Louis Armstrong as a Lens to Reconsider Black Intellectual Traditions

• In Event: Diverse Lives

Abstract

Through this engagement, with attention to musicians, specifically Louis Armstrong, we conduct a narrative inquiry into meanings and contexts which informed the political gestures of Armstrong. The data for this study consists of correspondence from Armstrong, in addition to others, regarding Jim Crow, Civil Rights, the Brown v. the Board of Education case. In addressing these correspondences we will present a broader simultaneous understanding which problematizes the reduction of black musicians’ art to mere entertainment in tandem to considering how the art developed aided in garnering global attention to political unrest in the US.

Authors

• Roland W. Mitchell, Louisiana State University

• Reagan P. Mitchell, Louisiana State University