Editing Lead Belly (section)

== Biography ==
=== Personal life ===
[[File:"HUDDIE LEDBETTER" "REGISTRATION CARD" "SERIAL NUMBER U2214" "604 E 9TH ST., N.Y. N. Y." "DATE OF BIRTH 1-23-1889" "PLACE OF BIRTH FREEPORT LOUISIANA" and "MARTHA LEDBETTER", from- Lead Belly draft registration card, ca. 1942 (cropped).jpg|alt=|thumb|Lead Belly's draft registration card in 1942 (SERIAL NUMBER U2214 and address listed as 604 E 9TH ST., N.Y. N. Y.)]]

The only son of Sallie Brown and Wesley Ledbetter (she had an older son, and the couple adopted a daughter when Huddie was a toddler), Huddie Ledbetter was born on a plantation near [[Mooringsport, Louisiana]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Laberge|first1=Yves|title=The Blues Encyclopedia|publisher=Routledge|editor1-last=Komara|editor1-first=Edward|year=2006|pages=586–587|isbn=0-415-92699-8|url={{Google books|plainurl=yes|id=Hwk3AgAAQBAJ|page=586}}}}</ref> On his [[World War II]] draft registration card in 1942, he gave his birthplace as [[Caddo Parish, Louisiana|Freeport, Louisiana]] ("Shreveport"). There is uncertainty over his precise date and year of birth. The Lead Belly Foundation gives his birth date as January 20, 1889,<ref name=":1">{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20070715112913/http://www.leadbelly.org/leadbelly.html "About Lead Belly", ''The Lead Belly Foundation'']}}. Retrieved March 8, 2020.</ref> his grave marker gives the year 1889, and his 1942 draft registration card states January 23, 1889.

These records were made by census takers, and ages and dates were defined in terms of the census date. The [[1900 United States census]] lists "Hudy Ledbetter" as 12 years old, born January 1888, and the [[1910 United States census|1910]] and [[1930 United States census|1930]] censuses also give his age as corresponding to a birth in 1888. The 1940 census lists his age as 51, with information supplied by wife Martha. The books ''Blues: A Regional Experience'' by Eagle and LeBlanc and ''Encyclopedia of Louisiana Musicians'' by Tomko give January 23, 1888,<ref name="bare" /><ref>{{cite book|last=Tomko|first=Gene|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5ZKzDwAAQBAJ|title=Encyclopedia of Louisiana Musicians: Jazz, Blues, Cajun, Creole, Zydeco, Swamp Pop, and Gospel|publisher=Louisiana State University Press|year=2020|isbn=978-0-8071-6932-2|location=Baton Rouge|pages=155}}</ref> while the ''Encyclopedia of the Blues'' gives January 20, 1888.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-w-uGwm_LhcC&q=komara+blues+leadbelly+1888&pg=PA586|title=Encyclopedia of the Blues|first=Edward M.|last=Komara|date=March 8, 2006|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-415-92699-7|access-date=March 8, 2021|via=Google Books}}</ref>

His parents had [[Cohabitation|cohabited]] for several years. They married on February 26, 1888, perhaps after his birth that year. When Huddie was five years old, the family settled in [[Bowie County, Texas]], where they eventually became landowners.

By the 1910 census of [[Harrison County, Texas]], "Hudy Ledbetter" was living next door to his parents in a separate household with his first wife, Aletha "Lethe" Henderson. Aletha is recorded as age 19 and married one year. Others say she was 15 when they married in 1908. Ledbetter received his first instrument in Texas, an [[accordion]], from his uncle Terrell. By his early twenties, having fathered at least two children, Ledbetter and his wife left for the Dallas/Fort Worth area, working as farm laborers while Ledbetter sought opportunities as a musician.

=== Music career ===
By 1903, Huddie was already a "musicianer",<ref name="wolfe">{{cite book|last1=Wolfe|first1=Charles|title=The Life and Legend of Leadbelly|last2=Lornell|first2=Kip|publisher=HarperCollins Publishers|year=1992|isbn=0-06-016862-5|location=New York City}}</ref>{{rp|28}} a singer and guitarist of some note. He performed to [[Shreveport, Louisiana|Shreveport]] audiences in St. Paul's Bottoms, a notorious [[red-light district]]. He began to develop his own style of music after exposure to the various musical influences on Shreveport's Fannin Street, a row of saloons, brothels, and dance halls in the Bottoms. This area is now referred to as Ledbetter Heights.

