Emeriti Faculty Lecture

Black Musicians’ Fight for Labor Equality with Leta Miller

For most of the twentieth century, the American Federation of Musicians maintained separate locals for Blacks and whites that operated in overlapping territories. The Black locals arose at the request of Black musicians, who anticipated significant benefits from monoethnic organizations. When the AFM tried to amalgamate dual locals, Blacks resisted, but the Federation opted to force mergers. Miller will explore this complex situation—which included a bitter lawsuit in San Francisco—through numerous illustrations.

Leta Miller, Professor Emerita at the University of California, Santa Cruz, has published widely on twentieth-century music, including her book Music and Politics in San Francisco, biographies of composers Aaron Jay Kernis, Chen Yi, and Lou Harrison, and more than twenty articles on Harrison, John Cage, Henry Cowell, Charles Ives; music in San Francisco; and the philanthropy of Phoebe Apperson Hearst. She was an active flutist for many years and previously published articles on Renaissance and Baroque music..