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Books by Peggy
Brooks-Bertram
Wonderful Ethiopians of the Ancient Cushite
Empire /
Go,
Tell Michelle
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Oklahoma City Music: Deep Deuce and Beyond
By Anita G.
Arnold , Foreword by Charles Burton Jr.
Review by
Peggy Brooks-Bertram
The old adage that
great things come in small packages is certainly true
with Anita Arnold’s recent book,
Oklahoma City Music, Deep Deuce and Beyond. It
is with great pleasure that I write a review of this
outstanding photo documentation of the music history of
Deep Deuce Oklahoma by one of Oklahoma’s Uncrowned
Queens, Anita Golden Arnold.
My own interest in
Oklahoma began two decades ago with the search of one of
Oklahoma’s earliest and most prominent African American
families, the Dunjees, specifically concert pianist,
educator, newspaper woman and community activist
Drusilla Dunjee Houston. My interest in Drusilla grew
to include her father, Rev. John William Dunjee and her
brother Roscoe Dunjee, editor of the Black Dispatch.
I was thrilled to see Anita Arnold include Roscoe Dunjee
in this work and recognize him as the “voice of the Deep
Deuce” and premier archivist of Deep Deuce musical
history.
Before going
further, I apologize for the length of this review in
advance because I couldn’t resist adding to Anita’s
recognition of Roscoe Dunjee by sharing some of Roscoe’s
earliest recollections of African American music and
dance in the Deep Deuce. In a review of his writings,
Roscoe recounted music and dance life in 1890s Oklahoma
shortly after his family arrived. In describing “early
day society” Roscoe cited the Valentino Club as a place
of black music where bands practiced on Seventh Street.
He described early
dancers like “Frank Rogan, who was the most famous cake
walker of the period. The cake walk was a sort of
prancing movement executed in fox trot time.” Roscoe
wrote that “when young folk wanted just a small affair,
they called on Frank Fields, a fiddler, and W.T. Tucker
a banjo artist, who was also the Undertaker. For big
occasions, young folks sent for the Dunjee Orchestra.
There was Fiddler Dunjee and Preacher Dunjee.” Preacher
Dunjee was John William Dunjee, Roscoe’s father.
In a few words but
many photographs, Arnold tells the story of the music
history of Oklahoma’s Deep Deuce. Arnold paints a
brilliant description of persons such as “Preacher
Smith, who had perfect pitch and could only play in one
key; of a life carried on despite bitter segregation and
denial of fundamental rights of Black people.” The
photographs in this book are most revealing and I was
moved seeing photos of personages I had interviewed for
my own work including Freddie Williams one of many “who
danced the planks off the floor at Slaughter’s Hall,
”and Leona Mitchell, Metropolitan Opera Star and
Uncrowned Queen.
The book is a
researcher’s heaven because it provides a number of
avenues for research in the Deep Deuce tradition because
the subject matter begs for further exploration by
Masters and Doctoral students. Such areas include the
history of newspaper men who told the stories of the
Deep Deuce musical giants; musical families including
the Dunjees; exciting “nick names” like Little Dog,
Monk, Spooks, 5X5, and tracing Deep Deuce musicians in
magazine history. And with the great Charlie Christian,
researchers should be attracted by Christian’s
popularization of the Gibson ES-250, 250, L7 guitars and
defining the electric guitar.”
Arnold’s depth and
breadth of understanding of the music subject matter and
its cultural roots in Oklahoma City is truly refreshing
whether talking about “blues shouting,” jump blues,
popular music, gospel, swing, jazz, blues, Be Bop or
single string solos. As well, the historical
photographic tour of the musical “hotspots” of the Deep
Deuce has to bring back memories to those who both
witnessed and participated in this musical tradition.
Arnold’s easy style
of presentation and easy transition from one musical
period to the other buttressed by face-to-face
interview, primary source data, original photos,
research of numerous historical data bases and plumbing
the records of community historians, reflects a
complete love of the Deep Deuce, its history and culture
and contributes enormously to the value to this
important work.
