HAZEL SCOTT...More Than A Woman
Ms. Hazel Scott was a world renowned pianist and singer.
Along with Ms. Lena Horne she had the distinction of being
in several all white cast movies. They recorded her segments almost completely separated
from the rest of the movie and COMPLETELY SEPARATED from the all white cast so
that Ms. Scott’s great performances could be taken out. When these films played
in the south , almost always her performances were never seen.
In July of 1950 she became the first Black woman to have her
own television show. Despite the very present “objections” of southern sponsors,
it was the condemnation that Ms. Scott “might’ be a communist that cut her show
and American career short.
I came across the legacy of Ms. Scott years after her death,
while watching an interview of her son Adam Clayton Powell III. I was so amazed
that I was never taught about this woman who had no peer on the piano and was
also a stanch activist.
Hazel Scott taught me the fact that “pretty women” can be
down to. There was a point in my young ignorant life that I wrote off a lot of
folks presuming them too “attractive” to have struggled.
Hazel Scott also got interested in the many of women’s
stories that are never heard when discussing activism and contributions to
civil rights and freedom.
Each and every time I see a bright talent like Alicia Keyes take a stage, I wonder what would happen if more young artists followed her example.
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