71 Facts About Josh White

Joshua Daniel White was an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, actor and civil rights activist.

Josh White recorded under the names Pinewood Tom and Tippy Barton in the 1930s.

Josh White became a prominent race records artist, with a prolific output of recordings in genres including Piedmont blues, country blues, gospel music, and social protest songs.

In 1931, Josh White moved to New York, and within a decade his fame had spread widely.

Josh White's repertoire expanded to include urban blues, jazz, traditional folk songs, and political protest songs, and he was in demand as an actor on radio, Broadway, and film.

From 1947 through the mid-1960s, Josh White was caught up in the anti-communist Red Scare, and as a consequence his career suffered.

Josh White was born on February 11,1914, in the black section of Greenville, South Carolina, one of the four children of Reverend Dennis and Daisy Elizabeth Josh White.

Josh White's father told him that he was named after the Biblical character Joshua of the Old Testament.

Josh White's mother introduced him to music when he was five years old, at which age he began singing in his church's choir.

Josh White's father threw a white bill collector out of his home in 1921, for which he was beaten so badly that he nearly died, and then was locked up in a mental institution, where he died nine years later.

Two months after his father had been taken away from the family, Josh White left home with Blind Man Arnold, a black street singer, whom he agreed to lead across the South and for whom he would collect coins after performances.

Josh White was still shoeless and sleeping in horse stables, with all his payments for recordings going to Taggart and Arnold.

Josh White retreated from his recording career to become a dock worker, an elevator operator, and a building superintendent.

One night during a card game, Josh White's left hand was revived completely.

Josh White immediately began practicing playing the guitar and soon put together a group, Josh White and His Carolinians, with his brother Billy and close friends Carrington Lewis, Sam Gary, and Bayard Rustin.

Josh White began working with Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, Burl Ives, and the Golden Gate Quartet in the CBS radio series Back Where I Come From, written by folk-song collector Alan Lomax and directed by Nicholas Ray.

Ray later produced live engagements and recordings for two historic duos of which Josh White was a member.

Josh White refashioned his music, performance and image with his re-emergence on the entertainment scene in 1939 and 1940.

Josh White soon became the first blues performer to attract a large white and middle-class African-American following and was the first African-American artist to perform in previously segregated venues in the US, as he transcended the typical racial and social barriers of the time who associated blues with a rural and working-class African-American audience, while performing in nightclubs and theaters during the 1930s and 1940s.

When offered the song, he immediately recorded it, and it became the first million-selling record by a male African-American artist; according to his biographer, Elijah Wald, it was "Josh White's biggest hit by far".

Josh White recorded in various contexts, sometimes accompanied only by his guitar and sometimes playing with others backing him on guitar and string bass or piano or with jazz ensembles, gospel vocal groups, or a swing jazz band, as in his popular 1945 recording "I Left a Good Deal in Mobile".

Josh White performed and recorded with the jazz pianist Mary Lou Williams, and besides his duets with Libby Holman and with Lead Belly, he recorded and performed duets with Buddy Moss and often performed duets with his friend Billie Holiday.

Josh White recorded songs of social and political protest with Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Burl Ives, and Lee Hays in their folk cooperative group the Almanac Singers and in the later group People's Songs, which consisted of the core of musicians and activists who formed Almanac Singers.

In 1945, with the success of his hit single "One Meatball", in addition to his national radio show, his appearance in the film Crimson Canary, and publicity from Cafe Society, Josh White became the first African-American popular music artist to make a national concert hall tour of America, with the Jamaican singer and dancer Josephine Premice as his opening act.

Josh White performed these pieces in concerts for the rest of her career.

One day, John Hammond asked Josh White to meet Barney Josephson, the owner of the club.

Josh White had remarkable success in popularizing recordings in diverse musical genres, which ranged from his original repertoire of Negro blues, gospel and protest songs to Broadway show tunes, cabaret, pop, and white American, English and Australian folk songs.

The Greenwich Village club was so successful that Josephson soon opened a larger Cafe Society Uptown, at which Josh White performed, gaining him recognition by the New York Times as the "Darling of Fifth Avenue".

Josh White was thought to have had numerous romantic liaisons with wealthy society women, singers, and Hollywood actresses, but the rumors were never substantiated.

In January 1941, Josh White performed at the President's Inauguration, and two months later, he released another highly controversial record album, Southern Exposure, which included six anti-segregationist songs with liner notes written by the African-American writer Richard Wright, and the subtitle of which was An Album of Jim Crow Blues.

The President sent Josh White to give concerts overseas as a goodwill ambassador, and he was often referred to in the press as the "Presidential Minstrel".

In 1950, Eleanor Roosevelt and Josh White made a historical speaking and concert tour of the capitals of Europe to lift the spirits of those war-torn countries.

Josh White appeared in John Sturges' 1949 western The Walking Hills with Randolph Scott, Ella Raines, Edgar Buchanan, and Arthur Kennedy, in which his character, an itinerant musician, was not a stereotype but on equal footing with the white characters.