Unlike “Doughbelly”
waiting for the Deep Deuce to rise again, readers can be
assured that the rich legacy of the Deep Deuce has risen
and continues to rise thanks to Arnold’s love, passion,
and fortitude to produce this legacy of music of all of
Oklahoma’s Deep Deuce musicians, especially the
incomparable Charlie Christian. I feel privileged to
have the opportunity to review this wonderful work.
* * * * *
posted 8 July 2010
* * * * *
Oklahoma City Music: Deep Deuce and Beyond
Anita Arnold had
already written a couple of books about legendary jazz
guitarist Charlie Christian and the Oklahoma City jazz
scene in the Deep Deuce neighborhood as fundraisers for
Oklahoma City’s International Music Festival. She had
already done research for Oklahoma author William Welge,
whose thankful publisher then gave her copies of Welge’s
book for an additional fundraiser.
When those sold out, Arnold politely declined Arcadia
Publishing’s offer to provide additional books for
fundraising. But some time later, an Arcadia
representative called her again, offering copies of a
new Arcadia title.
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“They told me it was
about Springlake Park,” Arnold said, noting
that the sales rep was unaware that
Springlake Amusement Park had for years been
a painful point of contention for many black
city residents, who were excluded from the
park as a result of lingering segregationist
attitudes of its owners.
“I absolutely lost it and said, ‘No,
absolutely not!’ and the guy was shocked and
said, ‘Well, I thought that was
historical,’” Arnold said. “I said, ‘It is,
but the people I know do not want to conjure
up any negative memories, and that was
negative.’ “They were stunned that I blurted
out how I felt, and then I said, ‘I need to
write a history book.’”
photo (left) Anita G. Arnold |
Much to her
surprise, the sales rep told her that an editor would
call to discuss just that. “I was stunned. I thought
they were talking because I was ranting,” she said. “So
I thought that . . . the least I could do is look at the
proposal.”
Arnold was reluctant to get caught up in writing another
book, and she dragged her feet returning the proposal,
hoping Arcadia would lose interest.
“I finally filled out and sent their proposal back, and
they got excited, and I thought, ‘I was supposed to be
getting rid of them,’” she said with a laugh. “Each time
I sent them something, it went from ‘good possibilities’
to ‘this is really pretty good’ to ‘this is good’ to
‘this is excellent.’”
Arcadia, which specializes in publishing photo-heavy
local histories, informed Arnold that 180 to 240 images
would be needed.
Having already tapped many local resources for
illustrations for her previous books, Arnold asked
friends and acquaintances to search scrapbooks, attics
and basements for previously unpublished images. To her
relief, many were uncovered.
“I went from one person, and they referred me to someone
else, and on and on. I got several pictures from the
Oklahoma History Center,” she said. “This is new stuff —
these are pictures a lot of people haven’t seen before.”
Titled
Oklahoma City Music: Deep Deuce and Beyond,
Arnold’s book traces 60 years of local music history,
moving from the early days of jazz to the present day,
including a full chapter about Christian, who went from
Deep Deuce clubs to playing with jazz legends Count
Basie and Benny Goodman before his tragic death at age
25 in 1942.
In conjunction with the 25th annual Charlie Christian
International Music Festival, running through Sunday,
Arnold will sign copies Saturday at the Oklahoma History
Center. —C.G. Niebank,
Arcadia Publishing
* * * * *
Second Street
By Anita G.
Arnold
The African
American business and cultural district in
Oklahoma City dates to around the turn of the
twentieth century. By the 1920s the three hundred block
of Northeast Second Street had become known as "Deep
Deuce," "Deep Two," and "Deep Second." By day it served
as a business district with barbershops, doctors'
offices, beauty shops, clothiers, restaurants, a
newspaper office, a cab company, lawyers' offices, a
drugstore, a movie theater, a hardware store, and many
other businesses, depending on the decade.
At night Deep Deuce
turned into a cultural center for
African Americans, with nightclubs, supper clubs,
and a legendary dance hall featuring outstanding local
talent, many of whom gained national acclaim, such as
Jimmy Rushing and
Charlie Christian. The
Blue Devils, a famous territorial band, called
Second Street home. The Pulitzer Prize-winner
Ralph Ellison grew up in the district. Deep Deuce
was famous for parades, street dances, breakfast dances,
New Orleans-style funerals, and for a Thursday night
tradition called "maids night out," a grand "street"
fashion show involving the whole community as either
spectators or participants.
