By: Lamont Jack Pearley
Since its founding in 1919, the National Association of Negro Musicians (NANM) has played an essential role in preserving, promoting, and uplifting African American musical traditions. As the oldest organization dedicated to the development and support of Black musicians, composers, and educators, NANM has championed the artistry and cultural power of Black sacred and classical music across generations.
Figures like Florence Price, William Grant Still, and Marian Anderson found support and visibility through NANM’s efforts. Equally important has been the organization’s commitment to sustaining the African American spiritual, a deeply rooted musical expression that has shaped the sonic and spiritual landscape of this country.
Here at the Jack Dappa Blues Heritage Preservation Foundation, we honor and extend this legacy through our own mission: to conserve, celebrate, and amplify the traditional music, oral histories, and cultural lifeways of Black American communities. Our work centers the Blues as both a historical sound and a living expression—emerging from the same spiritual, folk, and communal traditions that NANM has long upheld.
While NANM helped establish a foundation for Black musical excellence in sacred and classical forms, Jack Dappa Blues continues the journey through the lens of the folk artist, the community scholar, and the Blues person. Through public programs, digital archives, podcasting, educational workshops, and The African American Folklorist magazine, we engage in the same cultural work: preserving memory through music.
We recognize that organizations like NANM have helped shape a pathway for those of us committed to this work—not just as stewards of history, but as practitioners of living traditions. Together, our shared commitment reminds us that our music is more than art—it is testimony, resistance, education, and survival.
As we continue to uplift the Blues Narrative, engage Black folklore, and carry ancestral stories forward, we give thanks to NANM for keeping the tune alive—and for inspiring the continued creation of spaces where Black music, identity, and heritage are honored on our own terms.
Learn more about the National Association of Negro Musicians:
https://www.nanm.org