W.D.+Petersen+Memorial+Music+Pavilion


 * W.D. Petersen Memorial Music Pavilion **
 * A Monument to Davenport Civil Rights **

Original Author: Di Ann DuffeyVulich, ENG346 FL12 The W.D. Petersen Memorial Music Pavilion (or more popularly known as the LeClaire Park Bandshell) has been a familiar feature in the Quad Cities hosting annual music and cultural events like the Mississippi Valley Blues Festival, Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Jazz Festival and, River Roots Live. Establishing a close proximity to legendary Blues music traditional icons (such asthe Mississippi River, Rock Island Line (railroad) and the famous Highway 61) this structure has earned a reputation as a Mecca for Blues and Jazz fans worldwide. Located at the heart of the Quad Cities (downtown Davenport levy) this monumental, historic landmarkrepresentsthe growth and change of the Quad Cities development along the riverfront. One very important change the Quad City area has made is the evolution of equality for its African American citizens. The W.D. Petersen Memorial Music Pavilion is the site of the advancing progression of Black American History; beginning with a Civil Rights rally which opened the flood-gates for many festivals of Black American music styles, cultural celebrations. It was also the site of arace-barrier-breaking caucus for a future African American president.

Built in 1924, the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs lists the W. D. Petersen Memorial Pavilion on the State Historical Society of Iowa Inventory (Iowa Inventory). It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983 and on the Davenport Register of Historic Properties in 1993. (Iowa Inventory, Davenport Registry). The description filed on the registry reads, “with a decidedly exotic character, the Petersen Pavilion stands separate from the restrained Classical Revival architecture that, at the time of its construction, surrounded it” (Iowa Inventory).“The structure features Corinthian columns with twisted-rope shafts, minaret-shaped pinnacles, iron grated windows, and side niches. Decorative pattern work at the roofline is complex and visually active. Many of the decorative details are finished in vivid colors of blue, green, and gold, set in bold contradiction to the neutrality of the stone. The net result is an exotic and timeless beauty, a welcome surprise in this Midwestern river city” (Iowa Inventory). The registry also states, “The pavilion’s façade faces east and there is outdoor seating set in a concrete slab in the area immediately east of the structure” (Iowa Inventory). The audiences sitting in this area have helped develop social changes and metamorphic improvements on African American History,

So, how does this structure pertain to the development of African American civil rights and equality? One hundred years after the Emancipation Proclamation declared African Americans free citizens; one week before Martin Luther King JR’s eminent “I Have A Dream” speech in Washington, DC brought into focus the rational “call to action” for equal employment and living conditions;Davenport, Iowa saw its own Civil Rights Rally. A newspaper article in the Davenport Morning Democrat records, “More than 2,000 people (most of them white) from throughout the Quad Cities gathered on Friday, August 23, 1963, at the W.D. Petersen Memorial Pavilion to support the issues of local unequal employment and housing barriers (Dickins).

Local NAACP leader, Mel Pettis, addressed the color barriers of employment in local private and governmental offices, including the Davenport Police Department and Scott County Sheriff’s Office. Pettis questioned the crowd, “How can a man learn how to lay bricks or be a plasterer unless he can get an apprenticeship and get someone to teach him?” (Dickins). He criticized the realty companies, loan companies, the labor unions and other organizations for their lack of support for the black community. Referring mostly to the slum conditions of Rock Island, Illinois, he laments a belief that the law makers and city administrators are allowing landlords to ignore building regulations, maintenance standards, and property living conditions in the “ghetto” of Rock Island. Of that “ghetto” Pettis states, “Don’t try to tell me it doesn’t exist. I live there” (Dickins).

The Putnam Museum in Davenport offered an exhibit called “Davenport’s Civil Rights Movement 1945-1974,” describing the Catholic Interracial Council involvement in the Civil Rights Rally from 1963. A photo collage description states: “The CIC is the driving force for Davenport’s Civil Rights Movement. In most cities, the movement drew leaders from national organizations and predominantly black, especially Baptist churches. The CIC makes Davenport’s story unique” (Arland-Fye).In 1963, an article written in //The Catholic Messenger// explains the mostly white members of the Rights Rally audience reflected Monsignor J. D. Conway statement to the cause, “You know and your neighbors know where you stand on this issue now.” Discrimination exists in Davenport, but that “here it is more hidden and genteel” than the South. Conway called it “a moral evil” that everyone is responsible for. Monsignor also said that by being at the rally, “everyone in the audience was now committed to the cause of racial justice” (McConoughey).

The main speaker at the rally in 1963 was John Howard Griffin, author of //Black Like Me//. Griffin used his art of journalism to become a bridge between the differing controversial races. Disguised as a black man, he traveled the south experiencing life as the opposite race.He said “[racism] can affect any human being at any time, that the racist is just as dehumanized as is his victim, and that racism leads to the destruction of human beings” (Watson).The idea of exploring the other side of the race opposition struck Griffin after he returned from World War II blinded. He awoke in a hospital with only the ability to see shadows; eventually, he saw nothing. Once blind, he wrote, “[one]can only see the heart and intelligence of a man, and nothing in these things indicates in the slightest whether a man is white or black” (Watson).Griffin spoke further about race equality stating, “We talk about giving the Negro his rights as though they were ours to dispense, he said. “Whom do we think we are?” he asked “The Negro has his rights from God just like the rest of us” (McConoughey). Summing up his speech at the W.B. Petersen Memorial Music Pavilion during the Civil Rights Rally of 1963, Griffin compared American treatment of Black Americans to Nazi Germany, “We can no longer look at Germany and the Nazis and say it could not happen here. It is happening here, now. And it dehumanizes the oppressors just as much as it does the oppressed” (Dickins).

With regards to those 2,000 people who dared to defy “common belief” and stand up for their black friends, neighbors, and community, the Quad Cities now have the pleasure of celebrating African American culture yearly. Great blues performers like Buddy Guy, Koko Taylor, Lonnie Brooks, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, and Albert Collins have all graced the W. D. Petersen Music Pavilion since 1985. The celebration of Jazz music began in 1972, when the Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Society was founded. Within those venues enter different musical genres such as Zydeco, Cajun, Creole, Dixieland, Ragtime, Ska. Each has become a part of the festival flavors.

The Davenport Pavilion was a piece of African American and national history when, in 2007, Presidential hopeful, Senator Barack Obama, addressed the Quad Cities from the LeClaire Park Bandshell (Times). The W.D. Petersen Memorial Music Pavilion saw the Quad Cities amend from rallying support and equal rights for all citizens, to celebrating the cultures of those citizens, to experiencing significant history for the empowerment of those citizens.

Arland-Fye, Barb. “Catholics Played Role in Civil Rights Movement.” //The Catholic Messenger.// January 13, 2010. Davenport Register of Historic Properties: []  retrieved November 24, 2012. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Dickins, John. “Rights Rally Draws 2,000: Negro Leader Cites Quad-Cities Color Bar.” Davenport Times-Democrat, August 24, 1963. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs, State Historical Society of Iowa Inventory Form.Davenport Public Library-Special Collection Archive, site number 82-01273 <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">McConoughey, Jerry. “Negro Gets Rights from God: Griffin.” //The Catholic Messenger//. August 29, 1963. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Times Staff. “Road to the White House.”//Quad City Times.//November 06, 2008 <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Watson, Bruce. “Black Like Me, 50 Years Later.” //Smithsonian Magazine//, October 2011. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">[|http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/Black-Like-Me-50-Years-Later.html#ixzz2DGAtte9W] <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;"> retrieved November 25, 2 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">012.
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