Driskill Hotel

A jazz legend, a University of Texas student, and a landmark hotel in Austin.

This week in 1931, Louis Armstrong performed at the Driskill Hotel in a concert that potentially altered civil rights history.

That concert would leave a lasting impression on a UT freshman named Charles Black, who would later cite it as an inspiration for his work fighting segregation.

Jason Mellard with the Center for Texas Music History at Texas State University tells us the story.

[jazz music]

This week in Texas music history, a UT student witnesses a jazz concert that alters the course of history.

On October 12, 1931, Louis Armstrong performed a concert at Austin's Driskill Hotel that sent ripples through civil rights history decades later.

Armstrong was then at a critical moment in his career.

But for hotel, I was recently in Austin, Texas.

I have to tell you, the Driskill Hotel was unnerving.

Um, it, it was probably...

You know, I'm, I'm a really hard person to kinda shake, and, uh, that place shook me at first.