Delilah Jackson
Delilah Jackson (circa 1929 - January 12, 2013) was a cultural historian who specialized in collecting the history of black entertainers in Harlem.
Biography
Jackson grew up close to the Apollo Theater in Harlem.{{Cite news|last=Day|first=Sherri|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/05/nyregion/citypeople-saving-things-that-made-harlem-swing.html|title=CITYPEOPLE; Saving Things That Made Harlem Swing|date=2001-08-05|work=The New York Times|access-date=2020-04-15|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}} She attended school at P.S. 157.{{Cite web|url=http://www.jazzmuseuminharlem.org/oldsite/archive.php?id=308|title=Harlem Speaks|last=|first=|date=27 April 2006|website=The Jazz Museum in Harlem|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160629173650/http://www.jazzmuseuminharlem.org/oldsite/archive.php?id=308|archive-date=29 June 2016|access-date=2020-04-16}}
Jackson began to collect the cultural history of Harlem and black entertainers in 1975. She began her collection with recording oral histories of various women who had worked as chorus girls at the Cotton Club. Later, that same year, she created the Black Patti Project which brought programming to former entertainers who were now living in nursing homes. The project went on to work toward collecting oral histories from black artists.{{Cite news|last=Hinckley|first=David|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/48797405/daily-news/|title=She Saves Harlem When So Little is Left|date=1991-02-12|work=Daily News|access-date=2020-04-16|pages=33|via=Newspapers.com}} Not only was Jackson known for preserving history, she often befriended the artists she met and visited them in nursing homes as they grew older.{{Cite web|url=https://octobergallery.com/2013/02/23/cultural-historian-delilah-jackson-helped-keep-memory-of-black-entertainers-alive/|title=Cultural historian Delilah Jackson helped keep memory of black entertainers alive|last=|first=|date=2013-02-23|website=October Gallery|language=en-US|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200416000035/https://octobergallery.com/2013/02/23/cultural-historian-delilah-jackson-helped-keep-memory-of-black-entertainers-alive/|archive-date=16 April 2020|access-date=2020-04-15}} Her collection of history helped create a historical context for the artists and their work, according to the New York Amsterdam News.{{Cite web|url=http://amsterdamnews.com/news/2018/aug/09/delilah-jackson-treasury-and-repository-entertainm/|title=Delilah Jackson, a treasury and repository of entertainment|last=Boyd|first=Herb|date=9 August 2018|website=New York Amsterdam News|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200416000908/http://amsterdamnews.com/news/2018/aug/09/delilah-jackson-treasury-and-repository-entertainm/?page=2|archive-date=2020-04-16|access-date=2020-04-16}} Over time, she amassed more 1,000 pieces of media that documented the work of black entertainers in Harlem.{{Cite web|url=http://www.atdf.org/awards/DJackson.html|title=Delilah Jackson|last=|first=|date=|website=American Tap Dance Foundation|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140403074840/http://www.atdf.org/awards/DJackson.html|archive-date=3 April 2014|access-date=2020-04-16}}
Jackson curated a show at the Smithsonian in 1997 called "Paris, the Jazz Age." Jackson also lectured about entertainers from Harlem at Columbia University, the New School, the Schomburg Center and at the Smithsonian.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/manhattan/delilah-jackson-chronicler-black-entertainment-dies-article-1.1245837|title=Delilah Jackson, a New Yorker who chronicled the history of black entertainers in the mid-20th Century, dies at age 84|last=Hinckley|first=David|date=23 January 2013|website=New York Daily News|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200415235430/https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/manhattan/delilah-jackson-chronicler-black-entertainment-dies-article-1.1245837|archive-date=2020-04-15|access-date=2020-04-15}}
She was awarded the 2001 Flo-Bert Lifetime Achievement Award from the New York Committee to Celebrate Tap Dance Day. In 2005, Jackson received the Tap Preservation Award from the American Tap Dance Foundation.
References
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External links
- [https://rose.library.emory.edu/ Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library], Emory University: [http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/8zgw7 Delilah Jackson papers, 1852-2013]
- [https://www.loc.gov/folklife/civilrights/survey/view_collection.php?coll_id=826 Delilah Jackson papers] (Library of Congress)
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Category:Historians from New York (state)
Category:African-American historians