"The Natchez Burning"

One of the deadliest fires in American history killed over 200 people at the Rhythm Club in Natchez on April 23, 1940, including bandleader Walter Barnes, nine members of his dance orchestra, and fellow bandleader Clarence “Bud” Scott, Jr. The tragedy reverberated across the country, especially in the African American community, and became one of the most memorialized events in African-American history through prose, poetry, songs, museum exhibits, annual local ceremonies, and monuments. The blaze reportedly began when a discarded match or cigarette ignited decorative Spanish moss hanging from the ceiling of the corrugated metal building on St. Catherine Street, also called the Rhythm Night Club. Its windows had been nailed shut, and when flames erupted, hundreds of patrons rushed the only door; when bodies blocked the exit, victims suffocated or were burned or crushed to death. Barnes was hailed as a hero for trying to calm the crowd while he and the band continued to play “Marie.” A Vicksburg native who had moved to Chicago in 1923, Barnes had recorded with his Royal Creolians in 1928-29 and built a successful career bringing dance music to small southern towns, later renaming his group the Sophisticated Swing Orchestra by 1939. The disaster also touched communities from Texas to Ohio as the musicians’ bodies were returned home for funerals, and the Chicago Daily Defender, for which Barnes had been a columnist, covered the story extensively and reported that more than 15,000 people attended his funeral. Memorial songs began appearing within weeks, and later recordings by performers including Howlin’ Wolf, Elmo Williams, Hezekiah Early, Captain Beefheart, John Lee Hooker, Charles Haffer, and Robert Gilmore kept the tragedy alive in music. The first monument to the victims was dedicated on the Natchez Bluff on September 15, 1940, by the Natchez Civic and Social Clubs of Chicago and Natchez.

Vidalia, Louisiana · United States