Every memory in the archive
Browse the full archive of Zydeco music and Louisiana & Texas Creole culture, filtered by category.
Leo "The Bull" Thomas was born on January 8, 1937 to Hubert “Ebear” Thomas and Orelia Bushnell Thomas in Basile, Louisiana. Known in the Zydeco Nation as "The Bull" and the "Best Dress Man In Zydeco,"...
Albert John Lewis, lead accordionist for Al Rapone & The Zydeco Express was born on Friday, June 26, 1936 in Lake Charles, Louisiana. He partnered with his sister Ida Guillory and brother Willie Lewis...
David “Fathead" Newman was born in Corsicana, Texas on February 24, 1933. His family soon moved to Dallas, Texas where they settled and David stayed through graduating Lincoln High School. During his...
James Joseph Brown, commonly referred to as "The Godfather of Soul" and "The Hardest Working Man in Show Business", was born on May 3, 1933 during the depression era in the small town of Barnwell, Sou...
Alton Rubin, known to the Zydeco Nation as Rockin' Dopsie "the Prince of Zydeco", was born on February 10, 1932 in Carencro, Louisiana. As a child he worked in the sugarcane and cotton fields. His fat...
Willis Prudhomme, lead accordionist of Willis Prudhomme & the Zydeco Express was born on Tuesday, September 22, 1931 in Kinder, Louisiana. Willis Prudhomme was one of twelve children and grew up as a...
Odetta Holmes, "The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement" and "The queen of American folk music", most affectionately known as Odetta was born in Birmingham, Alabama on December 31, 1930 and grew up in...
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. He was the son of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Sr. and Alberta Williams King. Dr King helped break down the color barri...
On Wednesday, October 2, 1929, Douglas Bellard and Kirby Riley became the first rural Afro-Creoles from Southwest Louisiana to commercially record Louisiana Creole music on Vocalion and Columbia Recor...
Ms. Eartha Kitt was born on January 17, 1927 on a cotton plantation in the tiny town of North, South Carolina. Her mother (black cotton picker) was of Cherokee and African-American descent, and her fa...
Skipper Lee Frazier, Houston radio disc jockey, record label owner, businessman, and promoter, was born on July 31, 1927 in Magnolia Springs, Texas to James Frazier and Dora Lee Traylor. For over 22 y...
Malcolm X born Malcolm Little and also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz was born on May 19, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska to Earl and Louise Little (Louisa Norton). His father was an outspoken Baptist lay...