In 1915, Ledbetter briefly served on a Texas chain gang, from which he escaped. In 1918, under the name of Walter Boyd, he was convicted of murder in Texas and sentenced to 30 years in prison. After writing a song pleading for clemency Ledbetter was pardoned by Governor [[Pat Morris Neff]] in 1925.<ref name="Texas State Historical Association">{{cite web|url=https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/ledbetter-huddie-leadbelly |title=Ledbetter, Huddie [Lead Belly] (1888–1949)|access-date=December 5, 2023}}</ref> In 1930, he was arrested, convicted of attempted murder, and sentenced to the Louisiana State Penitentiary, also known as the [[Louisiana State Penitentiary|Angola Penitentiary]], where he was "discovered" in a 1933 visit by [[folklorist]]s [[John Lomax]] and his teenaged son, [[Alan Lomax]].<ref>Santelli, Robert, 2015, ''Lead Belly: A Man of Contradiction and Complexity'', p. 17. Smithsonian Folkways Recordings</ref> They were recording varieties of local music in the South as a project to preserve traditional music for the Library of Congress. This was one of numerous cultural projects during the Great Depression.<ref name=pc18>{{cite web|url=https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc19768/m1/|author=Gilliland, John |title=Show 18 – Blowin' in the Wind: Pop Discovers Folk Music. Part 1|publisher=UNT Digital Library, University of North Texas, Digital.library.unt.edu|date=May 18, 1969|work=[[Pop Chronicles]]|access-date=September 22, 2010}}</ref>

Deeply impressed by Ledbetter's vibrant tenor and extensive repertoire, the Lomaxes recorded him in 1933 on portable [[aluminum disc]] recording equipment for the [[Library of Congress]] project. They returned with new and better equipment in July 1934, recording numerous songs. While in prison, Lead Belly may have first heard the traditional prison song "[[Midnight Special (song)|Midnight Special]]"; his versions became famous.<ref name="lomax">Lomax, Alan, ed. ''Folk Song USA''. New American Library.</ref> On August 1, Ledbetter was released after having served nearly all of his minimum sentence. The Lomaxes had taken a record and a petition seeking his release to Louisiana Governor [[Oscar K. Allen]] at Ledbetter's request, but there is no evidence that this had any effect on his release. In fact, a prison official later wrote to John Lomax denying that Ledbetter's singing had anything to do with his release from prison. (State prison records confirm he was eligible for this due to good behavior.) But, both Ledbetter and the Lomaxes promoted the idea that Ledbetter had yet again sung his way to freedom.  

With the [[Great Depression]] ongoing and Alan Lomax ill<ref name="lomax" /> and unable to assist his father in song collecting, Ledbetter and Lomax teamed up in September, 1934.<ref>{{Cite web |title=MSN |url=https://www.msn.com/en-gb/entertainment/music/the-folk-musician-who-sang-himself-out-of-texas-s-most-brutal-prison/ar-BB1p3KHe |access-date=2025-04-24 |website=www.msn.com}}</ref> For three months, Ledbetter, forty-six years old, assisted the 67-year-old Lomax in his folk song collecting around the South.  

In December 1934, Lead Belly participated in a "smoker" (group sing-along) at a [[Modern Language Association]] meeting at a hotel in Philadelphia. He was written up in the press as a convict who had sung his way out of prison. On New Year's Day, 1935, the pair arrived in New York City, where Lomax was scheduled to meet with his publisher, [[Macmillan Publishers (United States)|Macmillan]], about a new collection of folk songs. The newspapers were eager to write about the "singing convict". [[Time (magazine)|''Time'']] magazine made one of its first ''[[March of Time]]'' [[newsreel]]s about him. Lead Belly attained fame''—''although not fortune.

On January 23–25, 1935, Lead Belly had the first of several recording sessions with [[American Record Corporation]] (ARC). These sessions, combined with two others on February 5 and March 25, yielded 53 takes. Of those recordings, only six were ever released during Lead Belly's lifetime. ARC decided to simultaneously release these songs on six different labels they owned: Banner, Melotone, Oriole, Perfect, Romeo, and Paramount.<ref name="wolfe" />{{rp|159–60, 292–95}} These recordings achieved little commercial success. Part of the reason for the poor sales may have been that ARC released only his [[blues]] songs rather than the folk songs for which he would later become better known. Lead Belly continued to struggle financially. Like many performers, what income he made during his career came from touring, not from record sales. In February 1935, he married his girlfriend, Martha Promise, who came north from Louisiana to join him.

