Urbanism, group size, and regional milieus: black musicians in the early twentieth-century US South

Abstract

This study examines how urbanism, group-size, and regional milieus affected blacks’ employment as professional musicians in the early twentieth-century US South. Regression analyses of Census data show that: (1) contrary to classic urbanism theories, black musicians’ employment was equally likely in cities and hinterlands, implying that these theories, which are based mainly on northern urban investigations, are only loosely applicable to the South. (2) Black population size was unrelated to black musicians’ employment, suggesting that, contrary to the group-strengths hypothesis, southern black communities struggled to foster the institutional infrastructure that supported black musicians’ employment. (3) Consistent with venerable regionalism scholarship, black musicians’ employment was less likely in the plantation-system-dominated Lower South than in the Upper South, indicating that suppression of black musicians was a key dimension of the Lower South’s anti-black discrimination. The study concludes that subregional milieus affect minority cultural-expression employment independently of urbanism and group-size.