Black Creators in the Levy Collection
Below is a list of Black creators-- composers, lyricists, arrangers, and publishers-- that have been identified in the collection. You can click on a name to see a timeline of works by that person. Find someone we missed? Please let us know via our contact page. The Sam Carner Sheet Music Collection is also strong in African American contributors and is organized at the series level.
This list was compiled in part from correspondence between Lester Levy and Samuel Floyd, director of the Institute for Research in Black American Music for Fisk University. Floyd identified 109 Black contributors (see bottom of page for complete list). The Arthur Friedheim Library also contains numerous works by Floyd.
Alphabetically by last name:
- Will Accooe
- Louis Armstrong
- J. Berni Barbour
- Alex Belledna [aka Edna Alexander]
- Eubie Blake
- James A Bland
- Elmer Bowman
- Shelton Brooks
- H.T. Burleigh
- James T. Brymn
- Bob Cole
- Will Marion Cook (Will Marion)
- Chas. L. Cooke
- Henry S. Creamer
- Ford T. Dabney
- Gussie L. Davis
- Paul Laurence Dunbar
- Duke Ellington
- James Reese Europe
- Ella Fitzgerald
- W.C. Handy
- J. Leubrie Hill
- Ernest Hogan
- Langston Hughes
- Tony Jackson
- Billy Johnson
- Francis Johnson
- James Weldon Johnson
- The JHU Assorted Sheet Music Collection also contains 20 songs by Johnson)
- Rosamond Johnson (James Rosamund Johnson)
- Clarence M. Jones
- Irving Jones
- Scott Joplin
- Billy Kersands
- Sidney Lambert
- Tom Lemonier
- Sam Lucas
- Fred Lyons
- Cecil Mack (R.C. McPherson)
- Billy McClain
- Sidney Perrin
- Maceo Pinkard
- Andy Razaf
- C. Lucky Roberts (C. Luckyth Roberts)
- Alex Rogers
- Ella Shepard
- Noble Sissle
- Chris Smith
- Fred S. Stone
- Jo Trent
- Henry Troy
- Tom Turpin
- W.H. Tyers
- Thomas "Fats" Waller
- James White
- Thomas "Blind Tom" Wiggins
- Clarence Williams
- George Wilson
Thanks also to Izzy Geada for her assistance in identifying these composers in the collection.