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Making music

Even if the music being played in the photograph is lost to us now, the rich legacy of African-American music is not. It includes the introduction of spirituals to white audiences ("Songs of the Jubilee Singers"), Sam Lucas' "Carve dat possum," long a country music staple and a new, highly syncopated musical style called "ragtime" ("Searchlight rag"). Unfortunately, popular new dance crazes like the cakewalk were also stereotyped in pieces like "Looney coons." The sheet music's stereotyping is also reflected in the 1903 film "Comedy cakewalk" produced by Thomas A. Edison.

Waiting for the Sunday boat True lovers of the muse "Songs of the Jubilee Singers" (1881) "Carve dat possum" (1875) African-Americans in California Sheet Music "Searchlight rag" (1907) "Looney coons" (1900) "Comedy cake walk" 1903