The Vanguard Generation: African American Artists, 1880-1918 with Daniel E. Atkinson

Free and open to all.

Discover the remarkable first generation of African American artists and performers whose contributions helped shape popular culture. Active after the Civil War and before World War I, many of these artists were the first in their families to be born out of bondage or to attend college—overcoming tremendous hardship in defiance of Jim Crow laws.

Using newly discovered documents from the era, this talk reveals the talent, ingenuity, conflicts, and solidarity of the “Vanguard Generation.”

Daniel E. Atkinson earned his PhD in ethnomusicology from the University of Washington, where his research focused on Afro-American vernacular expression. He is the author of The Rediscovery of George Nash Walker: The Price of Black Stardom in Jim Crow America, a biography of the co-founder of the Williams and Walker, the first Black theatre company to succeed on Broadway. He currently works as a maintenance laborer for Tacoma Parks.