[Please note that these recordings are available onsite, but the February 8 Digital Stacks Playlist event has been cancelled.]

February is Black History Month and to celebrate, The Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound invites you to listen to recently digitized interviews with Samuel J. Battle, Lena Horne, and Sylvester James, whose individual achievements were instrumental in improving the African American experience. These inspiring interviews offer important first-person perspectives about 20th-century American history. All three interviews are available on NYPL’s Digital Collections and will be featured in the upcoming  Digital Stacks Playlist, which will stream at The New York Public Library for the Performing on February 8, 2020.

Philip Sterling Interviews Samuel J. Battle,  1960

Samuel J. Battle was the first African American to serve as a police officer in New York City. After joining the force in 1911, he was assigned to the Lincoln Center Square neighborhood (formerly San Juan Hill), before rising through the ranks to become the first black sergeant, lieutenant, and parole commissioner for the city of New York. 

In this interview, Battle talks with actor Philip Sterling about overcoming the obstacles and discrimination he faced during his career, the responsibility of laying the groundwork for the betterment of future generations, his long-time friendship with the great Vaudeville performer Bert Williams, and the guilt both he and Williams shared about how their careers offered the privilege of being accepted in places black people were generally denied.

This interview forms part of the Philip Sterling research materials on Bert Williams collection of sound recordings

Arthur Bell Interviews Lena Horne,  [1977?]

Lena Horne was a singer, actress, dancer, and activist whose career began in the world-famous Cotton Club in 1934 and spanned over 70 years! As the first African American performer to sign a long term contract with a major studio (MGM), the first African American on the cover of Motion Picture Magazine, and the first African American on the board of directors for the Screen Actors Guild, Horne was a trailblazer and continues to be an American icon. 

With journalist Arthur Bell, Horne talks about the start of her career, experiences in the entertainment industry, her family and marriages, racial injustice in the United States, and her views on the state of race relations.

This interview forms part of the Arthur Bell collection of recorded interviews.

Sylvester James, 1988.

Known as the "Queen of Disco", Sylvester was a singer, songwriter, and activist who released several chart-topping hits in the 1970s and 1980s. Sylvester was also a prominent figure in the San Francisco Gay Rights Movement during the 60s and 70s—belonging to the group of black cross-dressers and transgendered women called The Disquotays and the avant-garde drag troupe called The Cockettes. Sylvester advocated for H.I.V awareness and prevention until his death in 1988, which occurred one month after this interview. In 2005, Sylvester was posthumously inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame and awarded the key to the city from San Francisco.
 
Sylvester sat with the activist and former Cockette Martin Worman to talk about his start as a gospel artist, his work and creative differences with the Cockettes, his experience as an openly gay black cross-dresser, his path to stardom, and knowing from an early age that he would become famous. 

This interview forms part of the Martin Worman audiovisual collection.

We are excited to share stories like these as part of our Digital Stacks Playlist events at the Library. To learn more about the Digital Stacks Playlist and how to access audio on your smartphone, tablet, or laptop, read the blog post for the first playlist of the series. We also encourage you to contact us at recordedsound@nypl.org with any questions.