"Bring Judgment Day": Reclaiming Lead Belly's Truths from Jim Crow's Lies

FAIN: FZ-280132-21

Sheila Curran Bernard
University at Albany (Albany, NY 12222-0100)

Research and writing of a book about blues performer Huddie Ledbetter (1889-1949), his interactions with music collectors John A. and Alan Lomax, and the racial and labor politics of the post-Reconstruction era.

A book intended for both trade and academic audiences, “Bring Judgment Day” challenges the accepted mythology surrounding legendary blues performer Huddie Ledbetter, aka Lead Belly (1889 -1949), much of it focused on his violent nature and criminal record. This narrative was shaped in the 1930s by white music collector John A. Lomax and his young son, Alan, and, as my research shows, masks a much deeper story. For the first time, "Bring Judgment Day" explores the Ledbetter legend in the context of post-Reconstruction southern racial and labor politics and a corrupt system of criminal justice and explores the ways in which the Lomaxes, aided by the northern press and emerging forms of mass media, built on prevailing stereotypes to market the performer in a way that falsified his past while obscuring the nation's own culpability.

Associated Products

Bring Judgment Day: Reclaiming Lead Belly's Truths from Jim Crow's Lies (Book)
Title: Bring Judgment Day: Reclaiming Lead Belly's Truths from Jim Crow's Lies
Editor: Cecelia Cancellaro
Abstract: Known worldwide as Lead Belly, Huddie Ledbetter (1889–1949) is an American icon whose influence on modern music was tremendous – as was, according to legend, the temper that landed him in two of the South's most brutal prisons, while his immense talent twice won him pardons. But, as this deeply researched book shows, these stories were shaped by the white folklorists who 'discovered' Lead Belly and, along with reporters, recording executives, and radio and film producers, introduced him to audiences beyond the South. Through a revelatory examination of arrest, trial, and prison records; sharecropping reports; oral histories; newspaper articles; and more, author Sheila Curran Bernard replaces myth with fact, offering a stunning indictment of systemic racism in the Jim Crow era of the United States and the power of narrative to erase and distort the past.
Year: 2024
Primary URL: https://www.cambridge.org/us/universitypress/subjects/history/african-american-histor/bring-judgment-day-reclaiming-lead-bellys-truths-jim-crows-lies?format=HB&isbn=9781009098120
Primary URL Description: Cambridge University Press book website
Secondary URL: https://www.sheilacurranbernard.com/
Secondary URL Description: Author website
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 9781009103619
Copy sent to NEH?: No

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