Introduction

Le résumé fourni par la source

IN 1902, BLACK BANDLEADER WILLIAM CHRISTOPHER HANDY, WHO HAD NOT yet achieved fame as the Father of the Blues, settled in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Before he became a famous musician and music producer, he took whatever work he could find to make ends meet, which sometimes resulted in seemingly unlikely alliances with white supremacists. “We were frequently hired … to furnish music for political rallies,” recalled Handy. At these rallies, Handy and his band of Black musicians had to “absorb a ‘passel’ of oratory of the brand served by some Southern politicians.” At this time, Mississippi’s race relations had grown especially violent as vigilante groups, like the Whitecaps, terrorized and murdered Black farmers. During Handy’s brief stay in Mississippi, white terrorists lynched hundreds of African Americans, seventeen of them within a small radius around Clarksdale. In this climate, Mississippians propelled politician and notorious white supremacist James K. Vardaman to prominence and the governorship....

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