The month of June provides a time to appreciate and celebrate African American musicians, composers, singers, and songwriters. This observation began on June 7, 1979, when President Jimmy Carter decreed June to be Black Music Month.
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There are many well-known African American entertainers from South Carolina, who made history. Let’s find out about a few: Clayton “Peg Leg” Bates worked as a child laborer in a cotton mill, where he...
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Much of America's blues and jazz influences are deeply rooted in the rhythms and melodies of the rural South. One artist who has greatly contributed to these genres' continued popularity is South...
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A circular dance called the "Ring Shout" was a part of Gullah-Geechee Christian worship services for many years.
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Scholars have located a song linking a family from Georgia to the village of Senehun Ngola in Sierra Leone. Linguist Lorenzo Dow Turner traveled to Georgia in 1931 to hear people speaking and singing...
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The founding and early years of Charlie's Place - a jazz club where white and African American patrons alike were welcome during segregation.
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Today, Charlie's Place is long gone. The City of Myrtle Beach purchased the Charlie's Place property in 2015, with the goals of renovating the area, and transforming it into a revitalized...
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After World War II, there was an ever increasing popularity for the musical movement known as "Rhythm and Blues." Rhythm and Blues, along with a new invention called the Jukebox, transformed the music...
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Racial tensions in South Carolina strained with the rise of the "Dixiecrat" political party. One summer evening in 1950, Ku Klux Klan members shot up Charlie's Place, and Charlie Fitzgerald was beaten...
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Patina Miller is a celebrated actress, performer and singer. Born in the small town of Pageland, S.C. on November 6, Miller was raised with music. She grew up singing in her local church’s gospel...
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When the opportunity came for a young Dizzy Gillespie to leave Cheraw, he took it. Dizzy moved to Laurinburg, North Carolina, where he went to school at the Laurinburg Institute. While in Laurinburg...