Pop music
Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form in the United States and United Kingdom during the mid-1950s. The terms "popular music" and "pop music" are used interchangeably, although the former describes all music, popular and includes many diverse styles. "Pop" and "rock" were synonymous terms until the late 1960s, when they became differentiated from each other. Although much of the music that appears on record charts is seen as pop music, the genre is distinguished from chart music. Pop music is eclectic, borrows elements from other styles such as urban, rock and country. Identifying factors include short to medium-length songs written in a basic format, as well as common use of repeated choruses, melodic tunes, hooks. David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop music as "a body of music, distinguishable from popular and folk musics". According to Pete Seeger, pop music is "professional music which draws upon both folk music and fine arts music". Although pop music is seen as just the singles charts, it is not the sum of all chart music.
The music charts contain songs from a variety of sources, including classical, jazz and novelty songs. As a genre, pop music is seen to develop separately. Therefore, the term "pop music" may be used to describe a distinct genre, designed to appeal to all characterized as "instant singles-based music aimed at teenagers" in contrast to rock music as "album-based music for adults". Pop music continuously evolves along with the term's definition. According to music writer Bill Lamb, popular music is defined as "the music since industrialization in the 1800s, most in line with the tastes and interests of the urban middle class." The term "pop song" was first used in 1926, in the sense of a piece of music "having popular appeal". Hatch and Millward indicate that many events in the history of recording in the 1920s can be seen as the birth of the modern pop music industry, including in country and hillbilly music. According to the website of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the term "pop music" "originated in Britain in the mid-1950s as a description for rock and roll and the new youth music styles that it influenced".
The Oxford Dictionary of Music states that while pop's "earlier meaning meant concerts appealing to a wide audience since the late 1950s, pop has had the special meaning of non-classical mus in the form of songs, performed by such artists as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, ABBA, etc." Grove Music Online states that " in the early 1960s,'pop music' competed terminologically with beat music, while in the US its coverage overlapped with that of'rock and roll'". From about 1967, the term “pop music” was used in opposition to the term rock music, a division that gave generic significance to both terms. While rock aspired to authenticity and an expansion of the possibilities of popular music, pop was more commercial and accessible. According to British musicologist Simon Frith, pop music is produced "as a matter of enterprise not art", is "designed to appeal to everyone" but "doesn't come from any particular place or mark off any particular taste". Frith adds that it is "not driven by any significant ambition except profit and commercial reward and, in musical terms, it is conservative".
It is, "provided from on high rather than being made from below... Pop is not a do-it-yourself music but is professionally produced and packaged". According to Frith, characteristics of pop music include an aim of appealing to a general audience, rather than to a particular sub-culture or ideology, an emphasis on craftsmanship rather than formal "artistic" qualities. Music scholar Timothy Warner said it has an emphasis on recording and technology, rather than live performance; the main medium of pop music is the song between two and a half and three and a half minutes in length marked by a consistent and noticeable rhythmic element, a mainstream style and a simple traditional structure. Common variants include the verse-chorus form and the thirty-two-bar form, with a focus on melodies and catchy hooks, a chorus that contrasts melodically and harmonically with the verse; the beat and the melodies tend to be simple, with limited harmonic accompaniment. The lyrics of modern pop songs focus on simple themes – love and romantic relationships – although there are notable exceptions.
Harmony and chord progressions in pop music are "that of classical European tonality, only more simple-minded." Clichés include the barbershop quartet-style blues scale-influenced harmony. There was a lessening of the influence of traditional views of the circle of fifths between the mid-1950s and the late 1970s, including less predominance for the dominant function. Throughout its development, pop music has absorbed influences from other genres of popular music. Early pop music drew on the sentimental ballad for its form, gained its use of vocal harmonies from gospel and soul music, instrumentation from jazz and rock music, orchestration from classical music, tempo from dance music, backing from electronic music, rhythmic elements from hip-hop music, spoken passages from rap. In the 1960s, the majority of mainstream pop music fell in two categories: guitar and bass groups or singers
Al Green
Albert Leornes Greene known as The Reverend Al Green, is an American singer and record producer, best known for recording a series of soul hit singles in the early 1970s, including "Take Me to the River", "Tired of Being Alone", "I'm Still in Love with You", "Love and Happiness", his signature song, "Let's Stay Together". Inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995, Green was referred to on the museum's site as being "one of the most gifted purveyors of soul music", he has been referred to as "The Last of the Great Soul Singers". Green was included in the Rolling Stone list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, ranking at No. 65, as well as its list of the 100 Greatest Singers, at No. 14. Albert Leornes Greene was born on April 1946, in Forrest City, Arkansas; the sixth of ten children born to Cora Lee and Robert G. Greene, Jr. a sharecropper, Al began performing with his brothers in a group called the Greene Brothers at around the age of ten. The Greene family relocated to Michigan, in the late 1950s.
