Remembering Relief: The Federal Music Project

Items

• Black Choral Performances on Air
  This audio recording, published by the National Endowment for the Humanities Preservation Project - Annotations, features a program of Spirituals with the Juanita Hall Choir, the Los Angeles Colored Chorus, and Negro Melody Singers, and the Los Angeles Negro Choir. Although the Federal Music Project provided opportunities for Black and Latinx musicians and offered performances of non-Eurocentric music, it did so within the greater context of a highly racist, Jim Crow society. Musicians of Color received less pay than white people and were segregated and othered. However, performances by all-Black casts and musical groups were often the most popular and widely attended events.
• "Colored" Concert Band Performance with Conductor, Norman L. Black
  This WPA poster for the Federal Music Project advertises a performance of a Black concert band, conducted by Norman L. Black in Illinois. The poster itself features an image of blue and orange silhouetted musicians in front of a yellow background.