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Charles Walton Papers

Finding Aid: Charles Walton Papers
Repository: Chicago Public Library, Carter G. Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature

Charles Walton PapersCharles Walton was a jazz drummer, music educator, and author of “Bronzeville Conversations,” a research and oral history project that documented the jazz and blues world in Black Chicago. Born in 1925 in Selma, Alabama, Walton moved to Chicago’s South Side as a child. He become a jazz drummer immediately after World War II and went on to direct music education at Malcolm X College. He also served as an officer in the American Federation of Musicians Local 10-208. Walton worked tirelessly on a project to document Chicago’s Black music history, conducting oral histories with over 170 musicians, club owners, politicians, promoters, and producers involved in Bronzeville jazz and blues.

The Charles Walton Papers at the Chicago Public Library, Carter G. Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature include drafts of his unfinished book, over 300 oral history interviews with 179 subjects, essays from “Bronzeville Conversations,” as well as rare documents and photographs.

Selected Artifacts

Walton with the Johnny Pate Trio, ca. 1956. From top to bottom, Johnny Pate, Lionel Bright, and Charles Walton. The Sutherland Lounge was a key site in Charles Walton’s history of Bronzeville jazz and blues. The Lounge was located at the Sutherland Hotel at 4659 S. Drexel Boulevard. The elegant jazz lounge hosted a racially integrated clientele and major jazz acts, including John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Von Freeman, Dizzy Gillespie, and in the mid-1950s, Charles Walton with the Johnny Pate Trio (pictured). Another key subject for Walton was the 1964 merger of Locals 10 and 208 of the American Federation of Musicians. When Chicago’s black musicians were denied membership in Local 10, they formed their own Local 208 in 1902. Segregated musicians locals were standard across the country but beginning in the mid-1950s, the tide turned, resulting in a controversial merger in 1964 in Chicago. This cover letter to the membership refers to the Plan of Merger of Local 10 and 208, claiming that the Order “does represent a reasonable compromise of the issues between the two locals and provides a framework under which a meaningful merger can be effected.”


Images and credits.