The first black recording artists

 

Bert Williams and George Walker helped end minstrelsy by mastering it.  Booker T. Washington said Williams did more for black people than he did.  Williams, a Stanford engineering student who picked up extra money playing piano in the nightclubs of the Barbary Coast, joined Walker to become America’s most admired entertainers. They were the first blacks to make a recording in 1901 and did more than a dozen records for Victor and Columbia. Both of their residences in San Francisco in the late 19th century still stand, not far from current jazz venues.

Their success made San Francisco a magnet for aspiring black entertainers from across the nation.