Born in Texas, St. Elmo Johnson was a classically trained violinist, conductor, choir director, and arranger. By 1927, he was a central figure in Rev. George Wilson Becton’s Gospel Feast Party. Becton, a sensational and flamboyant Harlem evangelist,…
Alabama Senator Tom Heflin poses with a violin delivered anonymously to his Washington, D.C. office, 1928. The senator’s rabidly anti-Catholic pronouncements, widely denounced by his colleagues and the press, drew comparisons to the despotic emperor…