Trailblazers in Black History: Herb Jeffries, 'The Singing Cowboy'

 

This video was uploaded to YouTube on September 23, 2011. 

A jazz and popular singer, Jeffries is noted for being the first black man to star in an American western. He starred as a singing cowboy in several all-black Western films (called "Race Films") in which he sang his own western compositions. Jeffries got financing for the first black western film and hired Spencer Williams to appear with him. In addition to starring in the film, Jeffries sang and performed his own stunts as the cowboy character, "Bob Blake".

Jeffries started out working with Erskine Tate and his Vendome Orchestra when he first moved to Chicago from Detroit at the urging of Louis Armstrong. His break came during the 1933 Chicago World's Fair - Century of Progress Exposition singing with the Earl Hines Orchestra on Hines' national broadcasts live from the Grand Terrace Cafe. 

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