Interactions with the "Who's Who" of African Americans
Delany talks about the notable African Americans that stayed with his family in Raleigh, North Carolina, while he was growing up. Because Delany's father was a prominent African American physician in Raleigh, African American entertainers, activists, and politicians sometimes stayed with the family while staying throughout the segregated South. In discussing this, Delany focuses on how the "who's who" of African Americans were perceived socially, drawing connections between his experiences in Raleigh and in Harlem during the 1940s and 1950s.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Lemuel Delany, July 15, 2005. Interview R-0346. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
- KIMBERLY HILL:
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Were you living in Harlem?
- LEMUEL DELANY:
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Um hmm. Harlem USA. There's no other place. I had the
privilege of meeting and knowing just about everybody that was
who's who in black America at one time or another. I had
[connections] because my Uncle Hubert was a prominent attorney in New
York, and most [members] of "Who's Who in Black
America" either knew him or were one of his clients. When these
people found it necessary to come South for one
reason or another and hotel accommodations were not what they wanted to
be, Hubert would call my mama and ask her, can Paul Robeson stay at your
house, can Marion Anderson stay at your house, can Cab Calloway stay at
your house, can Duke Ellington stay at your house? The answer was always
yes. So all of those people at one time or another stayed at my house.
- KIMBERLY HILL:
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Wow.
- LEMUEL DELANY:
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So I met all the WEB Dubois, the Paul Robeson, the Marion Andersons, the
Cab Calloways, the Duke Ellingtons. You name them. I met them all at one
time or another.
- KIMBERLY HILL:
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Which one did you enjoy the most?
- LEMUEL DELANY:
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Cab Calloway.
- KIMBERLY HILL:
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When they came did they tell you about all the stuff they did?
- LEMUEL DELANY:
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No. No. They were just there. At that time celebrities did not need or
have an entourage to follow them everywhere they went. In other words,
in Joe Louis's heyday you might see him walking up and down
Seventh Avenue by himself any time. You might see Duke Ellington. You
might see Paul Robeson. You might see them walking up and down the
street and Adam Powell and all those people. They didn't have
any entourage following them around, and they were only Who's
Who in white America. In other words at the Cotton Club in Harlem, Cab
Calloway was many times the featured entertainer. But they
didn't allow black people in the congregation, in the
audience at the tables. So he was big to them.
- KIMBERLY HILL:
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Not so much to the black audiences.
- LEMUEL DELANY:
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Yeah, the only time we saw them was at the Apollo theatre. He came to
Apollo Theatre you see him. But in between shows he'd be out
there on 125th Street like everybody else. He wasn't all that
"who's who."
