Founded in 1966 by Anne Romaine and Bernice Johnson Reagon, the Southern Folk Cultural Revival Project (SFCRP) worked to present traditional musicians from black and white cultures in performance together at a time when this was considered controversial. The SFCRP continued presenting musical performances throughout the South until the late 1980s and kept close ties with the activism of the civil rights era. Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard participated in numerous tours, from 1968 to the 1980s, even assisting in the organizing, production, and promotion at times.
The Southern Folk Cultural Revival Project Collection (#20004) includes numerous promotional materials as well as correspondence, both business and personal, between Anne Romaine, Hazel, and Alice. The letters and contracts provide fascinating details about the cultural industries related to traditional music in the late 1960s and early 1970s as well as information about lives of struggling folk musicians like Hazel and Alice as they carved out their early careers. In a letter dated 19 February 1968, Anne wrote to Alice:
I have narrowed the tour schedule down to two weeks instead of three. It will be from the 7th of April through the 20th. Can you and Hazel come for the second week which will be from the 14th through the 20th? The other performers for that week will be the Blue Ridge Mt. Dancers, Mike Cooney, Mable Hillary, Rev. Brown. I hope that change doesn’t mess up yalls plans too much. The tour will concentrate almost entirely in North Carolina. I could get you a weekend date here in Atlanta at the Crucible coffee house at Emory University which pays 70% of the gross for Fri. and Sat. They usually have about 70 people in there each night” [letter from Anne Romaine to Alice Foster, Feb. 19, 1968. From the Southern Folk Cultural Revival Project Collection (#20004)]
Below is a promotional brochure for Hazel & Alice from the early 1970s.
for part 1, follow the link: “Hurricane” Hazel Dickens