Josh White: Society Blues (review)

Josh White: Society Blues. By Elijah Wald. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2000. [xvii, 336 p. ISBN 1-55849-269-0. $32.50.]

Josh White (1914-1969), an African American singer and guitarist, had a remarkably varied career. As a child, he served as "lead boy" and apprentice to several itinerant blind performers in the southeastern states, later becoming a "race" recording artist of both blues and gospel material, stage and screen actor, political protest singer, entertainer and advisor to Franklin D. and Eleanor Roosevelt, popular nightclub star, and international "folksinger." Along the way, he was a constant crusader against Jim Crow and served as a teacher and role model for other musicians and entertainers; he was also a family man, but one with a large appetite for alcohol and outside sexual relationships, and he had a serious run-in with the House Committee on Un-American Activities (known as HUAC). He was constantly reinventing himself and pushing the limits that society placed on him, often putting himself in some danger because of his outspoken racial and political views and his overtly sexual image, both of which he presented to primarily white audiences beginning in the early 1940s.

White was interviewed many times during his lifetime, but never for the purpose of compiling a full-length biographical account. There are many gaps and inconsistencies in his statements, and he always seemed more concerned with creating an image and legend than in providing factual details. For White, the "facts" of his life seem to have served the twin causes of advancing his professional career and advancing the struggle for equal rights. Elijah Wald has had to piece together and evaluate these interviews, supplementing them with discussions of White's rich legacy of sound recordings and with information from many printed sources and people who knew White at various stages of his life. Particularly helpful were White's widow, who married him in 1934, and their children, but many others from the entertainment field, as well as friends (even a couple of old girlfriends) contributed information, memories, insights, and opinions. Because of White's alacrity in testifying before HUAC in 1950 at the beginning of the Red Scare, his disavowal of communism, and his distancing of himself from the more militant Paul Robeson, some of his political associates and fellow entertainers were reluctant to cooperate with this project. These included Harry Belafonte and Eartha Kitt, both of whom had benefited from White's pioneering efforts. White's genuflection to HUAC and other Red baiters managed to save his career from complete collapse, and he was able to avoid fingering others as communists and fellow travelers. Nevertheless, he suffered a permanent taint in the eyes of some as a "traitor" to the leftist cause, one that his continuing outspokenness on civil rights issues could never entirely erase.

White's reputation has also suffered another taint over the years. In the opinion of many blues purists, based on his recorded legacy, his best work occurred during the 1920s and 1930s, while from 1940 onward he progressively diluted the pure folk quality of his music in an ironic, self-conscious attempt to become a "folksinger." Wald will have none of this view, however, and instead sees White's early career as an appetizer to the main course, his much lengthier career as a popular entertainer with mainstream national and international appeal. He takes a positive view of White's highly dramatic and mannered performance style, pointing out his songwriting and arranging skills, his virtuosity as a guitarist, and his injection of lively rhythms into often staid Anglo-American folk-song material. He also points out White's influence on a broad array of black and white entertainers, even his often overlooked earlier influence on the African American blues and gospel tradition. Wald wisely steers a moderate course through the controversy surrounding White's political activities and statements, letting the evidence speak for itself but pointing out White's unwavering stance against Jim Crow, even while testifying...