On this day in New York · March 28, 1958
Harlem Buries the Father of the Blues
W. C. Handy died in a Harlem hospital that had fought its own battle over integration, and the neighborhood he'd put into song turned out by the tens of thousands to send him off.
The facts
- Died
- March 28, 1958, at Sydenham Hospital in Harlem, of bronchial pneumonia, age 84
- Funeral site
- Abyssinian Baptist Church, Harlem
- Crowd
- More than 25,000 people at the church; over 150,000 more in the surrounding streets
- Burial
- Woodlawn Cemetery, the Bronx
William Christopher Handy, the composer who wrote down the blues and turned songs like "St. Louis Blues" and "Memphis Blues" into American standards, died of bronchial pneumonia on March 28, 1958, at Sydenham Hospital in Harlem. He was 84, blind since a subway platform accident in 1943 and using a wheelchair after a 1955 stroke, but months earlier more than 800 people had packed the Waldorf-Astoria for his 84th birthday party. His funeral at Abyssinian Baptist Church drew more than 25,000 people inside and around the building, with over 150,000 more filling the streets outside to pay their respects. He was buried afterward at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx.
In their words
The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.
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Over 25,000 people attended his funeral in Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church. Over 150,000 people gathered in the streets near the church to pay their respects.
Wikipedia's account of Handy's 1958 funeral
Source: Wikipedia
Why it still matters
Handy didn't invent the blues, but he was the one who got it onto sheet music and into the mainstream, which is why a Harlem church could draw one of the biggest funeral crowds the city had seen. That he died in a hospital that had spent years fighting to integrate its own staff makes the story feel like this city end to end.
Sources
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