This is a book by and about Frank O. Etheridge, an African-American musician from an age of cultural explosion. The decade after World War II saw the coming-of-age of marginalized cultures, and in North America a new voice emerged among peoples of African descent. Etheridge performed in a period when some of the greatest cultural producers of the African-American heritage assumed center-stage. From Shanghai to Singapore; from India to Africa and beyond, Frank Etheridge left us a detailed record of his travels in his unpublished manuscript. The book contains his views, insights, and international itinerary during the 1920s. His book is an important volume in the annals of African-American history, not just for its content, but for what it means and symbolizes. Its readers will journey with him, see through his eyes, understand race and racial prejudice as lived in ordinary skin, and sample culture. Some of Etheridge’s reflections and personal biases will seem like unpleasant contradictions from the way we think about racial prejudice today. However, these jarring moments of dissonance are rich learning opportunities that will connect us to his times, while unraveling a greater understanding of ourselves in our current moment. This manuscript, published for the first time, will be accompanied by editorial commentary written by Professor Ben Vinson III, and will be of great interest to students and scholars of African American history.
