Stax Records and the Civil Rights Movement in Memphis, Tennessee Jason Danielson Iowa State University
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Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Graduate Theses and Dissertations Dissertations 2015 The oler of soul: Stax Records and the civil rights movement in Memphis, Tennessee Jason Danielson Iowa State University Follow this and additional works at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/etd Part of the African American Studies Commons, Music Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Danielson, Jason, "The or le of soul: Stax Records and the civil rights movement in Memphis, Tennessee" (2015). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. 14687. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/etd/14687 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Dissertations at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The role of soul: Stax Records and the civil rights movement in Memphis, Tennessee by Jason Danielson A thesis submitted to the graduate faculty in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Major: History Program of Study Committee: Brian Behnken, Major Professor Tunde Adeleke Isaac Gottesman Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 2015 Copyright © Jason Danielson, 2015. All rights reserved. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS I THANK YOU: ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iii ABSTRACT viii CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION: THE ROLE OF SOUL 1 CHAPTER 2. BLACK AND WHITE TOGETHER 27 CHAPTER 3. WOMAN TO MAN 60 CHAPTER 4. I’LL TAKE YOU THERE 93 CHAPTER 5. BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY 124 CODA: TAG THE ENDING, REPEAT AND FADE 155 BIBLIOGRAPHY 159 iii I THANK YOU: ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In the spring of 2003, a young history education major played keyboard in a blues band called Magic Mike and the Blue Side. The band received the good fortune of winning the Iowa Blues Challenge, and was thrilled to discover that part of their winnings included opening for B. B. King the next night in Des Moines. The young man – who was primarily a jazz musician – became enthralled with the depth of expression from the King of the Blues and his amazing band, though he was not aware at the time that King had grown up in Memphis, Tennessee, where he would travel with Magic Mike in January of 2004 to participate in the International Blues Challenge. When the band of friends made the twelve hour drive from northern Iowa to western Tennessee, they knew they would visit a city rich in American music history and hear some of the finest blues musicians in the world, but this young pianist and future high school history teacher had no idea of the degree to which this trip would eventually change his life. The day after visiting Sun studios, posing for pictures like the Million Dollar Quartet, and playing their first set on Beale Street, Magic Mike and the Blue Side visited the Stax Museum of American Soul Music. For a twenty-three-year-old, recently married and full of confidence in his musical abilities and newly developing historical understanding, it was an eye-opening experience. This was music and history come alive in a way he had never imagined, and he could not get enough. The young man immediately bought Rob Bowman’s masterpiece, Soulsville, U.S.A., and fell in love with the music and the people of Stax Records. This young white teacher from Des Moines, Iowa, made sure that all of his students knew the value of black popular music. He spent far more time than the curriculum recommended iv having students study black history and analyze black music. He showed Wattstax at the end of the year, carefully watching the door for administrators during Richard Pryor’s scenes, which were simply too important to the overall film to censor. He developed presentations that he shared with other teachers about how the music spoke to the African American experience, particularly the civil rights movement, and he took special pride in his argument that Southern Stax represented the proud black nationalist voice of Malcolm X while Northern Motown chased the integrationist dreams of Martin Luther King, Jr. And then, in his thirties, he finally started to really learn. Upon entering graduate school, the not-so-young, overconfident white history teacher/musician from Des Moines read and did history like he never had before. He learned about spectrums and anti-essentialism, about competing academic theories among historians of various specialties, and about the ever-growing literature on his favorite topics, civil rights and African American music. He learned that Memphis and Stax offered an enormous opportunity for his academic growth, and he learned that it was a city filled with rich history, beautiful music, amazing food, and some of the kindest, smartest, and most helpful people he would ever meet. Most importantly, he learned that he had a great deal to learn, and he continues to learn that lesson every day. This work serves as the story of what he has learned thus far. If ever there was a true labor of love, it was researching and writing this thesis. It has been a dream come true to combine music and history, visit Memphis, work with some of the greatest historians and musicians I could imagine, and write about some of the greatest music and most inspiring activists of the twentieth century. To work on a graduate degree while teaching full-time and raising children sometimes felt like an impossible task, but the difficult v work remained inspiring and exciting because the work I do and the family I come home to provided support, understanding, joy, and motivation that has meant the world to me. I owe my MA in History, literally and figuratively, to the James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation. The guidance and financial support they have provided made this work possible, and the academic and personal inspiration from the regular Madison Memos, the 2012 Summer Institute at Georgetown University, and the ongoing correspondence with Foundation people and Fellows across the country has been incredible. In particular, I extend my sincere thanks to Lewis Larsen for having the faith to make me a Fellow in 2011 and continuing to support my work, and to Herman Belz for his unmatched knowledge of the Constitution and uncanny ability to pull out the very best from his students. While I have enormous gratitude for the many friendships I developed at the Summer Institute, I am particularly grateful to my favorite Fellows, Ashely Heyer for convincing me to write a thesis, and Joe Sangillo for making me aware of just how difficult it would be. I find it difficult to truly express how much it has meant to me to work with the history department at Iowa State University. To Brian Behnken, my major professor and civil rights guru, I offer my highest thanks for your guidance and my highest praise for your ongoing contribution to the field of civil rights history. You are a true credit to your profession, and I hope I have made you proud. To Isaac Gottesman, your education history course was a breath of fresh air and an inspiration to several areas of my work, and your expertise as a member of my committee is of enormous value to me. Tunde Adeleke, one of my great regrets is that my schedule never allowed me to study with you personally, but your work is of the highest caliber, and I am grateful to you for lending your knowledge and experience to my committee. During my coursework at Iowa State, I was also incredibly fortunate to learn how to write history from vi Pamela Riney-Kehrberg and to be exposed to feminist history and theory as well as the weird and wonderful world of postmodernism by Jana Byars, and I thank them for that. I am also grateful to Seth Hedquist, my comrade in both music and history and one of the most valued friends in my life, for making music with me, eating pancakes with me, teaching cool kids with me, and especially for reading my thesis before our professors got a hold of it. I made the ten-hour drive to Memphis twice and corresponded countless times with amazing people from this amazing city, and I could not have asked for a better experience. Levon Williams and Deanie Parker from the Stax Museum and world-class trumpeter Wayne Jackson provided wonderful stories, kind words, and incredibly valuable information and analysis for which I will always be grateful. Ed Frank and his staff at Special Collections at the University of Memphis demonstrated the highest level of professionalism, generosity, wisdom, and kindness, and I can only hope that this humble offering serves as a partial tribute to the incredible assistance they provided. Wayne Dowdy was an absolute inspiration through his written contributions to Memphis history, and his generosity and brilliance at the Memphis and Shelby County Room meant the world to me. Charles Hughes wrote a brilliant book on Southern soul music and went out of his way to introduce me to one of the greatest Stax minds in the business, and then Robert Gordon gave me more than I could ever dream of through his books, emails, and contacts. Finally, to the city of Memphis, for offering true Southern hospitality and a beautiful place to do research, I offer my everlasting thanks for the music on Beale Street and the food at Payne’s, Four Way, Central, Gus’s, and Pete and Sam’s. I also hope that I have done a small part to honor the remarkable lives of the native and transplanted Memphians throughout these pages.