I never knew this about a UND student and Louis Armstrong

[Hayduke]

I was watching the Jazz documentary by Ken Burns on Netflix and found this out about Louis Armstrong's stand for integration ordered by Judge Davies. I never realized that he was in Grand Forks when he spoke out and a GF Herald reporter and UND student, Larry Lubenow broke the story.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/23/opinion/23margolick.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

[82SiouxGuy]

I was watching the Jazz documentary by Ken Burns on Netflix and found this out about Louis Armstrong's stand for integration ordered by Judge Davies. I never realized that he was in Grand Forks when he spoke out and a GF Herald reporter and UND student, Larry Lubenow broke the story.

http://www.nytimes.c...wanted=all&_r=0

They had mentioned this in the Grand Forks Herald several years ago, but I didn't pay attention to it until seeing the Ken Burns documentary a couple of years ago. The connections are very interesting. Judge Davies, originally from Grand Forks, issues the order. Louis Armstrong is in Grand Forks when he speaks out. He almost goes out of his way to do so, which is totally out of character for him. Armstrong is performing at Central High School in Grand Forks, the school in Little Rock is also Central High School. And it happened, at least in part, because a UND student took the initiative to get a real story rather than write the fluff piece that his editor asked him to write.

[Hayduke]

They had mentioned this in the Grand Forks Herald several years ago, but I didn't pay attention to it until seeing the Ken Burns documentary a couple of years ago. The connections are very interesting. Judge Davies, originally from Grand Forks, issues the order. Louis Armstrong is in Grand Forks when he speaks out. He almost goes out of his way to do so, which is totally out of character for him. Armstrong is performing at Central High School in Grand Forks, the school in Little Rock is also Central High School. And it happened, at least in part, because a UND student took the initiative to get a real story rather than write the fluff piece that his editor asked him to write.

So many connections in this story. I think that UND student was in the right place at the right time with the right questions. Kind of a situation that if you are willing to lay it out there at the right time, good things happen. I agree with Burns that this incident did a lot to sway public opinion toward civil rights. Armstrong was always seen by the black community as a kind of "Uncle Tom". This sure dispelled that notion and also got a lot of whites to join in the battle.

It's a great story.