The future of
African Americans during the early 1900s rested in the
activities, resources, and the sharp minds of business
people on Second Street.
Roscoe Dunjee, editor of the Black Dispatch,
located at 324 Northeast Second Street, blazed a
civil-rights path unparalleled by anyone in the state.
With the power of the press, Dunjee broke down the
barriers of segregation in housing, education,
transportation, and public facilities. Considered by
many to be one of the nation's foremost civil rights
champions, Dunjee used his newspaper, the courts, the
Oklahoma Legislature, and the federal government to win
justice for African Americans in the state, as well as
nationally.
Deep Deuce existed
as the place where it all happened for African Americans
in Oklahoma City until the late 1950s. Ironically, many
have viewed racial justice and improved opportunity as
the major reason for the demise of a thriving business
district that had been born of injustice. Integration
coupled with more choices in housing, consumer spending,
and education sent Deep Deuce into a serious decline and
a state of complete deterioration existed at end of the
twentieth century.
As a new century
dawned, however, Deep Deuce rekindled great interest,
resulting in the area's redevelopment as a residential
community adjacent to the entertainment district of
Oklahoma City's "Bricktown." The name Deep Deuce has
been trademarked, and an apartment complex built at the
location in 2001 carries that title. The National
Register of Historic Places lists three properties in
the district: Calvary Baptist Church (NR 78002244),
Littlepage Hotel Building (NR 95001500), and Melvin
Luster House (NR 83002101). There are few other physical
reminders of this legendary marker of a people, a place,
and a culture.
Bibliography:
Anita G. Arnold, Charlie and the Deuce (Oklahoma
City: Self-Published, 1994). Anita G. Arnold,
Legendary Times and Tales of Second Street (Oklahoma
City: Black Liberated Arts Center, 1995). Bob Burke and
Angela Monson, Roscoe Dunjee, Champion of Civil
Rights (Edmond: University of Central Oklahoma
Press, 1998). Vicki Miles-LaGrange and Bob Burke, A
Passion for Equality: The Life of Jimmy Stewart
(Oklahoma City: Oklahoma Heritage Association, 1999).
Source:
Digital Library Oklahoma
* * * * *
Oklahoma City Music: Deep Deuce and Beyond
details the birth and growth of music in Oklahoma City’s
African American community from the 1920s until the late
1990s. Musical influences of families and individuals,
venues, dance, and fashion blend with new-era traditions
such as parades, jam sessions, and street parties to
create a culture that became well known. This book
explores how the seeds of music so deeply planted in the
early days continue to produce great musicians and how
the influences of those icons will vibrate throughout
future international generations.
Anita G. Arnold is a native of Tecumseh,
Oklahoma. She has been the executive director of Black
Liberated Arts Center, Inc. since 1991. She has written
several cultural history books and is the recipient of
the coveted Governor’s Arts Award and the Oklahoma
City/County Pathmaker Award.
Source:
Wimgo
* * * * *
Deep Deuce—The
black commercial district back in the day was
Deep Deuce (originally called “Deep Second” as
Second St. runs through it), where blacks flourished in
part due to their drive to succeed and support each
other, as well as because of segregationist laws at the
time prohibiting blacks from crossing into certain areas
of the city.
The accomplishments
and every day happenings of the black community here
have left an indelible mark on the cultural landscape of
the city, state and beyond. It was here that a black
millionaire lived in what may have been the first house
owned by an African American here. A woman named Zelia
Page Breaux excelled as a musician and educator, serving
as supervisor of music for Oklahoma City’s African
American schools and as part owner of the Aldridge
Theater that hosted student and traveling shows, among
other successes. The Slaughter building housed several
retail shops, business offices and Slaughter’s Hall, a
popular dance venue.
Most of all, Deep
Deuce was the entertainment district, possessing some of
the foremost jazz and blues clubs in this region of the
country. Nearly any night of the week folks could
experience performances by Nat King Cole, Duke
Ellington, Sarah Vaughan, Count Basie and from their
pride and joy, native sons, the great jazz guitarist
Charlie Christian, and Jimmy Rushing, referred to by
some as the world's greatest blues and jazz singer, just
to name a few.
