I've gone back and forth on this question. A lot of traditional New Orleans jazz tunes are based on some racist references such as The Livery Stable Blues and Jimtown Blues. Also, the famous Louis Armstrong version of Black and Blue where the chorus goes "I'm white inside but that don't help my case." I think here that context is extremely important. Some of those old "coon" songs are pretty good melodies such as "Rufus Rastus Brown, whatcha' gonna' do when the rent comes round?" or I've Got A Bimbo Down in the Bamboo Ilse. They were commonly used jazz tunes but not so much amoung black jazz musicians, more as stage songs. Some of Bert Williams tunes might be considered offensive today although he is indisuputably one of the great black entertainers. Also, Cantor and Jolson in Blackface have to be recognized as offensive by some and great performers as well. Many early minstrel show actors were black. There was a crossover.

The minstrel show has to be shown in historical context. Even black people had to use the burnt cork to convey the characters to the public. Emmett Miller (white)was one of the great influences on Country Music in the 20's and 30's. He started as a minstrel man and traditional jazz singer) and was able to capture the speech of black people from his native Macon Georgia home. Amos and Andy were very popular during the forties and I used to go to their radio show for CBS in Los Angeles and the people standing in line to see white performers doing black characters were predominantly (75%) a black audience. Of course, this was the forties.

The problem is how do we keep from throwing the baby out with the bath water? It's not an easy problem to solve. You just can't cut out an important part of our musical history but you can't let it become offensive to those who rightly take issue with it.

It's an easier issue about the Confederate Battle Flag which should in my opinion not be flown over the South Carolina Courthouses. This is true for Alabama and Georgia as well.

Frank