Joseph Stern and the Rise of the Black Songwriter

Joseph Stern’s partner, Edward Marks, recalled the early days of the firm thus: “Our young publishing firm witnessed and fostered the first mass invasion of the amusement world by colored America.” But was this the case? An examination of the firm’s actual publications, based on copyright records and newspaper reports, yields a more nuanced answer. Stern was not the first, nor probably the most committed, and Marks’s recollection of Gussie L. Davis as the firm’s “third mainstay” was exaggerated. But as time went on, the firm did become very reliant on Black American musicians; by 1904, they were contributing over forty percent of Stern’s new publications. However, for a more complete picture, the article’s methodology must be applied to other publishers in the period.