The Tragic Real-Life Story Of Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong may have catapulted jazz to the mainstream and become immensely popular, but not everyone was a fan. Some of his most ardent detractors were, in fact, his fellow musicians. The problem? It started with that famous smile. Miles Davis had this to say about it (via The New York Times): "I loved the way Louis played trumpet, man, but I hated the way he had to grin to get over with some tired white folks."

The Times further explains that when Armstrong first took the stage, it was, well, a different time. His persona, they say, hearkened back to vaudeville, minstrel shows, and the cabarets of New Orleans, and as society progressed, that era faded into the past. At the same time, The New Yorker says Armstrong was very, very aware of the world he came from, and it left its mark. He once said in an Ebony interview, "I don't socialize with the top dogs of society after a dance or concert. These same society people may go around the corner and lynch a Negro."

Armstrong occupied an odd place in the world of civil rights. At the same time he served as a goodwill ambassador for the State Department and declared Eisenhower a "no guts," "two-faced" president when he first backed down from mandatory integration, contemporary journalists covering Armstrong's shows referred to him as a "racial cop-out." And Armstrong himself wrote, "I've got sense enough to know that I'm still Louis Armstrong — colored."

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