The Coloured Idea Band of Sonny Clay arrives in Sydney, 1928 / Sam Hood
Originally uploaded by State Library of New South Wales collection
The text accompanying this 1928 photo reads:
Note: The band entered Sydney Harbour playing their newly composed “Australian Stomp” on deck, with their dancers performing. After good reviews, the Truth newspaper organised for the band to be raided. They were found with Australian women and deported. African American bands were banned from visiting until 1954. The Library has photographs of the Louis Armstrong tour, the first Afro-American entertainer to visit after the ban was lifted, and of the Harlem Blackbirds in 1955, the first Afro-Amercian group to visit.
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