1. Harry Herbert Pace was an American music publisher and insurance executive.
15 Facts About Harry Pace
1. 2.
Harry Pace was the founder of Black Swan Records, the first record label owned by an African American with wide distribution capabilities.
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Harry Pace eventually went to law school in Chicago and became a lawyer.
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Harry Pace finished elementary school at the age of twelve.
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Harry Pace enrolled at Atlanta University and found work as a printer's devil to pay his way through school.
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However, after learning that white employees were earning more than black employees, Harry Pace left the job and began working odd jobs on campus instead.
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In 1912, Pace met and collaborated with W C Handy, who took a liking to him; they wrote songs together.
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Harry Pace saw the growing popularity of the phonograph would shift the music business as it reached a wider audience.
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In 1921, then living in Harlem, Harry Pace established Black Swan Records.
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Harry Pace set up a recording studio in the basement of his brownstone.
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In 1925, Harry Pace founded the Northeastern Life Insurance Company in Newark, New Jersey, which became the largest African-American-owned business in the North during the 1930s.
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Harry Pace then moved to Chicago to attend the Chicago-Kent College of Law; he received his degree in 1933.
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In 1943 Harry Pace died mysteriously, and was buried quietly, even before his closest friends knew he had died.
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Harry Pace's children began living as white and never spoke of him again; shrouding his legacy within a family secret.
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Harry Pace is featured on the documentary series Profiles of African-American Success.