140 Culture, Identity, and Community: From Slavery to the PresentEisenhower “two-faced,” with “no guts,” and proclaimed
that the government would go to hell for its treatment of
African Americans. Th e comments were just enough ahead
of their time that Armstrong was denounced publicly by
Sammy Davis Jr. and Adam Clayton Powell, not to mention
banned from many radio stations. Soon aft er, Armstrong
decided not to perform in Louisiana, which had instituted a
ban on integrated bands—including Armstrong’s All Stars—
even though the practice was ruled unconstitutional.
Armstrong made musical history in 1964 when he
knocked the Beatles off the top of the charts with a record-
ing of “Hello, Dolly!” to promote the new musical of the
same name. Among his 1967 recordings was “What a Won-
derful World,” a ballad that sold well in England but not the
United States. Th e song subsequently charted in the 1980s
when released as a single from the movie Good Morning,horrifi ed when they saw the comedic aspects of his stage
show. Th e British music press called him barbaric and go-
rilla-like, and night aft er night, audience members walked
out in disgust. For his part, Armstrong pointed to the legacy
of Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, perhaps mainly remembered
for two movie roles as a jolly tap-dancing servant to Shirley
Temple. Armstrong considered Robinson a deeply talented
artist in his stage performances.
Th e ambivalence many younger blacks saw in Arm-
strong made his mid-1950s stances against the racial status
quo all the more shocking. In 1957, not long aft er someone
threw a stick of dynamite at a theater where he was play-
ing to a mixed Southern crowd, Armstrong saw television
coverage of the school desegregation situation in Little
Rock, Arkansas. Incensed at the sight of whites heckling
black schoolchildren, Armstrong called President Dwight
Louis Armstrong was one of the 20 th century’s most important jazz innovators and performers. (Library of Congress)