BLACK HISTORY: A few of the best musicologists and recording historians know that Black Swan was America’s first Black-owned record company.
But they may be less informed about who the founders were, and that one of them was light enough to pass for white, something he reportedly did toward the end of his life. The lesser two of them was Harry Herbert Pace, the other was renowned musician and composer W.C. Handy, among the first to notate blues music.
He was working as a printer when he enrolled at Atlanta University, a job that would pay his tuition and other expenses. Later, he quit the job and took on odd jobs around the campus. It was during these days on campus that he met W.E.B. Du Bois as a student in one of his classes. He was 19 years old and valedictorian of his graduating class in 1903. After graduation he used his experience in printing to start his own press in Memphis, with Du Bois as his partner.
For the most part, the company published and distributed sheet music, with Handy’s notation clearly evident. But the ever aware Pace noticed the growing market of phonograph records and he resigned from the company and began devoting more time to this new interest. In 1921, after forging an alliance with members of the NAACP to establish a branch in Atlanta, Pace was back at his desk in Harlem with Black Swan Records on the agenda.
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