During February Ledbetter recorded his repertoire with Alan Lomax, who also recorded other African Americans. Lomax interviewed Ledbetter about his life for their forthcoming book, ''Negro Folk Songs As Sung by Lead Belly'' (1936). The Lomax book contains numerous sensational accounts of uncertain authenticity.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=MSN |url=https://www.msn.com/en-gb/entertainment/music/the-folk-musician-who-sang-himself-out-of-texas-s-most-brutal-prison/ar-BB1p3KHe |access-date=2025-04-24 |website=www.msn.com}}</ref> According to the authors, the work was not an "accurate biography" but a "loosely woven texture of unreconstructed stories."<ref name=":2" />

In March 1935, Lead Belly accompanied John Lomax on a previously scheduled two-week lecture tour of colleges and universities in the Northeast, culminating at [[Harvard University|Harvard]]. At the end of the month, John Lomax decided he could no longer work with Lead Belly. He gave him and Martha enough money to return by bus to Louisiana. He also gave Martha the money her husband had earned during three months of performing, but in installments, on the pretext that Lead Belly would spend it all on drinking if he was given a lump sum. From Louisiana, Lead Belly successfully sued Lomax for both the full amount of his earnings and release from his management contract. The quarrel was bitter, with hard feelings on both sides. In the midst of the legal wrangling, Lead Belly wrote to Lomax proposing they team up again, but this did not happen. The book that the Lomaxes published about Lead Belly in the fall of 1936 proved a commercial failure.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Porterfield |first=Nolan |title=Last Cavalier: The Life and Times of John A. Lomax, 1867-1948 |publisher=[[University of Illinois Press]] |year=1996 |isbn=9780252069710 |pages=398}}</ref> 

In January 1936, Lead Belly returned to New York on his own, without John Lomax, in an attempted comeback. He performed twice a day at Harlem's [[Apollo Theater]] during the Easter season. He developed a live dramatic recreation of the ''March of Time'' newsreel (itself a recreation), which was about his prison encounter with John Lomax, when he was still wearing uniform stripes. By this time he was no longer associated with Lomax.

[[File:Face detail, (Portrait of Leadbelly, National Press Club, Washington, D.C., between 1938 and 1948) (LOC) (4843137007) (cropped) (cropped).jpg|left|thumb|upright|Lead Belly at the [[National Press Club (United States)|National Press Club]] in Washington, D.C. between 1938 and 1948]]
[[Life (magazine)|''Life'']] magazine ran a three-page article titled "Lead Belly: Bad Nigger Makes Good Minstrel" in its issue of April 19, 1937. It included a full-page, color (rare in those days) picture of him sitting on grain sacks playing his guitar and singing.<ref name="life">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kksEAAAAMBAJ&q=life%20april%2019%2C%201937&pg=PA38 |title=LIFE Magazine – Google Books|pages=38–40|date= April 19, 1937|access-date=December 30, 2011}}</ref> Also included was a striking photograph of his wife Martha Promise (identified in the article as his manager). Other photos showed Lead Belly's hands playing the guitar (with the caption "these hands once killed a man"), Texas Governor [[Pat M. Neff]], and the "ramshackle" Texas State Penitentiary. The article attributes both of his pardons to his singing his petitions to the governors, who were so moved that they pardoned him. The article closed by saying that Lead Belly "may well be on the brink of a new and prosperous period."<ref name="life" />

Lead Belly failed to stir the enthusiasm of [[Harlem]] audiences. Instead, he attained success playing at concerts and benefits for an audience of [[folk music]] aficionados. He developed his own style of singing and explaining his repertoire in the context of Southern black culture, having learned from his participation in Lomax's college lectures. He was especially successful with his repertoire of children's game songs (as a younger man in Louisiana he had sung regularly at children's birthday parties in the black community). Black novelist [[Richard Wright (author)|Richard Wright]] wrote about him as a heroic figure in the ''[[Daily Worker]],'' of which Wright was the Harlem editor. The two men became personal friends. In contrast to Wright, who was then a communist, commentators described Lead Belly as apolitical. He was known to support [[Wendell Willkie]], the centrist [[U.S. Republican Party|Republican]] candidate for president, for whom he wrote a campaign song. Lead Belly also wrote the song "[[The Bourgeois Blues]]", which has class-conscious  and anti-racist lyrics.

