Racism

It is reported, with anger, in the Sydney Christian Monitor that visiting gospel group The Fisk Jubilee Singers has been refused rooms in every leading hotel in Sydney, Australia, because of the colour of their skins.

A programme of "refined vaudeville", featuring The Jennie Eddie Trio (Novelty singing and comedy), Boyce And Wilson (Black-face fun-furnishers who dance) and Zoe Matthews (The popular Casino girl) is presented at The Ocean View Theatre, Norfolk, Virginia, USA.

St. Patrick's Day Is A Bad Day For Coons, composed by Irving Jones, is given away with the music supplement of Hearst's Chicago American newspaper.

Minstrel-show star Billy Emerson, known as The Great Emerson, dies in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

Bessie Allison (aka Bessie A. Buchanan) is born in Manhattan, New York City, USA.As a young woman she will pursue a career as a dancer and singer, appearing in Shuffle Along, the first successful musical comedy with an all African-American cast in 1921.

Blackface minstrel entertainer Lew Sully is appearing at The Orpheum Theatre, Los Angeles, California, USA. Also on the bill is Mlle. Chester with her "$10,000 Statue Dog".

"Real Coon Entertainers" are performing at The Bijou Theatre, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. The troupe is advertised as being, "as clever as those in the Golden Gate Quintet at Keith's this week".

In Old Kentucky is presented at The Boston Theatre, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. The show features a "Pickaninny Brass Band" and is described as "The Frolic Of The Inimitable Pickanannies In Southern Songs And Plantation Dances".

The Orpheum Show at The Orpheum Theatre, Omaha, Nebraska, USA, features McIntyre And Heath, Nat Wills, Nick Long And Idaline Cotton, Mignonette Kokin, Rawson And June, The Melani Trio and Julius M. Tannan.

George Graham records the monologue The Colored Preacher (Monologue) for the Gramophone Company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

McIntyre And Heath (blackface comedians), Nat M. Wills, Nick Long, Idalene Cotton, Rawson And June, The Melani Trio, Mignonette Kokin, Galetti's Monkey Comedians and Albert Kartelli are appearing at Chase's "polite vaudeville" theatre, Washington DC, USA.

The Second Grand Minstrel And Dance is held at The National Rifles Armory, Washington DC, USA.

The 'continuous vaudeville' presentation for this week at the Columbia Theatre, St. Louis, Missouri, USA, features celebrated acrobats The Montrose Family, blackface comedians The Nichols Sisters, monologist Charles Ernest, comedy pianist Carl W. Sanderson, singers and dancers The Brewers, and vocalist Hettie Kenton.

Lew Dockstader's Minstrels are playing at The Victoria Theatre, Broadway, New York City, USA.

The Primrose And Dockstader Minstrels play the first of five nights at The Belasco Theatre, Washington CD, USA.

David Bispham, The Honey Boy Minstrels (led by George 'Honey Boy' Evans) and Mack And Walker are playing at B.F.Keith's Theatre, Washington, DC, USA.

African-American comedian, songwriter and singer Sherman H. Dudley is playing at The Empress Theatre, Des Moines, Iowa, USA.

Police raid a city flat in Melbourne, Australia, and find six black American jazz musicians from a group called Sonny Clay's Colored Idea, drinking and dancing with six local white women. The band is deported and black musicians are banned from touring in Australia until 1954.

Sonny Clay's Colored Idea, a jazz group from the USA, leaves Sydney, Australia, Oceania, in the wake of a scandal which had erupted when members of the band were found drinking and dancing with white women.

Elvis Presley perform Til I Waltz Again With You by Teresa Brewer during his performance at the Annual Minstrel Show in Humes High School, Memphis, Tennessee, USA. This is believed to have been his first live performance in front of an audience.

A protest meeting takes place in Wellington Town Hall, Wellington, New Zealand, Oceania, against an upcoming international rugby test match between New Zealand's All Blacks and South Africa because South Africa has banned Maoris from playing in the New Zealand team. This racist action inspires New Zealand's all-Maori Howard Morrison Quartet to write and record the sardonic protest song, My Old Man's An All Black (based on the Lonnie Donegan hit My Old Man's A Dustman).

