{"id":58934,"date":"2019-09-22T02:49:07","date_gmt":"2019-09-22T02:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=58934"},"modified":"2019-09-22T02:49:47","modified_gmt":"2019-09-22T02:49:47","slug":"the-greek-american-rb-legend-who-passed-as-black","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=58934","title":{"rendered":"The Greek-American R&B Legend Who Passed as Black"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Greek-American R&B Legend Who Passed as Black<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Z\u00f3calo Public Square<\/a>
\n2018-12-17<\/p>\n

Kristen E. Broady<\/a><\/strong>, Dean and Professor of Economics
\nCollege of Business
\nDillard University, New Orleans, Louisiana<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
\nAn Excelsior Records<\/a> advertisement features R&B<\/a> pioneer Johnny Otis<\/a> between blues singer Jimmy Rushing<\/a> and bandleader Gerald Wilson<\/a>. Courtesy of Flickr<\/a>.<\/em><\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Johnny Otis<\/a> Felt He Had Been \u2018Saved\u2019 by the Political, Spiritual, and Moral Force of African-American Culture<\/em><\/p>\n

If a role exists in black music that Johnny Otis<\/a> couldn\u2019t play, it would be hard to find. Known as the godfather of rhythm and blues<\/a>, Otis was a bandleader, talent scout, singer, drummer, minister, journalist, and television show host. Between 1950 and 1952, Johnny and his band recorded 15 top 40 R&B blues hits. He discovered, produced and promoted a roster of stars, including Etta James<\/a>, Little Esther<\/a>, and Jackie Wilson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Otis was not only a trailblazer in the world of music but also a religious leader and political activist. Born seven months after the beginning of the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot<\/a>, he lived through Supreme Court decisions that decriminalized interracial marriage<\/a>, barred racial gerrymandering of political districts<\/a>, and ended covenants barring black Americans from owning property<\/a>. He witnessed the inauguration of the nation\u2019s first African-American president and was a friend of Malcolm X<\/a> and an enemy of racial oppression. Yet Johnny Otis, arguably one of the most important figures in mid-century black music in America, was not actually black. He was white, passing as black<\/a>…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Johnny Otis Felt He Had Been \u2018Saved\u2019 by the Political, Spiritual, and Moral Force of African-American Culture<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,24,1245,459,8,6462,20],"tags":[28100,9270,29521,29520,30288,1392,7518],"class_list":["post-58934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-arts","category-biography","category-history","category-media-archive","category-passing-2","category-usa","tag-ioannis-alexandres-veliotes","tag-johnny-otis","tag-kristen-broady","tag-kristen-e-broady","tag-kristen-elizabeth-broady","tag-music","tag-zocalo-public-square"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58934"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58934\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58937,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58934\/revisions\/58937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}