In 1939, Lead Belly was involved in an altercation after a small gathering in New York City and accused of stabbing a man. Alan Lomax, then 24, took him under his wing and helped raise money for his legal expenses, dropping out of graduate school to do so. But based in part on Ledbetter's apparent notoriety, the judge sentenced him to a year in Rikers.  After gaining release, Lead Belly appeared as a regular on Lomax and [[Nicholas Ray]]'s groundbreaking [[CBS]] radio show ''Back Where I Come From'', broadcast nationwide.

He also performed in nightclubs with [[Josh White]], becoming a fixture in New York City's surging folk music scene and befriending the likes of [[Sonny Terry]], [[Brownie McGhee]], [[Woody Guthrie]], and [[Pete Seeger]], all fellow performers on ''Back Where I Come From''.<ref name="mudcat" />

In 1940, Lead Belly recorded for RCA Victor, one of the biggest record companies at the time. These sessions in California were held on June 15 and 17, with the [[Golden Gate Quartet]] accompanying some songs. The recordings resulted in the album, ''[[The Midnight Special and Other Southern Prison Songs]]'', being issued by [[Victor Talking Machine Company|Victor Records]]. The album included sheets with extensive notes and song texts prepared by Alan Lomax. According to Charles Wolfe and Kip Lornell, "it was one of the finest public presentations of Leadbelly's music: well recorded, well advertised, well documented. And the album justified its reputation as a landmark in African American folk music."<ref name="wolfe" />{{Rp|220–22, 298–300}} Several of the recordings from these sessions were also issued as singles by [[Bluebird Records]].<ref>{{Cite web|last=UC Santa Barbara Library|title=Leadbelly|url=https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/names/102558|access-date=December 5, 2020|website=Discography of American Historical Recordings}}</ref>

In 1941, Lead Belly was introduced to [[Moses Asch|Moses "Moe" Asch]] by mutual friends. Asch owned a recording studio and small record label, which mainly released folk records for the local New York City market. He later founded [[Folkways Records]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Place|first=Jeff|url=https://folkways-media.si.edu/liner_notes/smithsonian_folkways/SFW40201.pdf|title=Lead Belly: The Smithsonian Folkways Collection|date=2015|publisher=Smithsonian Folkways Recordings|isbn=978-0-9704942-5-2|place=Washington|chapter=The Life and Legacy of Lead Belly|id={{UPC|093074020128}}|access-date=April 6, 2021|archive-date=April 13, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220413173745/https://folkways-media.si.edu/liner_notes/smithsonian_folkways/SFW40201.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>{{rp|22–23}} Between 1941 and 1944, Lead Belly released three albums under the Asch Recordings label.<ref name="wolfe" />{{rp|225–26, 304–07}} During the first half of the 1940s, Lead Belly also recorded for the [[Library of Congress]].

Lead Belly frequently performed ''Southern Blues'' at concerts by [[Si-Lan Chen|Si-lan Chen]].<ref name=":Gao">{{Cite book |last=Gao |first=Yunxiang |title=Arise, Africa! Roar, China! Black and Chinese Citizens of the World in the Twentieth Century |date=2021 |publisher=[[University of North Carolina Press]] |isbn=9781469664606 |location=Chapel Hill, NC |pages=211}}</ref>

In 1944 he went to California, where he recorded strong sessions for [[Capitol Records]]. He lodged with a studio guitar player on Merrywood Drive in Laurel Canyon. Later he returned to New York City. In 1949, Lead Belly had a regular radio show, ''Folk Songs of America'', broadcast on station WNYC in New York, on [[Henrietta Yurchenco]]'s show on Sunday nights. Later in the year he began his first European tour with a trip to France, but fell ill before its completion and was diagnosed with [[amyotrophic lateral sclerosis]] (ALS), or [[Lou Gehrig]]'s disease (a motor neuron disease).<ref name=pc18 /> Lead Belly was the first American country blues musician to achieve success in Europe.<ref name="mudcat" /> His final concert was at the [[University of Texas at Austin]] in a tribute to his former mentor, [[John Lomax]], who had died the previous year. Martha also performed at that concert, singing spirituals with Lead Belly. 

