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W. C. Handy
William Christopher Handy (November 16, 1873 – March 28, 1958) was an American composer and musician who referred to himself as the Father of the Blues. He was one of the most influential songwriters in the United States. One of many musicians who played the distinctively American blues music, Handy did not create the blues genre but was one of the first to publish music in the blues form, thereby taking the blues from a regional music style (Delta blues) with a limited audience to a new level of popularity. Handy used elements of folk music in his compositions. He was scrupulous in documenting the sources of his works, which frequently combined stylistic influences from various performers. Early life Handy was born on November 16, 1873, in Florence, Alabama, the son of Elizabeth Brewer and Charles Barnard Handy. His father was the pastor of a small church in Guntersville, a town in northern Alabama's Marshall County. Handy wrote in his 1941 autobiography ''Father of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carl Van Vechten
Carl Van Vechten (; June 17, 1880December 21, 1964) was an American writer and artistic photographer who was a patron of the Harlem Renaissance and the literary executor of Gertrude Stein. He gained fame as a writer, and notoriety as well, for his 1926 novel ''Nigger Heaven''. In his later years, he took up photography and took many portraits of notable people. Although he was married to women for most of his adult years, Van Vechten engaged in numerous homosexual affairs during his lifetime. Life and career Born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, he was the youngest child of Charles Duane Van Vechten and Ada Amanda Van Vechten (née Fitch). Both of his parents were well educated. His father was a wealthy, prominent banker. His mother established the Cedar Rapids Public Library and had great musical talent. As a child, Van Vechten developed a passion for music and theatre. He graduated from Washington High School in 1898. After high school, Van Vechten was eager to take the next steps ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steel Guitar
A steel guitar () is any guitar played while moving a steel bar or similar hard object against plucked strings. The bar itself is called a "steel" and is the source of the name "steel guitar". The instrument differs from a conventional guitar in that it is played without using frets; conceptually, it is somewhat akin to playing a guitar with one finger (the bar). Known for its portamento capabilities, gliding smoothly over every pitch between notes, the instrument can produce a sinuous crying sound and deep vibrato emulating the human singing voice. Typically, the strings are plucked (not strummed) by the fingers of the dominant hand, while the steel tone bar is pressed lightly against the strings and moved by the opposite hand. The idea of creating music with a slide of some type has been traced back to early African instruments, but the modern steel guitar was conceived and popularized in the Hawaiian Islands. The Hawaiians began playing a conventional guitar in a horizontal p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clarksdale, Mississippi
Clarksdale is a city in and the county seat of Coahoma County, Mississippi, Coahoma County, Mississippi, United States. It is located along the Sunflower River. Clarksdale is named after John Clark, a settler who founded the city in the mid-19th century when he established a timber mill and business. Clarksdale is in the Mississippi Delta region and is an agricultural and trading center. Many African American musicians developed the blues here, and took this original American music with them to Chicago and other northern cities during the Great Migration (African American), Great Migration. The Clarksdale Micropolitan Statistical Area includes all of Coahoma County. It is located in the Mississippi Delta region of Mississippi. In 2023, the Clarksdale, Mississippi Micropolitan area was added to form the new Memphis-Clarksdale-Forrest City Combined Statistical Area. The Memphis-Clarksdale-Forrest City Combined Statistical Area has around 1.4 million people. The western boundary of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Knights Of Pythias Of North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa And Australia
The Knights of Pythias of North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia, also known as the Colored Knights of Pythias or the Knights of Pythias, is a fraternal organization in the United States. The Knights of Pythias, founded in 1864, did not allow African Americans so this group formed on its own. The organization was established in Vicksburg, Mississippi in 1880 by Thomas W. Stringer and others. The organization followed the organizational structure of many other fraternal organizations with a national Supreme Lodge, Grand Lodges at the state level, and local lodges regionally. Historically, the organization provided its members with death and sick benefits. History The Knights of Pythias, founded in 1864, did not allow African Americans and so this group formed on its own. The Knights of Pythias of North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Oceanica was established in Vicksburg, Mississippi in 1880 by Thomas W. Stringer, along with Thomas M. Broadwater, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plantations In The American South