Al was kicked out of the family home while in his teens, after his devoutly religious father caught him listening to Jackie Wilson."I listened to Mahalia Jackson, all the great gospel singers. But the most important music to me was those hip-shakin' boys: Elvis Presley. I just loved Elvis Presley. Whatever he got, I went out and bought."In high school, Al formed a vocal group called Al Greene & the Creations. Two of the group's members, Curtis Rodgers and Palmer James, formed an independent label called Hot Line Music Journal. In 1968, having changed their name to Al Greene & the Soul Mates, they recorded the song "Back Up Train", releasing it on Hot Line Music; the song was a hit on the R&B charts. However, the group's subsequent follow-ups failed to chart. While performing with the Soul Mates, Green came into contact with Memphis record producer Willie Mitchell, who hired him in 1969 to be a vocalist for a Texas show with Mitchell's band. Following the performance, Mitchell asked Green to sign with his Hi Records label.
Having noted that Green had been trying to sing like Jackie Wilson, Sam Cooke, Wilson Pickett, James Brown, Mitchell became his vocal mentor, coaching him into finding his own voice. Before releasing his first album with Hi, Green removed the final "e" from his name. Subsequently, he released Green Is Blues, a moderate success, his follow-up album, Al Green Gets Next to You, featured the hit R&B cover of the Temptations' "I Can't Get Next to You", recorded in a slow blues-oriented version. The album featured his first significant hit, "Tired of Being Alone", which sold a million copies and was certified gold, becoming the first of seven consecutive gold singles Green would record in the next couple of years. Green's next album, Let's Stay Together, solidified his place in soul music; the title track was his biggest hit to date, reaching number one on both the Billboard Hot 100 and R&B charts. The album became his first to be certified gold, his follow-up, I'm Still in Love with You went platinum with the help of the singles "Look What You Done for Me" and the title track, both of which went to the top ten on the Hot 100.
His next album, Call Me produced three top ten singles: "You Ought to Be with Me", "Call Me", "Here I Am". Green's album Livin' for You was his last album to be certified gold. In addition to these hit singles, Green had radio hits with songs such as "Love and Happiness", his cover of the Bee Gees' "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart", "Simply Beautiful", "What a Wonderful Thing Love Is", "Take Me to the River" covered by new wave band Talking Heads and blues artist Syl Johnson. Green continued to record successful R&B hits in the next several years including "Livin' for You", "Let's Get Married", "Sha-La-La", "L-O-V-E" and "Full of Fire". By the time Green released the album, The Belle Album in 1977, Green's record sales had plummeted due to Green's own personal issues during this time and his desire to become a minister, his last Hi Records album, Truth n' Time, was failed to become a success. Two years he left Hi for Myrrh Records and recorded only gospel music for the next decade and a half.
Green's first gospel album, The Lord Will Make a Way, was released in 1980. The title song from the album would win Green his first of eight Grammy Awards in the Best Soul Gospel Performance category. In 1982, Green co-starred with Patti LaBelle in the Broadway play, "Your Arms Too Short to Box with God", his 1985 gospel album, He Is the Light reunited Green with Willie Mitchell while his 1987 follow-up, Soul Survivor, featured the minor hit, "Everything's Gonna Be Alright", which reached number 22 on the R&B chart, his first top 40 R&B hit since "I Feel Good" in 1978. Green returned to secular music in 1988 recording "Put a Little Love in Your Heart" with Annie Lennox. Featured on the soundtrack to the movie, the song became Green's first top 10 pop hit since 1974. Green had a hit in 1989 with "The Message" with producer Arthur Baker. Two years he recorded the theme song to the short-lived show Good Sports. In 1993, he signed with Baker again as producer, released the album, Don't Look Back. Green received his ninth Grammy award for his collaboration with Lyle Lovett for their duet of "Funny How Time Slips Away".