Ledbetter died later that year in New York City. He was buried in the Shiloh Baptist Church cemetery, in [[Mooringsport, Louisiana]], {{convert|8|mi|km}} west of [[Blanchard, Louisiana|Blanchard]], in Caddo Parish.<ref name="grave" /> He is honored with a statue across from the Caddo Parish Courthouse, in [[Shreveport]]. Ledbetter's niece, activist Greshun De Bouse, founded National Huddie Ledbetter Day (August 1 annually), and received proclamations from the mayors of Oil City, LA (where Lead Belly worked) and Shreveport, LA in 2023.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://eventguide.com/d/114905.htm|title=National Huddie Ledbetter Day|website=Eventguide.com}}</ref>


=== Legal issues ===
[[File:Huddie William Ledbetter in July 1934, from- Angola Prison -- Leadbelly in the foreground (cropped).jpg|alt=|thumb|right|Lead Belly inside the Angola Prison, July 1934]]
Lead Belly was imprisoned multiple times beginning in 1915, when he was convicted of carrying a pistol and sentenced to time on the Harrison County [[chain gang]]. He later escaped and found work in nearby [[Bowie County, Texas|Bowie County]] under the assumed name of Walter Boyd.

In January 1918, he was imprisoned at the Imperial Farm (now [[Central Unit]])<ref name="Perkinson184">Perkinson, Robert (2010). ''Texas Tough: The Rise of America's Prison Empire''. [[Metropolitan Books]]. [https://books.google.com/books?id=HOxmcfIopugC&dq=Lead+Belly+%22Imperial+Farm%22&pg=PA184 184]. {{ISBN|978-0-8050-8069-8}}.</ref> in [[Sugar Land, Texas]], after being convicted of killing a relative, Will Stafford. In 1925, he was pardoned and released after writing a song to Texas Governor [[Pat Morris Neff]] seeking his freedom, having served the minimum seven years of a 7-to-35-year sentence. He was credited with good behavior, which included entertaining the guards and fellow prisoners. He also appealed for mercy to Neff's known religious beliefs. It was a testament to his persuasive powers, as Neff had run for governor on a pledge not to issue pardons (most Southern judicial systems had no provision for approving parole from prison).<ref>{{cite web |title=Today in Masonic History |url=https://www.masonrytoday.com/index.php?new_month=11&new_day=26&new_year=2017##targetText=In%201920%2C%20Neff%20defeated%20a,Texas%2C%20there%20was%20no%20parole. |website=MASONRYTODAY.com |access-date=October 31, 2019 |date=November 26, 2017}}</ref> After meeting Lead Belly in 1924, Neff returned to the prison several times after he was incarcerated again. He brought guests to the prison on Sunday picnics to hear Ledbetter perform.<ref name="wolfe" />{{rp|85}}

In 1930, Ledbetter was sentenced to [[Louisiana State Penitentiary]] (nicknamed "Angola") after a summary trial for attempted homicide for stabbing a man in a fight. In 1939, Lead Belly served his final jail term for assault after stabbing a man in a fight in [[Manhattan]].

=== Nicknamed "Lead Belly" ===
[[File:Huddie Ledbetter (Leadbelly) and Martha Promise Ledbetter, Wilton, Conn..jpg|left|thumb|Lead Belly and Martha Promise Ledbetter, [[Wilton, Connecticut]], February 1935]]
There are several conflicting stories about how Ledbetter acquired the nickname "Lead Belly", it probably happened while he was in prison. Some claim his fellow inmates called him "Lead Belly" as a play on his family name and his physical toughness. Others say he earned the name after being wounded in the stomach with [[buckshot]].<ref name="mudcat">The Mudcat Cafe. [http://www.mudcat.org/huddie.cfm Leadbelly – King of the 12 String Guitar] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160102033526/http://www.mudcat.org/huddie.cfm |date=January 2, 2016 }} Retrieved on January 30, 209</ref> Another theory is that the name refers to his ability to drink [[moonshine]], the homemade liquor that Southern farmers, black and white, made to supplement their incomes.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Neff |first=Kyle |title=Research Guides: Louisiana Music History: Materials in Special Collections: Huddie William "Lead Belly" Ledbetter |url=https://guides.lib.lsu.edu/LouisianaMusic/leadbelly |access-date=2022-08-29 |website=guides.lib.lsu.edu |language=en}}</ref>

Blues singer [[Big Bill Broonzy]] thought it came from a supposed tendency to lie about as if "with a stomach weighted down by lead" in the shade when the chain gang was supposed to be working.<ref>{{Cite book| last = Terkel | first = Studs | author-link = Studs Terkel | year = 2009 | title = And They All Sang | publisher = New Press}}</ref>

However, his strong local accent is most likely to have led to the nickname. Huddie Ledbetter from Shreveport, became Huddie Leadbelly from Freeport.