Handy, The King of the Blues

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Handy, The King of the Blues
1989, Alice Moseley
12x 18, acrylic on wood
On display at the Alice Moseley Museum
Donated by Dennis and Julie Smith

 

Handy the King of the Blues

More information about this work coming soon!

While it is not explicit that the market pictured here is on Beale Street in Memphis, this street is almost synonymous with W. C. Handy and markets of this type did exist on this street.

According to Wikipedia,

In the early 1900s, Beale Street was filled with many clubs, restaurants and shops, many of them owned by African-Americans.

In 1903, Mayor Thornton was looking for a music teacher for his Knights of Pythias Band and called Tuskegee Institute to talk to his friend, Booker T. Washington, who recommended a trumpet player in Clarksdale, Mississippi named W. C. Handy. Mayor Thornton contacted Handy, and Memphis became the home of the musician who created the "Blues on Beale Street". Mayor Thornton and his three sons also played in Handy's band.

W. C. Handy, 1941Photo by Carl Van Vechten

W. C. Handy, 1941

Photo by Carl Van Vechten

Beale Street, 1874

Beale Street, 1874

Rex Billiard Hall for Colored, 1939Photo by Marion Post Wolcott

Rex Billiard Hall for Colored, 1939

Photo by Marion Post Wolcott

 
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