Green's 1995 album, Your Heart's In Good Hands, was released around the time that Green was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The one single released from the album, "Keep On Pushing Love", was described as "invoking the original, spar
Jimmy Carter
James Earl Carter Jr. is an American politician and philanthropist who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A Democrat, he served as a Georgia State senator from 1963 to 1967 and as the 76th governor of Georgia from 1971 to 1975. Carter has remained active in public life during his post-presidency, in 2002 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in co-founding the Carter Center. Raised in Plains, Carter graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1946 with a Bachelor of Science degree and joined the United States Navy, where he served on submarines. After the death of his father in 1953, Carter left his naval career and returned home to Georgia to take up the reins of his family's peanut-growing business. Carter inherited comparatively little due to his father's forgiveness of debts and the division of the estate among the children, his ambition to expand and grow the Carters' peanut business was fulfilled. During this period, Carter was motivated to oppose the political climate of racial segregation and support the growing civil rights movement.
He became an activist within the Democratic Party. From 1963 to 1967, Carter served in the Georgia State Senate, in 1970, he was elected as Governor of Georgia, defeating former Governor Carl Sanders in the Democratic primary on an anti-segregation platform advocating affirmative action for ethnic minorities. Carter remained as governor until 1975. Despite being a dark-horse candidate, little known outside of Georgia at the start of the campaign, Carter won the 1976 Democratic presidential nomination. In the general election, Carter ran as an outsider and narrowly defeated incumbent Republican President Gerald Ford. On his second day in office, Carter pardoned all the Vietnam War draft evaders. During Carter's term as president, two new cabinet-level departments, the Department of Energy and the Department of Education, were established, he established a national energy policy that included conservation, price control, new technology. In foreign affairs, Carter pursued the Camp David Accords, the Panama Canal Treaties, the second round of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, the return of the Panama Canal Zone to Panama.
On the economic front he confronted persistent stagflation, a combination of high inflation, high unemployment and slow growth. The end of his presidential tenure was marked by the 1979–1981 Iran hostage crisis, the 1979 energy crisis, the Three Mile Island nuclear accident, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. In response to the invasion, Carter escalated the Cold War by ending détente, imposing a grain embargo against the Soviets, enunciating the Carter doctrine, leading an international boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. In 1980, Carter faced a primary challenge from Senator Ted Kennedy, but he won re-nomination at the 1980 Democratic National Convention. Carter lost the general election in an electoral landslide to Republican nominee Ronald Reagan. Polls of historians and political scientists rank Carter as an average president. In 2012, Carter surpassed Herbert Hoover as the longest-retired president in U. S. history, in 2017 became the first president to live to the 40th anniversary of his inauguration.
He is the oldest and earliest-serving of all living U. S. presidents. In 2019, Carter surpassed George H. W. Bush as the longest-lived American president in U. S. history. In 1982, he established the Carter Center to expand human rights, he has traveled extensively to conduct peace negotiations, monitor elections, advance disease prevention and eradication in developing nations. Carter is considered a key figure in the Habitat for Humanity charity, he has written over 30 books ranging from politics to poetry and inspiration. He has criticized some of Israel's actions and policies in regards to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and has advocated for a two-state solution. James Earl Carter Jr. was born on October 1, 1924, at the Wise Sanitarium in Plains, Georgia, a hospital where his mother was employed as a registered nurse. Carter was the first U. S. president to be born in a hospital. He was the eldest son of Bessie Lillian and James Earl Carter Sr. Carter is a descendant of English immigrant Thomas Carter, who settled in Virginia in 1635.
Numerous generations of Carters lived as cotton farmers in Georgia. Carter is a descendant of Thomas Cornell, an ancestor of Cornell University's founder, is distantly related to Richard Nixon and Bill Gates. Plains was a boomtown of 600 people at the time of Carter's birth. Carter's father was a successful local businessman, who ran a general store, was an investor in farmland, he served as a reserve second lieutenant in the U. S. Army's Quartermaster Corps during World War I; the family moved several times during Carter Jr.'s infancy. The Carters settled on a dirt road in nearby Archery, entirely populated by impoverished African American families, they had three more children: Gloria and Billy. Carter got along well with his parents, although his mother worked long hours and was absent in his childhood. Although Earl was staunchly pro-segregation, he allowed his son to befriend the black farmhands' children. Carter was an enterprising teenager, given his own acre of Earl's farmland where he grew and sold peanuts.
