Pause for Refreshment

I just found this. Moments ago. It seems to date from the early 1940s and is clearly integral to any discussion of Jackson in image.

Some Early Photos

The famous Life photo presents a dignified and moving image of Jackson, who weeps with the nation at the loss of a beloved president and personal friend. His emotion is genuine. It is also human in a way that largely transcends race, although I would argue both that it is possible to read Jackson as a stereotypically subservient and child-like figure in this image and that such a reading probably helps to explain its enormous popularity.

Jackson’s recollection of the photograph being taken was included in his New York Times obituary: “The photographer stumbled over my foot and looked up. He saw my face and saw those tears coming down my cheek, and he just reached around on his shoulder and got one of his cameras and - blip - and thought no more of it.” Unless Jackson had reinvented the circumstances with the passage of time, therefore, this is an unstaged photograph.

As a popular entertainer, Jackson was photographed many time throughout his career, both formally and candidly. The range of published photographs is very interesting, and I intend to scrutinize them closely. I want to begin with two photographs that anticipate the Life image—that is to say, two early photographs of Jackson with his iconic accordion.

First, a publicity photo that Jackson used in the 1920s:

The persona embodied here is unmistakable: Jackson is a jovial, simplistic minstrel. His wide grin shows off white teeth, while his tilted head counterbalances the humorously unwieldy accordion. This is a carefully staged portrait of course, but a later photograph suggests that it does indeed capture Jackson’s performing persona.

This photograph was published as part of a 1938 spread in Life magazine. It accompanied an account of life at the Warm Springs Foundation, established by Franklin Delano Roosevelt to provide care for paraplegics. In the photograph, Jackson is providing some after-dinner entertainment for FDR, his wife, and some friends:

The quality of my scan is poor, but Jackson’s character is so powerful that it still bursts out of the image. His role as minstrel is evident, from his exaggerated pose to his enormous grin to his rolling eyes. But is this really a candid photo? There’s no way to be sure. Since it features the president, the likely answer is no.

Not all images of Jackson played up the minstrel character, even early in his career. For example, here is a much more dignified portrait of Jackson from 1934:

He is missing his accordion, of course, which I believe encourages the minstrelesque portrayal. For dignified images of Jackson with his accordion we will have to wait until after the death of FDR.

Into the Public Eye

If you Google “Graham W. Jackson,” most of the results are of this famous photograph, taken by a Life magazine photographer at FDR’s funeral:

The caption reads as follows:

Tears stream down the cheeks of accordion-playing Chief Petty Officer (USN) Graham Jackson as President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s flag-draped funeral train leaves Warm Springs, Ga., April 13, 1945.

Purpose

Greetings! My name is Esther, and I am a musicologist. I specialize in American popular music of the first half of the 20th century. I am particularly interested in participatory music making, especially sing-alongs. This project, however, arose out of opportunity and will be somewhat different from any I have pursued before.

Graham W. Jackson was a versatile African American entertainer whose career spanned the middle of the 20th century. He played piano, organ, and accordion. He fronted a dance band, taught music in the schools, played on the airwaves, toured extensively as a Navy recruiter during WWII, and was greatly admired by several U.S. presidents. He was also involved in the music appreciation movement, which is a special interest of mine.

I recently discovered that the Graham W. Jackson papers are held by the Atlanta History Center, located about an hour from the institution where I teach. I came across the listing when I was there performing research for another project, and was fascinated by the description of Jackson’s career and the extent of the holdings. Last week I returned to have a look. The papers are indeed amazing—I only got eight folders in to the first of many boxes. I have also begun to peruse the extensive repository of articles concerning Jackson in the Atlanta Constitution.

I don’t yet know what form this project will take. I want to use this blog as a forum to explore the many interesting themes that have already arisen in my research and to organize my ideas. I also want to create a public record of this extraordinary figure in American music history, on whom very little information is widely available. I will be posting all of the photos I come across and documenting the first few decades of his career in as much detail as possible.