This is just the beginning of all
the black history found here.
Unfortunately, like many cities
across the country, Deep Deuce suffered mightily at the
onset of the Great Depression and during WWI and WWII.
Consequently, the area spiraled into a steady decline
that lasted for decades.
Today Deep Deuce is in the midst of
an exciting revitalization effort, spurred by people
from all walks of life who have restored old façades,
opened new businesses, built upscale condos and so
forth, resulting in a beautiful, increasingly popular
Oklahoma City neighborhood that still exudes a great
deal of its historic character—Examiner
* * * * *
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Deep
Second
By Ralph Ellison
Now when the plane-stirred winds drew down
the enraptured
dawn
I fell upon the slow-awakened past of joy
Eagerly, eagerly, going forth to dawn-dance
Diving blithely as a boy
Plunging arrogantly twenty years through
ordered space,
And when to my older eyes the town appeared
reduced
dowdy as a worn-out doll
tossed into a corner of a newer city
There was only this to do; accept,
Accept the smack, smack! of Time upon my
flanks and plunge me
boldly
Into that inner past to fit
The puzzle of now and then together;
The girl and woman, man and boy;
Blue kites against bluer sky and silver
planes
Swimming beneath the surface of the air as
we once swam
Fish-like beneath the Arbuckle Mountain
streams.
And learn that streets loom larger in the
mind than ever
Upon the arches of hills:
That kisses linger in the memory as
indelibly as the pain
Or harsh words thrown through adolescent
anger.
Fined too, the dream which went before the
passion,
(That child father to the childish man) of
him who dedicated me
And set me aside to puzzle always the past
and wander blind
within the present,
Groping where others glide, stumbling where
others stroll in
pleasure.
And now returning after all the years to
crawl the paths most
others
Had forgotten. My second coming into deep
second
Between two frontier hills, that world
bounded by Walnut and
Byers.
And then the enraptured dawn at last
possessing
That which all the others would now have
lost:
The path still vivid, the old walks layered
beneath present ways;
The inner houses behind the present walls
revealed;
The earlier birdsong sounding behind the
now-dawn's awakening
thrill.
And all the past was shaken up, and all the
old speech singing
In the wind, and their once clear skins and
once bright eyes
Looking through to see me in my passions
venture.
Recaptured, held, their promise still a
promise and all their days
dawn
In my awakened eyes. And me a red cock
flaming on the hill,
Dying of the fire of past and present, and
yet exalting
That in me and only me live forever.
I who can give no life but of the word would
give them all—
Their past unsullied and their present
gleaming with
child-smiles
Their fathers rich with humanity and their
mothers beautiful
And lovely. And their thoughts true and
their actions wise.
And from that past we knew,
Would make for their children a dew-fresh
world.
Oh, I would them make of us all heroes and
fliers,
Even now, though where once our blue kites
dipped and sailed
I now plunge past in silvery planes—
Even in the Now, where derricks rise and
engines throb upon our
playing fields
And young girls laugh and glide with the
room wherein my
father died
and where my mother learned the grave
transcendence of
her pain—
Would make their heroes and world-makers and
world-lovers,
And teach them the secret of that limping
walk, that look
of eye,
That tilt of chin, the world-passion behind
that old back-alley
song
Which sings through my speech more imperious
than trumpets
or blue train sounds—
Yes, would heal the sick of heart and raise
the dead of spirit
And tell them a story
Of their promise
And their glory.
Would sing them a song
All cluttered with my love and regret
And my forgiveness
And tell them how the flurrying of their
living shaped
Time past and present into a dream
And how they live in me
And I in them |
There it is,
some of it sounds familiar, but for the life of me I
can't be sure. Anyway Deep Second is a block, or
rather three blocks on East Second Street, wherein I
spent much of my childhood and youth, and where I
spent much of my time, talking and looking at the
passersby upon my return. I was born not far from
there, had my first job there, and my father died
there in the old University of Okla. Hospital
building which is now the Y.W.C.A. This ain't much
but it's probably the first time anyone was mad
enough to try to get Deep Two into a poem. R.E.
Source:
MySpace
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Video: "South Side Story"
—Ta-Nehisi
Coates author of
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to
Manhood
discusses Michelle Obama with Paul Coates an outspoken publisher
and former Black Panther—his father.