He rented out a section of tenant housing that he had purchased. Carter attended the Plains High School from 1937 to 1941. By that time, the Great Depression had impoverished Archery and Plains, but the family benefited from New Deal farming subsidies, Earl
Motown
Motown Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on January 12, 1959, was incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau of motor and town, has become a nickname for Detroit, where the label was headquartered. Motown played an important role in the racial integration of popular music as an African American–owned label that achieved significant crossover success. In the 1960s, Motown and its subsidiary labels were the most successful proponents of what came to be known as the Motown Sound, a style of soul music with a distinct pop influence. Motown was the most successful record label of soul music, with a net worth totaling $61 million. During the 1960s, Motown achieved spectacular success for a small label: 79 records in the top-ten of the Billboard Hot 100 between 1960 and 1969. Following the events of the Detroit Riots of 1967 and the loss of key songwriting/production team Holland-Dozier-Holland the same year over pay disputes, Gordy began relocating Motown to Los Angeles, California.
The move was completed in 1972, Motown expanded into film and television production, remaining an independent company until 1994, when it was sold to PolyGram before being sold again to MCA Records' successor Universal Music Group when it acquired PolyGram in 1999. Motown spent much of the 2000s headquartered in New York City as a part of the UMG subsidiaries Universal Motown and Universal Motown Republic Group. From 2011 to 2014, it was a part of The Island Def Jam Music Group division of Universal Music. In 2014, however, UMG announced the dissolution of Island Def Jam, Motown relocated back to Los Angeles to operate under the Capitol Music Group, now operating out of the landmark Capitol Tower. In 2018, Motown was inducted into Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame class at the Charles H. Wright Museum, Motown legend Martha Reeves received the award for the label. Berry Gordy got his start as a songwriter for local Detroit acts such as Jackie Wilson and the Matadors. Wilson's single "Lonely Teardrops", written by Gordy, became a huge success, but Gordy did not feel he made as much money as he deserved from this and other singles he wrote for Wilson.
He realized that the more lucrative end of the business was in producing records and owning the publishing. In 1959, Billy Davis and Berry Gordy's sisters Gwen and Anna started Anna Records. Davis and Gwen Gordy wanted Berry to be the company president, but Berry wanted to strike out on his own. On January 12, 1959, he started Tamla Records, with an $800 loan from his family and royalties earned writing for Jackie Wilson. Gordy wanted to name the label Tammy Records, after the hit song popularized by Debbie Reynolds from the 1957 film Tammy and the Bachelor, in which Reynolds starred; when he found the name was in use, Berry decided on Tamla instead. Tamla's first release, in the Detroit area, was Marv Johnson's "Come to Me" in 1959, its first hit was Barrett Strong's "Money". Gordy's first signed act was the Matadors, who changed their name to the Miracles in order to avoid confusion with the Matadors who recorded for Sue, their first release, "Got a Job", was an answer record to the Silhouettes' "Get a Job".
The Miracles' first, minor hit was their fourth single, 1959's "Bad Girl", released in Detroit as the debut record on the Motown imprint, nationally on the Chess label. Miracles lead. Several of Gordy's family members, including his father Berry Sr. brothers Robert and George, sister Esther, were given key roles in the company. By the middle of the decade and Anna Gordy had joined the label in administrative positions as well. Gordy's partner at the time, Raynoma Liles played a key role in the early days of Motown, leading the company's first session group, The Rayber Voices, overseeing the label's publishing arm, Jobete. In 1959, Gordy purchased the property that would become Motown's Hitsville U. S. A. studio. The photography studio located in the back of the property was modified into a small recording studio, the Gordys moved into the second-floor living quarters. Within seven years, Motown would occupy seven additional neighboring houses: Hitsville U. S. A. 1959 – administrative office, tape library, control room, Studio A.
Early Tamla/Motown artists included Eddie Holland and Mary Wells. "Shop Around", the Miracles
Jackie Wilson
Jack Leroy Wilson Jr. was an African American soul singer and performer. A tenor with a four-octave range, Wilson was a prominent figure in the transition of rhythm and blues into soul. Wilson was considered a master showman, gaining the nickname "Mr. Excitement", one of the most dynamic singers and performers in pop, R&B, rock & roll history. Wilson gained initial fame as a member of His Dominoes, he went solo in 1957 and scored over 50 chart singles spanning the genres of R&B, soul, doo-wop and easy listening, including 16 R&B Top 10 hits, in which six R&B of the repertoire ranked as number ones. On the Billboard Hot 100, Wilson scored 14 top 20 pop hits, six of which reached the top 10. Jackie Wilson was one of the most influential musical artists of his generation. A two-time Grammy Hall of Fame Inductee, winner of the Rhythm and Blues Foundation's special Legacy Tribute Award in 2003, Jackie Wilson was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Jackie Wilson #69 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.
