This essay will use the views of two African American newspaper columnists, E. Belfield Spriggins of the Louisiana Weekly and Dave Peyton of the Chicago Defender, to argue that though New Orleans and Chicago both occupied a primary place in the history of jazz, in many ways jazz was initially met with ambivalence and suspicion. The struggle between the desire to highlight black achievement in music and the effort to adhere to tenets of middle class respectability play out in their columns. Despite historiographical writings to the contrary, these issues of the influence of jazz music on society were not limited to the white community. Tracing these columnists through the years of 1925-1929, a critical point in the popularity of jazz, reveals how considerations of black innovation and economic autonomy helped alter their opinions from criticism to ownership.
","abstract_html":"<p>This essay will use the views of two African American newspaper columnists, E. Belfield Spriggins of the <em>Louisiana Weekly</em> and Dave Peyton of the <em>Chicago Defender</em>, to argue that though New Orleans and Chicago both occupied a primary place in the history of jazz, in many ways jazz was initially met with ambivalence and suspicion. The struggle between the desire to highlight black achievement in music and the effort to adhere to tenets of middle class respectability play out in their columns. Despite historiographical writings to the contrary, these issues of the influence of jazz music on society were not limited to the white community. Tracing these columnists through the years of 1925-1929, a critical point in the popularity of jazz, reveals how considerations of black innovation and economic autonomy helped alter their opinions from criticism to ownership. <strong></strong></p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Waits, Sarah A."],"institution":null,"degree_name":"M.A.","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"History","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Dr. Connie Zeanah Atkinson","Dr. Molly Mitchell","Dr. Albert Kennedy"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2013,"date_issued":"2013-05-17T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2013-05-17T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:29:47Z","subjects":["jazz","New Orleans","African Americans","Louisiana Weekly","Chicago Defender","history","African American Studies","American Popular Culture","Cultural History","Music Performance","Race and Ethnicity","Social History"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/1676","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Dr. Connie Zeanah Atkinson","Dr. Molly Mitchell","Dr. Albert Kennedy"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Waits, Sarah A."]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2013-04-10T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["History"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["M.A."]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["jazz","New Orleans","African Americans","Louisiana Weekly","Chicago Defender","history","African American Studies","American Popular Culture","Cultural History","Music Performance","Race and Ethnicity","Social History"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/1676"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["This essay will use the views of two African American newspaper columnists, E. Belfield Spriggins of the Louisiana Weekly and Dave Peyton of the Chicago Defender, to argue that though New Orleans and Chicago both occupied a primary place in the history of jazz, in many ways jazz was initially met with ambivalence and suspicion. The struggle between the desire to highlight black achievement in music and the effort to adhere to tenets of middle class respectability play out in their columns. Despite historiographical writings to the contrary, these issues of the influence of jazz music on society were not limited to the white community. Tracing these columnists through the years of 1925-1929, a critical point in the popularity of jazz, reveals how considerations of black innovation and economic autonomy helped alter their opinions from criticism to ownership.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["\"Listen to the Wild Discord\": Jazz in the Chicago Defender and the Louisiana Weekly, 1925-1929"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Dr. Connie Zeanah Atkinson","Dr. Molly Mitchell","Dr. Albert Kennedy"],"dc:creator":["Waits, Sarah A."],"dc:date.available":["2013-04-10T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["This essay will use the views of two African American newspaper columnists, E. Belfield Spriggins of the Louisiana Weekly and Dave Peyton of the Chicago Defender, to argue that though New Orleans and Chicago both occupied a primary place in the history of jazz, in many ways jazz was initially met with ambivalence and suspicion. The struggle between the desire to highlight black achievement in music and the effort to adhere to tenets of middle class respectability play out in their columns. Despite historiographical writings to the contrary, these issues of the influence of jazz music on society were not limited to the white community. Tracing these columnists through the years of 1925-1929, a critical point in the popularity of jazz, reveals how considerations of black innovation and economic autonomy helped alter their opinions from criticism to ownership.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/1676"],"dc:subject":["jazz","New Orleans","African Americans","Louisiana Weekly","Chicago Defender","history","African American Studies","American Popular Culture","Cultural History","Music Performance","Race and Ethnicity","Social History"],"dc:title":["\"Listen to the Wild Discord\": Jazz in the Chicago Defender and the Louisiana Weekly, 1925-1929"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["History"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["M.A."]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:29:47Z"}