“American Girl" (Ta Nehesi Coates)—When Michelle Obama told a
Milwaukee campaign rally last February, "For the first time in
my adult life, I am proud of my country," critics derided her as
another Angry Black Woman. But the only truly radical
proposition put forth by Obama, born and raised in Chicago's
storied South Side, is the idea of a black community fully
vested in the country at large, and proud of the American dream.
* * *
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Salvage the Bones
A Novel by Jesmyn Ward
On one level, Salvage the Bones is a simple story about a poor black family that’s about to be trashed by one of the most deadly hurricanes in U.S. history. What makes the novel so powerful, though, is the way Ward winds private passions with that menace gathering force out in the Gulf of Mexico. Without a hint of pretension, in the simple lives of these poor people living among chickens and abandoned cars, she evokes the tenacious love and desperation of classical tragedy. The force that pushes back against Katrina’s inexorable winds is the voice of Ward’s narrator, a 14-year-old girl named Esch, the only daughter among four siblings. Precocious, passionate and sensitive, she speaks almost entirely in phrases soaked in her family’s raw land. Everything here is gritty, loamy and alive, as though the very soil were animated. Her brother’s “blood smells like wet hot earth after summer rain. . . . His scalp looks like fresh turned dirt.” Her father’s hands “are like gravel,” while her own hand “slides through his grip like a wet fish,” and a handsome boy’s “muscles jabbered like chickens.” Admittedly, Ward can push so hard on this simile-obsessed style that her paragraphs risk sounding like a compost heap, but this isn’t usually just metaphor for metaphor’s sake. She conveys something fundamental about Esch’s fluid state of mind: her figurative sense of the world in which all things correspond and connect. She and her brothers live in a ramshackle house steeped in grief since their mother died giving birth to her last child. . . . What remains, what’s salvaged, is something indomitable in these tough siblings, the strength of their love, the permanence of their devotion.— WashingtonPost
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Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in
America
By Melissa V.
Harris-Perry
According to the
author, this society has historically exerted
considerable pressure on black females to fit into one
of a handful of stereotypes, primarily, the Mammy, the
Matriarch or the Jezebel. The selfless
Mammy’s behavior is marked by a slavish devotion to
white folks’ domestic concerns, often at the expense of
those of her own family’s needs. By contrast, the
relatively-hedonistic Jezebel is a sexually-insatiable
temptress. And the Matriarch is generally thought of as
an emasculating figure who denigrates black men, ala the
characters Sapphire and Aunt Esther on the television
shows Amos and Andy and Sanford and Son, respectively.
Professor Perry
points out how the propagation of these harmful myths
have served the mainstream culture well. For instance,
the Mammy suggests that it is almost second nature for
black females to feel a maternal instinct towards
Caucasian babies.
As for the source
of the Jezebel, black women had no control over their
own bodies during slavery given that they were being
auctioned off and bred to maximize profits. Nonetheless,
it was in the interest of plantation owners to propagate
the lie that sisters were sluts inclined to mate
indiscriminately.
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Sex at the Margins
Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry
By Laura María Agustín
This book explodes several myths: that selling sex is completely different from any other kind of work, that migrants who sell sex are passive victims and that the multitude of people out to save them are without self-interest. Laura Agustín makes a passionate case against these stereotypes, arguing that the label 'trafficked' does not accurately describe migrants' lives and that the 'rescue industry' serves to disempower them. Based on extensive research amongst both migrants who sell sex and social helpers, Sex at the Margins provides a radically different analysis. Frequently, says Agustin, migrants make rational choices to travel and work in the sex industry, and although they are treated like a marginalised group they form part of the dynamic global economy. Both powerful and controversial, this book is essential reading for all those who want to understand the increasingly important relationship between sex markets, migration and the desire for social justice. "Sex at the Margins rips apart distinctions between migrants, service work and sexual labour and reveals the utter complexity of the contemporary sex industry. This book is set to be a trailblazer in the study of sexuality."—Lisa Adkins, University of London |
* * * * *
The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
* * * * *
If you like this page consider making a donation
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Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
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1965
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____ 2005
Enjoy!
* * * * *
The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
/
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
/
Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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