All 1940s Blog Posts
…So this is what I want to know:
When we see Victory’s glow,
Will you still let old Jim Crow
Hold me back?
When all those foreign folks who’ve waited—
Italians, Chinese, Danes—are liberated.
Will I still be ill-fated
Because I’m black?
From Will V-Day Be Me-Day Too, 1944 | Langston Hughes
All 1940s Blog Posts
…So this is what I want to know:
When we see Victory’s glow,
Will you still let old Jim Crow
Hold me back?
When all those foreign folks who’ve waited—
Italians, Chinese, Danes—are liberated.
Will I still be ill-fated
Because I’m black?
From Will V-Day Be Me-Day Too, 1944 | Langston Hughes
At 16, Baton Twirler Katherine “Kitty” Clark Left Indiana to Join the Circus
Edward Frye, a circus fan from Minnesota and Kitty Clark, August 1941, Madison, Wisconsin (Source: Milner Library, ISU) This photo has been enhanced with AI tools and software. See original below.During the late 1930s and throughout the 1940s, Katherine "Kitty" Clark...
James Percy (J.P) “Pee Wee” Crumpler (1927-1991)
The_Camden News, April 26, 1974Born in 1927, James Percy "J.P. (Pee Wee)" Crumpler began twirling in 1937 and quickly became one of the most remarkable young drum majors in the South. At just 12 years of age, he was leading the Camden High School Panther Band under...
Old Forge’s First Miss Devilette Has Passed Away
Maryann Beseda Brigido, the original "Miss Devilette" of Old Forge High School, Pennsylvani, has passed away at the age of 87. Her death marks the loss of the first performer to hold a title that has come to define Friday night halftime shows in the small Lackawanna...
Xernona and Xenobia of Muskgoee: From Oklahoma Majorettes to Civil Rights History
Xernona and Xenobia Brewster, Late 1940s | Muskogee, Oklahoma Long before one of them became a nationally honored civil rights icon with a bronze statue in downtown Atlanta, identical twins Xernona and Xenobia Brewster were known in Oklahoma as “The Brewster Twins,” a...
Marion Caster: The Los Angeles Rams Majorette Who Became a California Icon
The Neon Majorette — The iconic sign as it originally appeared at the Campus Drive-In Theatre in San Diego. Marion Caster Baker was a majorette for the Los Angeles Rams in 1947. She is also suspected to be the inspiration and model for the famous neon majorette sign...
Baton Twirler Featured in Julia Fullerton-Batten’s New Hollywood Backdrop Series
British-German fine art photographer Julia Fullerton-Batten has included a baton twirler-inspired scene in her new photographic series The Art of Hollywood, a project built around authentic hand-painted Hollywood backdrops once used in classic motion pictures. The...
Gloria Ellexson: National Champion Majorette of Tacoma
Gloria Ellexson emerged from Tacoma, Washington, as one of the Pacific Northwest’s standout majorettes in the 1940s, with newspaper and archival references placing her in public performances from at least 1940 through the early 1950s. One early notice in The Tacoma...
Florence Iva Begay: Navajo Majorette Faced Jim Crow
Florence Iva Begay, a Navajo baton twirler and high school valedictorian from Flagstaff, Arizona, became the subject of national attention in 1948 after an incident on a bus in the Texas Panhandle exposed the realities of segregation faced by Native Americans...
Marita Meola: The 1940s Army Dancer & Baton Twirler in a Real Photo Postcard
In the colorful landscape of mid-century American performance, few artifacts evoke as much mystery and charm as real photo postcards (RPPCs). One such image circulated from a Dallas estate bears the name Marita Meola, described as an Army dancer and baton twirler....
Majorettes Outside VA Veterans Hospital Dayton Ohio (1946)
1940s Gallery
This page was designed to feature all 1940s blog posts. For quick viewing of all 1950s baton twirling photographs, click the button below.
1940s Collection
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Photo Epigraph
A Black majorette corps marches in a parade to honor James T. Wiley, Tuskegee Airman, June 1944
PITTSBURGH’S HILL DISTRICT | JUNE 1944
Black majorette corps march in a parade to honor James T. Wiley, Tuskegee Airman. The Tuskegee Airmen were the first African American military aviators in the U.S. Armed Forces. From 1940-1946, nearly 1,000 were trained at Tuskegee Army Field. The installation was the air training site for Black men and women preparing to fight in World War II. Approximately 445 Tuskegee airmen were deployed overseas and 150 lost their lives. (Photo by Charles “Teenie” Harris.)
Stories from the 1940s
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