On Thursday, September 9 at 7:30 pm (EST) Hammonds House Digital invites you to learn about the history of jazz and how jazz musicians flourished despite rampant exploitation. Conversations About Jazz & Other Distractions host Carl Anthony’s special guest will be scholar, historian, and author Gerald Horne. They will discuss Horne’s book, Jazz and Justice: Racism and the Political Economy of the Music and play songs from some of the artists whose stories are highlighted in the book. This virtual event via Zoom is free for Hammonds House Museum members and $5 for non-members. Register today at hammondshouse.org.

Gerald Horne is an American historian who currently holds the John J. and Rebecca Moores Chair of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston. After undergraduate education at Princeton University, he received his Ph.D. from Columbia University and a J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.

Horne has published books on neglected, but by no means minor, episodes of world history. He writes about topics he perceives as misrepresented struggles for justice against imperialism, colonialism, fascism, racism, and white supremacy. Horne has written more than 30 books including: The Watts Uprising and the 1960s(1997); Class Struggle in Hollywood, 1930-1950: Moguls, Mobsters, Stars, Reds and Trade (2001); The Deepest South: The United States, Brazil, and the African Slave Trade (2007); W.E.B. Du Bois: A Biography (2009); Paul Robeson: The Artist as Revolutionary (2016); and Jazz and Justice: Racism and the Political Economy of the Music (2019). 

Horne’s book Jazz and Justice: Racism and the Political Economy of the Music examines the economic, social, and political forces that shaped this Black American music into a phenomenal U.S. contribution to global arts and culture. It is the history of how jazz and jazz musicians survived and flourished despite rampant economic and racist exploitation, as jazz musicians battled organized crime, the Ku Klux Klan, and other malignant forces dominating the nightclub scene where jazz became known. For more information about Gerald Horne click HERE.

Hammonds House Museum is generously supported by the Fulton County Board of Commissioners through the Department of Fulton County Arts and Culture, the City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs, The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, NPN: National Performance Network, AT&T and WarnerMedia.