‘Ink: The Indelible Life of J. Mayo Williams’ by Clifford R. Murphy

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Ink: The Indelible Life of J. Mayo Williams by Clifford R. Murphy

J. Mayo Williams was an extraordinary African American of his era. A college football star and graduate of Brown University (one of only three Black students on campus), Williams returned from World War I as a second lieutenant (he never saw combat) and began work in 1922 at Black Swan, a record label founded by the NAACP to raise the cultural profile of African Americans. From Black Swan’s Chicago office, it was a short train ride to Port Washington, Wis., home base for Paramount Records, the label where he earned his niche in the American music pantheon. 

Paramount was known for polka, but Williams convinced its white owners to allow him to establish a line for Black artists. His work producing those records is seminal. Under Williams’ guidance, Paramount released discs by Ma Rainey, Jelly Roll Morton, Blind Lemon Jefferson and others. Constrained by preconceptions from the label’s owners, Williams sometimes forced Black musicians to knock out blues numbers rather than the songs they wanted to sing. The recording industry was segregated, as was the American imagination in those years. 

Ink’s author, Clifford R. Murphy, is director of the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. Murphy didn’t produce a hagiography; he shows Williams’ musical blind spots and his financial irregularities. Like many white music executives, he paid Black performers as little as possible. However, Williams was also an outstanding figure. Motivated by the currents stirred by W.E.B. DuBois, he played smart and determined as he swam against the tide of racism. 

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