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.[1] She attended school at P.S. 157.[2]

Jackson began to collect the cultural history of Harlem and black entertainers in 1975.[1] She began her collection with recording oral histories of various women who had worked as chorus girls at the Cotton Club.[1] Later, that same year, she created the Black Patti Project which brought programming to former entertainers who were now living in nursing homes.[1] The project went on to work toward collecting oral histories from black artists.[3] 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.[4] Her collection of history helped create a historical context for the artists and their work, according to the New York Amsterdam News.[5] Over time, she amassed more 1,000 pieces of media that documented the work of black entertainers in Harlem.[6]

Jackson curated a show at the Smithsonian in 1997 called "Paris, the Jazz Age."[6] Jackson also lectured about entertainers from Harlem at Columbia University, the New School, the Schomburg Center and at the Smithsonian.[7]

She was awarded the 2001 Flo-Bert Lifetime Achievement Award from the New York Committee to Celebrate Tap Dance Day.[6] In 2005, Jackson received the Tap Preservation Award from the American Tap Dance Foundation.[6]

Jackson died in her home on January 12, 2013.[7]

References
  1. Day, Sherri (2001-08-05). "CITYPEOPLE; Saving Things That Made Harlem Swing". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-04-15.
  2. "Harlem Speaks". The Jazz Museum in Harlem. 27 April 2006. Archived from the original on 29 June 2016. Retrieved 2020-04-16.
  3. Hinckley, David (1991-02-12). "She Saves Harlem When So Little is Left". Daily News. p. 33. Retrieved 2020-04-16 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. "Cultural historian Delilah Jackson helped keep memory of black entertainers alive". October Gallery. 2013-02-23. Archived from the original on 16 April 2020. Retrieved 2020-04-15.
  5. Boyd, Herb (9 August 2018). "Delilah Jackson, a treasury and repository of entertainment". New York Amsterdam News. Archived from the original on 2020-04-16. Retrieved 2020-04-16.
  6. "Delilah Jackson". American Tap Dance Foundation. Archived from the original on 3 April 2014. Retrieved 2020-04-16.
  7. Hinckley, David (23 January 2013). "Delilah Jackson, a New Yorker who chronicled the history of black entertainers in the mid-20th Century, dies at age 84". New York Daily News. Archived from the original on 2020-04-15. Retrieved 2020-04-15.
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