In 2013, Jackie Wilson was inducted into the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame. Jack Leroy Wilson Jr. was born on June 9, 1934, in Detroit, Michigan, as the third and only surviving child of singer-songwriter Jack Leroy Wilson, Sr. and Eliza Mae Wilson. Eliza Mae was born on the Billups-Whitfield Place in Mississippi. Eliza Mae's parents were Virginia Ransom. Wilson visited his family in Columbus and was influenced by the choir at Billups Chapel. Growing up in the suburban Detroit enclave of Highland Park, Wilson joined a gang called the Shakers and got himself in trouble. Wilson's alcoholic father was absent and unemployed, his parents separated shortly after Jackie's ninth birthday. Jackie Wilson began singing as a youth, accompanying an excellent church choir singer. In his early teens he joined a quartet, the Ever Ready Gospel Singers, who gained popularity in local churches. Wilson was not religious, but he enjoyed singing in public; the money the quartet earned from performing was spent on alcohol, Wilson began drinking at an early age.
Wilson dropped out of high school at age 15, having been sentenced to detention in the Lansing Corrections system for juveniles twice. During his second stint in detention, Wilson learned to box and began competing in the Detroit amateur circuit at age 16. Wilson's record in the Golden Gloves was 2 and 8. After his mother forced Jackie to quit boxing, Wilson was forced by his father to marry Freda Hood, he became a father at age 17, it is estimated. He began working at Lee's Sensation Club as a solo singer formed a group called the Falcons that included cousin Levi Stubbs, who led the Four Tops; the other Falcons joined Hank Ballard as part of the Midnighters, including Alonzo Tucker and Billy Davis, who worked with Wilson several years as a solo artist. Tucker and Wilson collaborated as songwriters on a few songs Wilson recorded, including his 1963 hit "Baby Workout". Jackie Wilson was discovered by talent agent Johnny Otis, who recruited him for a group called the Thrillers; that group evolved into the Royals.
Wilson signed on with manager Al Green. Green, who managed LaVern Baker, Little Willie John, Johnnie Ray and Della Reese, owned two music publishing companies, Pearl Music and Merrimac Music, Detroit's Flame Show Bar, where Wilson met Baker. After Wilson recorded his first version of "Danny Boy" and a few other tracks on Dizzy Gillespie's record label Dee Gee Records under the name Sonny Wilson, Wilson was hired by Billy Ward in 1953 to join a group Ward formed in 1950 called the Dominoes, after Wilson's successful audition to replace the immensely popular Clyde McPhatter, who left the Dominoes and formed the Drifters. Wilson blew his chance that day, showing up calling himself "Shit" Wilson and bragging about being a better singer than McPhatter. Billy Ward felt. Before leaving the Dominoes, McPhatter coached Wilson on the sound Billy Ward wanted for his group, influencing Wilson's singing style and stage presence. "I learned a lot from Clyde, that high-pitched choke he used and other things...
Clyde McPhatter was my man. Clyde and Billy Ward." 1940s Blues singer Roy Brown was a major influence on him, Wilson grew up listening to the Mills Brothers, the Ink Spots, Louis Jordan and Al Jolson. Wilson was the group's lead singer for three years, but the Dominoes lost some of their stride with the departure of McPhatter, they made appearances riding on the strength of the group's earlier hits, until 1956 when the Dominoes recorded Wilson with an unlikely interpretation of the pop hit "St. Therese of the Roses", giving the Dominoes another brief moment in the spotlight. In 1957 Jackie Wilson began a solo career, left the Dominoes, collaborated with his cousin Levi, secured performances at Detroit's Flame Show Bar. Al Green secured a deal with Decca Records, Wilson was signed to its subsidiary label Brunswick. Shortly after Jackie Wilson signed a solo contract with Brunswick
African-American businesses
African-American businesses known as black-owned businesses or black businesses, originated in the days of slavery before 1865. Emancipation and civil rights permitted businessmen to operate inside the American legal structure starting in the Reconstruction Era and afterwards. By the 1890's, thousands of small business operations had opened in urban areas; the most rapid growth came in the early 20th century, as the rigid Jim Crow system of segregation moved urban blacks into a community large enough to support a business establishment. The National Negro Business League, Promoted by college president Booker T. Washington the League opened over 600 chapters, reaching every city with a significant black population. African Americans have operated every kind of company, but some of the most prominent Black-owned businesses have been insurance companies, recording labels, funeral parlors, barber shops, beauty salons, soul food restaurants, record stores, bookstores. By 1920, there were tens of thousands of the great majority of them quite small.
