance would be too dangerous and inflammatory.He said it would stir up the “wrong elements” and denied the request.
In 1910 Mary Lou Williams was born in Atlanta.Her mother had access to a reed organ in a storefront Baptist Church, and young Williams taught herself to play the organ between the ages of three and four. Linda Dahl wrote a biography of her called, “Morning Glory.” It was published in 1999 and stated, “What was clear is that Mary was able to teach herself an astonishing amount of musical technique by watching and listening... In a scene that Mary described many times, she is sitting on her mother’s lap while she is playing.Mary is three or four years old. Without warning, Mary reaches up to the keys with her baby hands and plays back note for note, what she has just heard her mother play.”
Mary Lou Williams left home at 14 and began performing as a touring member of various professional bands. Her skills led to writing and arranging for Duke Ellington, the Dorsey Brothers, Benny Goodman, Louis Armstrong and Cab Calloway. As the years went on she mentored and taught younger musicians like Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk. She had many hits in her own right, performing on over one hundred records and hosting her own NYC radio show in the 1940s.
Critics write that she was a dark-skinned woman who was more a musician’s musician than a crowd-pleasing public performer.In 20th century America this meant that she did not get the respect or credit she deserved. Mary was known to follow her own creative muse more than the latest commercial trends.
Dahl, her biographer, wrote, “Some artists learn their trade and then carry on with little variation for the rest of their lives. Others are passionately engaged in self-discovery, in metamorphosis, in an often surprising, sometimes dangerous journey. Mary was this rare kind of artist.”
The distinguished pianist, composer and arranger, Mary Lou Williams performed at Keene State College in 1972.She masterfully incorporated the sounds and moods of the 20th century. Mary expertly showcased the jazz artform. Her repertoire skillfully incorporated ragtime, boogie-woogie, swing, blues, and bebop.A great introduction to her music was recorded in 1976.The album is called “A Grand Night for Swinging." The joy and groove are infectious.
Mary Lou Williams was a consummate jazz innovator. She was also at the forefront of the nascent civil rights movement of the 1940s.More people should know her story.
