Jimmy McCracklin

Jimmy Sings The Blues

This film, produced and directed by Caroline Crawford, John Lightfoot and Ronnie Stewart, was developed from a series of oral histories of Bay Area blues figures carried out by Caroline Crawford for The Regional Oral History Office of The Bancroft Library.

Born in rural Arkansas, Jimmy McCracklin migrated first to St. Louis, then Los Angeles, and in the late 1940s, to Richmond, California. Like thousands of African Americans who relocated to northern cities during and after World War II, McCracklin brought with him the musical culture and styles of the South. His story is profoundly sad in terms of the overt racism, music piracy, illness and loss he has encountered, but equally joyous in the gift of music he possesses and the hundreds of songs he has written. Oral History Transcript will be available at: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/ROHO/projects/arts_ca/.