Oscar Brown Jr. is playing at The Village Vanguard, Greenwich Village, New York City, USA.

The LP The Black & White Minstrel Show by the George Mitchell Minstrels reaches No1 in the UK's NME Popular Albums chart. It will remain at No1 for a total of seven weeks.

Ray Charles appears in court in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, where charges of heroin possession against him are dropped on the basis that the police raid on his hotel room had violated his Constitutional rights.

Liz Lands and The Voices Of Salvation gospel group complete their vocal parts for the songs We Shall Overcome and Trouble In This Land at Greystone Ballroom, Detroit, Michigan, USA.

Music trade magaine Cashbox in the USA reveals that Columbia Records is planning to release 34 albums in October, of which 14 are to be pop LPS, 8 re-channeled for stereo, two Latin American and 10 Masterworks. The pop albums will include The Andy Williams Christmas Album, Christmas With The New Christy Minstrels, Return Of The Gunfighter by Marty Robbins and Misty Guitar by Harold Bradley.

Count Basie joins student protesters in Tallahassee, Florida, USA, who are picketing a restaurant which is refusing to serve black students.

In line with a Musicians Union ruling not to comply with South Africa's apartheid regime, Liverpool band The Swinging Blue Jeans refuse to visit the country. Other groups supporting the ban include The Rolling Stones, The Four Pennies, Freddie and the Dreamers and Dave Berry. Cliff Richard, however is a member of Equity, the actor's union, although The Shadows belong to the MU. "We can't speak for Cliff," says MU secretary Harry Francis, "but as far as we are concerned, The Shadows won't be going."

The New Christy Minstrels play at Philharmonic Hall, Lincoln Center, New York City, USA.

Phil Cohran And The Artistic Heritage Ensemble record the album Armageddon at the Affro Arts Theatre, Chicago, Illinois, USA.

The highest new entry in the Cash Box magazine chart of the best-selling singles in the USA, is People Got To Be Free by The Rascals entering at No43.

Jeepster by T.Rex peaks at No2 during a run of fifteen weeks on the UK Pop Singles chart. Jeepster continues the questionable tradition of shamelessly ripping off ancient blues songs, in this particular case, the 1961 Howlin' Wolf song You'll Be Mine, written by Willie Dixon.

Richard Kylea Cowie Jr. is born in Stepney, London, England, UK, Europe. He will achieve success and provoke considerable controversy as pioneering grime rapper Wiley.

During a performance of her song Coal Miner's Daughter in The Coliseum, Richmond, Virginia, USA, Loretta Lynn turns to a black security guard, Ceasar Gaiters, Jr., asks him to stand in a spotlight, and says, "If you people don't know what coal looks like, here is somebody who knows what coal is all about." Then she adds, "Black is beautiful, ain't it honey." Lynn's comments draw a laugh from the audience. In 1987, Gaiters will bring a diversity action against Lynn, claiming that after the concert, he became the butt of jokes and derision which led him to drinking and caused him to become sexually impotent. He will allege that her conduct constituted the tort of intentional infliction of emotional distress under Virginia law.

On their Kick Over Apartheid tour, The Redskins play at Sheffield University, Sheffield, England, UK, Europe, supported by The Boothill Foot-Tappers.

Sam Duckworth, better known as Get Cape.Wear Cape. Fly., hits out at the British Nationalist Party (BNP) in an interview in UK trade magazine Music Week. He criticises the BNP for their "vile and disgusting" views and for their "Islamophobic stance and their homophobic stance", and encourages musicians and music lovers to unite and speak out against them.

Pharrell Williams releases a new album, Girl, in the USA. It attracts criticism because the singer is seen surrounded by three white women dressed in white bathrobes. Many of those critical of the image feel that it fails to adequately represent black women.

John Legend and Colombian rocker Juanes perform outside the Eloy Detention Center in Arizona, USA, as part of their campaign to reform America's immigration and incarceration procedures.

Rapper and actor Tip Harris, better known as T.I., publishes an open letter to outgoing US President Barack Obama, thanking and commending him because, "Not only did you impact a nation, but you defined a culture and you shook up and woke up a generation."