Western States Black Research and Educational Center

Sheet Music and Record Library

The gift of African American music is universal and formidable. From spirituals to jazz to rhythm & blues, rock & roll, rap and hip-hop, black music has revolutionized the aesthetic and social values of the world. The Sheet Music & Record Library Collection date from the mid-Nineteenth Century to the present and is a glorious tribute to African American creativity.

"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," Negro Spiritual before 1865

Inspired by African music some of them were called 'shouts'

and were accompanied by hand dancing and hand clapping.

Vintage 78 lp collector's albums by classic song stylist, Billie Holiday and pianist Art Tatum, along with a rare sheet music album of the Christy Minstrels, 1879.

"Banga. Trio for 3 Darkies," Minstrel Show Song, c. 1900

Minstrel shows were one of the earliest indigenous American forms of entertainment, beginning in the1840s. Minstrelsy involved the impersonations of blacks by white actors. This particular form of entertainment was called 'blackface,' i.e. the exaggerated application of makeup designed to caricature blacks. The impersonations were generally racially stereotyped depictions that were at best demeaning.

From the above song, the lyrics of the first stanza are as follows: "What are the joys of white man here? What are his pleasures say, Me wants no joys, no ills me fear, But me on Bonja play. LA la la la la. But white man's joys are not like mine, tho he look smart and gay; He great, he proud, he haughty, fine, While me on Bonja play. La la la la la. Me envy not the white man den, Me poor but me is gay. Me glad at heart, me happy when Me on me Bonja play."

Blackface Joke Books to Stage Vaudeville Shows

These booklets were designed to teach everything a performer would want to know to stage a blackface performance, from how to apply the make-up to the telling of the jokes.

Many of the joke books, magazines, plays and sketches in these collections draw directly from the popular vaudeville and burlesque theater acts of the day. Reference to vaudeville are frequently used in the title and promotion of these publications. As noted in the Library of Congress' American Memory Project, forms of popular theater such as vaudeville drew "upon themes relevant to everyday life: immigration, ethnicity, gender roles, urban life, industrialization, temperance, women's suffrage, technology and social problems." Books dedicated to the topic of automobiles, "hash house" restaurants and traveling salesmen may be found in this collection.

Racial and ethnic humor are also common subjects in these publications. Generally negative theatrical depictions of African-Americans can be traced back to the 19th century development and popularity of minstrel shows in the U.S. Such shows originally featured white performers dressed in blackface portraying stock African-American characters. While the original format of the minstrel show disappeared by the turn-of-the-century, elements of it were transferred to other forms of popular theater. With millions of immigrants arriving on American shores in the late 19th and early 20th century, ethnic humor served as an obvious and extremely popular topic for writers and performers. I. & M. Ottenheimer which published many joke books of this type, often in small 4"x5" formats, sold them through venues such as Woolworth's, "by the carload."