The largest were insurance companies. The League had grown so large that it supported numerous offshoots, serving bankers, lawyers, funeral directors and insurance agents; the Great Depression of 1929-39 was a serious blow, as cash income fell in the black community because of high unemployment, many smaller businesses close down. During World War II many employees and owners switched over to high-paying jobs in munitions factories. Black businessmen were more conservative elements of their community, but did support the Civil Rights Movement. By the 1970s, federal programs to promote minority business activity provided new funding, although the opening world of mainstream management in large corporations attracted a great deal of talent. Black entrepreneurs based in music and sports diversified to build "brand" names that made for success in the advertising and media worlds. Black entrepreneurship can be traced back to when the African Americans were first forcibly brought to North America in the 17th century.
Many African Americans who gained their own freedom out of slavery opened their own businesses, some enslaved African Americans were able to operate their own businesses, either as skill tradespeople or as minor traders and peddlers. Enslaved African Americans operated businesses both without their owners' permission. Free blacks facing a hostile environment operated small businesses. Profit-making businesses were created by more free and enslaved African Americans than one might realize from the usual survey of antebellum America; when the opportunity presented itself, it was taken by these men and women, sometimes timidly, sometimes whole-heartedly, endorsed by the masters of the enslaved. As a young slave, Lunsford Lane recalls selling a basket of peaches for money he could keep and soon, he says, "plans for money-making took the principal possession of my thoughts." In six to eight years he had amassed one thousand dollars, enough to purchase his freedom, as we read from The Narrative of Lunsford Lane.
William J. Brown was born into a free black family in Rhode Island and as a young man faced discrimination and unethical treatment from whites as he strove to pursue a trade and career. In his selection from his Life of William J. Brown of Providence, R. I. we read his frustrating experiences as a store clerk and apprentice shoemaker. James Forten, Sr. a freeman and grandfather of Charlotte Forten, learned the sail-making trade after the Revolution, bought his employer's business, became the wealthiest black man in Philadelphia. In this 1835 article from the white journal The Anti-Slavery Record, a white reporter describes a visit to Forten's sailmaking business. After being emancipated by his master in 1820, William Johnson became a successful black businessman in Natchez, operating a barber shop, loaning money and acquiring real estate. Free-born in Philadelphia, Mifflin Gibbs became a businessman, lawyer and abolitionist. For several years he operated a clothing store in San Francisco, which he we learn from his autobiography Shadow and Light.
After purchasing her freedom in St. Louis, Elizabeth Keckley moved to Washington, DC, became the dressmaker for Mary Todd Lincoln, producing elegant gowns for the capital's elite women, her 1868 autobiography Behind the Scenes display her ardor and initiative in creating her business and her life. Emancipation and civil rights permitted businessmen to operate inside the American legal structure starting in the Reconstruction Era and afterwards. By the 1890s, thousands of small business operations had opened in urban areas; the South had few cities of any size in 1860, But during the war, afterward, refugees both black and white flooded in from rural areas. The growing black population produced a leadership class of ministers and businessmen; these leaders made civil rights a high priority. Of course, great majority of blacks in urban America were unskilled or low skilled blue-collar workers. Historian August Meier reports: From the late 1880s there was a remarkable development of Negro business – banks and insurance companies and retail stores....