Josh White was still young and handsome at this time, and would have likely enjoyed continued success in film had the Hollywood blacklist not prematurely ended his budding movie career.

Josh White had reached the zenith of his career when touring with Eleanor Roosevelt on a celebrated and triumphant Goodwill tour of Europe.

Josh White had been hosted by the continent's prime ministers and royal families, and had just performed before 50,000 cheering fans at Stockholm's soccer stadium.

Amidst this tour, while in Paris in June 1950, Josh White received a call from Mary Chase, his manager in New York, telling him that Red Channels had just released and distributed a thick magazine with subversive details regarding 151 artists from the entertainment and media industries whom they labeled communist sympathizers.

Josh White explained that if she wasn't the widow of the president they would be crucifying her.

Josh White continued that the right-wing press had been calling her a "pinko", citing her social activism and friendships with non-whites.

That night, Josh White called his manager and alerted her that he would be flying back to America the next day so that he could clear his name.

Josh White was not a communist and was not active in any political party.

Controversially, in a fervent desire to defend his reputation, and challenge his accusers and the blacklist, Josh White told the FBI that he would go to Washington, appear before HUAC and set the record straight.

Josh White was the most respected and admired artist-activist throughout the world, with friendships that included the leaders of many countries including the Soviet Union, where Robeson was considered a cultural and social giant and iconic figure.

Years later in a radio interview, Josh White stated that Robeson never once mentioned the Communist Party to him, and in fact advised Josh White not to get too involved with any political party.

Josh White has a right to his own opinions, but when he, or anybody, pretends to talk for a whole race, he's kidding himself.

Josh White continued that he would never appear before the Committee, but that this was a decision White would have to make on his own.

On September 1,1950, Josh White, appearing with only his wife Carol at his side, sat down before HUAC in Washington, DC, regarding communist influence in the entertainment industry and African-American community.

Josh White did not give the HUAC Committee names of Communist Party members.

Josh White defended his right and responsibility as a folksinger to bring social injustices to the attention of the public through his songs, and then passionately read the chilling lyrics of one of his most famous recordings, the anti-lynching song "Strange Fruit" which was then placed into the Congressional Record.

Josh White included his words about Paul Robeson regarding the alleged statement Robeson had made in Paris.

The fact that the future career and reputation of baseball legend Jackie Robinson was not hampered when he appeared before the HUAC Committee one year earlier, while expressing virtually the same words as Josh White had about Robeson's alleged statement in Spain, did not seem to matter to Josh White's detractors.

Indeed, this was the case, and Josh White's blacklisting would not be lifted for years.

Josh White's Hollywood blacklisting began in 1948, after completing his final film role in The Walking Hills, and he would not be allowed to appear on US television from 1948 until 1963.

The UK guitarist John Renbourn and the American guitarist Stefan Grossman have cited it as a critical influence on their playing, and in 1961 he starred in The Josh White Show for Granada Television in the United Kingdom.

In 1964, Josh White gave a command performance for Lester Pearson, the Prime Minister of Canada, and in January 1965 he performed at the inauguration of President Lyndon Baines Johnson.

Meanwhile, he starred in two concert specials for national Swedish television in 1962 and 1967; starred in the 1965 ITV Network special Heart Song: Josh White in the United Kingdom ; was a guest star on the Canadian CBC-TV program Let's Sing Out with Oscar Brand in 1967; and made his final television appearance in May 1969 on the CBC-TV variety show One More Time.

Josh White's fingernails were brittle and prone to cracking due to psoriasis, a condition that got worse as he grew older.

Josh White glued on these false nails with an industrial glue, Eastman 910, which would later be marketed as Super Glue.

Josh White returned to the factory every other month for a new set of nails.

In 1961, Josh White's health began a sharp decline after he had the first of the three heart attacks and the progressive heart disease that would plague him over his final eight years.

The surgery failed, and Josh White died on September 5,1969, at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, New York, aged 55.

Josh White was in many senses a trailblazer: popular country bluesman in the early 1930s, responsible for introducing a mass white audience to folk-blues in the 1940s, and the first black singer-guitarist to star in Hollywood films and on Broadway.

Josh White was the first black singer to give a White House command performance, to perform in previously segregated hotels, to get a million-selling record, and the first to make a solo concert tour of America.

Josh White was the first folk and blues artist to perform in a nightclub, the first to tour internationally, and the first to be honored with a US postage stamp.

In 1933, Josh White married Carol Carr, a New York gospel singer.

Josh White's father died in a South Carolina mental institution in 1930, the result of beatings at the hands of Greenville deputies a decade earlier.

Josh White came to visit White in New York several times a year, and he traveled to see her in South Carolina, but she did not allow his non-religious recordings in her home.

On occasion in the early 1940s, when the grandmother watched the children, Carol would join Josh White in singing, performing and recording with the folk collaborative group, the Almanac Singers.

Josh White lived in this semi-suburban home for the rest of his life.

Carol Josh White continued to live there and worked until she was in her 80s, first as manager of a clothing boutique and then as a social worker serving people in nursing homes, until her sudden death in 1998.

Josh White felt that she could finally go in peace.