One More Step
Sun., January 16, 12:19 PM
My first “editorial,” back in 2002, was about Martin Luther King Day and valuing people for what they are. I would go on to write others, for fighting prejudice is a continuing process, and I watch the news, hopefully searching for progress. CBS’s “Sunday Morning” today aired a related story.
There is a museum in Memphis, Tennessee, called the Stax Museum of American Soul Music. It is built to memorialize Stax Records, a music company that flourished about forty years ago. Much of America was divided, even in areas where segregation had been outlawed. Stax Records didn’t have the same mentality. In an interview, Isaac Hayes recalls watching a recording session with two white guys and two black men – Booker T. and the M.G.’s. The man in the control room was a white guy, a former country fiddler. And if your memories go back far enough, you know that mixed group made good music.
The story reminded me of an even older television spot from the 1950’s, before there was color TV. It was a cartoon; the music was “Turkey in the Straw.” It sang about a one-man band that wasn’t very good because the man had to do it all himself. “…if you want good harmony, takes more than one, takes two or three.” And it went on, “like the Benny Goodman Quartet.” The quartet: Goodman on clarinet; Gene Krupa on drums; Benny Wilson on piano; and Lionel Hampton on vibes. Goodman was Jewish, Krupa was Italian, and Wilson and Hampton were black. Was it an effective spot? I can still sing it after fifty years.
Deannie Parker, the woman who organized the museum, produced more than just a simple collection. Attached to the museum is the Stax Music Academy, which is a music learning center. Primarily aimed at potentially at-risk urban youngsters, the academy teaches music and performing all year round.
I see such establishments as one more way to honor Dr. King and promote his dream. How wonderful to do it through music!
By the way, there’s an anniversary of sorts this weekend. Ten years ago, ESPN approached Pat Summit, coach of the famed Tennessee women’s basketball team, and asked her to schedule her team for a Martin Luther King Day game on ESPN, against little-known Connecticut. “It would be good for the game,” they said. “For the good of the game,” she agreed. Not only was it the beginning of a rivalry, it marked the start of increased interest in women’s basketball.
That’s a good thing too.