It occurred at a time when Negro barbers, tailors caterers, trainmen and other artisans were losing their white customers. Depending upon the Negro market, the promoters of the new enterprises upheld the spirit of racial self-help and solidarity. Memphis Tennessee was the base for Robert Reed Church, a freedman who became the South's first black millionaire, he made hi
Detroit
Detroit is the largest and most populous city in the U. S. state of Michigan, the largest United States city on the United States–Canada border, the seat of Wayne County. The municipality of Detroit had a 2017 estimated population of 673,104, making it the 23rd-most populous city in the United States; the metropolitan area, known as Metro Detroit, is home to 4.3 million people, making it the second-largest in the Midwest after the Chicago metropolitan area. Regarded as a major cultural center, Detroit is known for its contributions to music and as a repository for art and design. Detroit is a major port located on the Detroit River, one of the four major straits that connect the Great Lakes system to the Saint Lawrence Seaway; the Detroit Metropolitan Airport is among the most important hubs in the United States. The City of Detroit anchors the second-largest regional economy in the Midwest, behind Chicago and ahead of Minneapolis–Saint Paul, the 13th-largest in the United States. Detroit and its neighboring Canadian city Windsor are connected through a tunnel and the Ambassador Bridge, the busiest international crossing in North America.
Detroit is best known as the center of the U. S. automobile industry, the "Big Three" auto manufacturers General Motors and Chrysler are all headquartered in Metro Detroit. In 1701, Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac founded Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit, the future city of Detroit. During the 19th century, it became an important industrial hub at the center of the Great Lakes region. With expansion of the auto industry in the early 20th century, the city and its suburbs experienced rapid growth, by the 1940s, the city had become the fourth-largest in the country. However, due to industrial restructuring, the loss of jobs in the auto industry, rapid suburbanization, Detroit lost considerable population from the late 20th century to the present. Since reaching a peak of 1.85 million at the 1950 census, Detroit's population has declined by more than 60 percent. In 2013, Detroit became the largest U. S. city to file for bankruptcy, which it exited in December 2014, when the city government regained control of Detroit's finances.
Detroit's diverse culture has had both local and international influence in music, with the city giving rise to the genres of Motown and techno, playing an important role in the development of jazz, hip-hop and punk music. The erstwhile rapid growth of Detroit left a globally unique stock of architectural monuments and historic places, since the 2000s conservation efforts managed to save many architectural pieces and allowed several large-scale revitalizations, including the restoration of several historic theatres and entertainment venues, high-rise renovations, new sports stadiums, a riverfront revitalization project. More the population of Downtown Detroit, Midtown Detroit, various other neighborhoods has increased. An popular tourist destination, Detroit receives 19 million visitors per year. In 2015, Detroit was named a "City of Design" by UNESCO, the first U. S. city to receive that designation. Paleo-Indian people inhabited areas near Detroit as early as 11,000 years ago including the culture referred to as the Mound-builders.
In the 17th century, the region was inhabited by Huron, Odawa and Iroquois peoples. The first Europeans did not penetrate into the region and reach the straits of Detroit until French missionaries and traders worked their way around the League of the Iroquois, with whom they were at war, other Iroquoian tribes in the 1630s; the north side of Lake Erie was held by the Huron and Neutral peoples until the 1650s, when the Iroquois pushed both and the Erie people away from the lake and its beaver-rich feeder streams in the Beaver Wars of 1649–1655. By the 1670s, the war-weakened Iroquois laid claim to as far south as the Ohio River valley in northern Kentucky as hunting grounds, had absorbed many other Iroquoian peoples after defeating them in war. For the next hundred years no British, colonist, or French action was contemplated without consultation with, or consideration of the Iroquois' response; when the French and Indian War evicted the Kingdom of France from Canada, it removed one barrier to British colonists migrating west.
British negotiations with the Iroquois would both prove critical and lead to a Crown policy limiting the west of the Alleghenies settlements below the Great Lakes, which gave many American would-be migrants a casus belli for supporting the American Revolution. The 1778 raids and resultant 1779 decisive Sullivan Expedition reopened the Ohio Country to westward emigration, which began immediately, by 1800 white settlers were pouring westwards; the city was named by French colonists, referring to the Detroit River, linking Lake Huron and Lake Erie. On July 24, 1701, the French explorer Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, along with more than a hundred other settlers began constructing a small fort on the north bank of the Detroit River. Cadillac would name the settlement Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit, after Louis Phélypeaux, comte de Pontchartrain, Minister of Marine under Louis XIV. France offered free land to colonists to attract families to Detroit. By 1773, the population of Detroit was 1,400. By 1778, its population was up to 2,144 and it was the third-largest city in the Province of Quebec.
The region's economy was based on the lucrative fur trade, in which nume