Plantation complexes were common on agricultural plantations in the Southern United States from the 17th into the 20th century. The complex included everything from the main residence down to the Pen (enclosure), pens for livestock. Until the abolition of Slavery in the United States, slavery, such plantations were generally self-sufficient settlements that relied on the forced labor of enslaved people. Plantations are an important aspect of the history of the Southern United States, particularly before the American Civil War. The mild temperate climate, plentiful rainfall, and fertile soils of the Southeastern United States allowed the flourishing of large plantations, where large numbers of enslaved Africans were held captive and forced to produce crops to create wealth for a white elite. Today, as was also true in the past, there is a wide range of opinion as to what differentiated a plantation from a farm. Typically, the focus of a farm was subsistence agriculture. In cont ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Hooper Councill
William Hooper Councill (July 12, 1848 – 1909) was an American former slave and the first president of Huntsville Normal School, which is today Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University in Normal, Alabama.D. W. Culp, ed., ''Twentieth Century Negro Literature, Or, A Cyclopedia of Thought on the Vital Topics Relating to the American Negro'' Naperville, Illinois: J. L. Nichols & Co., 1902, , p. 325. Released as an ebook on July 6, 200 EBook #18772by The Project Gutenberg Life He was born a slave in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on July 12, 1848, to William and Mary Jane Councill. His father escaped to Canada in 1854 and made several unsuccessful attempts to free his family.Simmons, William J., and Henry McNeal Turner. Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive and Rising. GM Rewell & Company, 1887. p390-393 The young William Hooper Councill was taken to Huntsville, Alabama by slave traders in 1857. He and his mother and brothers were sold as enslaved people from the auction block ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henderson, Kentucky
Henderson is a home rule-class city along the Ohio River and the county seat of Henderson County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 29,781 at the 2020 U.S. census. It is part of the Evansville–Henderson, IN–KY Combined Statistical Area, locally known as the " Tri-State Area," and is considered the southernmost suburb of Evansville, Indiana. History Early settlements Archaeological research shows that people were living in what is now Kentucky by at least 9,500 BCE, although they may have arrived much earlier. The settlers of the area after the start of the 1st millennium CE were of the Mississippian culture, a Native American civilization that flourished throughout what is now the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States, from approximately 800 CE to 1600 CE. The population of most settlements of this culture had dispersed or were experiencing severe social and environmental stress by 1500. The area that is now Henderson County was later inh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Evansville, Indiana
Evansville is a city in Vanderburgh County, Indiana, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 118,414 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is Indiana's List of cities in Indiana, third-most populous city after Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, Indiana, Fort Wayne, the most populous city in Southern Indiana, and the List of United States cities by population, 249th-most populous city in the United States. It is the central city of the Evansville metropolitan area, a hub of commercial, medical, and cultural activity of southwestern Indiana and the Illinois–Indiana–Kentucky tri-state area, which is home to over 911,000 people. The 38th parallel north crosses the north side of the city and is marked on Interstate 69 in Indiana, Interstate 69 immediately north of its junction with Indiana State Road 62, Indiana 62 within the city's east side. Situated on an Meander, oxbow in the Ohio River, the city is often referred to as the "Crescent Valley" or "River ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World's Columbian Exposition
The World's Columbian Exposition, also known as the Chicago World's Fair, was a world's fair held in Chicago from May 5 to October 31, 1893, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The centerpiece of the Fair, held in Jackson Park, was a large water pool representing the voyage that Columbus took to the New World. Chicago won the right to host the fair over several competing cities, including New York City, Washington, D.C., and St. Louis. The exposition was an influential social and cultural event and had a profound effect on American architecture, the arts, American industrial optimism, and Chicago's image. The layout of the Chicago Columbian Exposition was predominantly designed by John Wellborn Root, Daniel Burnham, Frederick Law Olmsted, and Charles B. Atwood. It was the prototype of what Burnham and his colleagues thought a city should be. It was designed to follow Beaux-Arts principles of design, namely ne ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bessemer, Alabama
Bessemer is a city in Jefferson County, Alabama, Jefferson County, Alabama, United States and a southwestern suburb of Birmingham, Alabama, Birmingham. The population was 26,019 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is within the Birmingham–Hoover, Alabama, Hoover, AL Birmingham metropolitan area, Alabama, Metropolitan Statistical Area, of which Jefferson County is the center. It developed rapidly as an industrial city in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. History The town was founded in the Reconstruction Era by the Bessemer Land and Improvement Company, named after Henry Bessemer and owned by coal magnate Henry F. DeBardeleben. He had inherited Daniel Pratt (industrialist), Daniel Pratt's investments.Alabama Men's Hall of Fame: Henry Fairchild DeB ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
