Murphy Browne © January 27-2019
DR. DONALD WALBRIDGE SHIRLEY
Donald Walbridge Shirley whose life
was dramatized, fictionalized and some say trivialized in a recent movie “Green
Book” was born on January 29-1927 in Pensacola, Florida to African Jamaican
immigrants. Donald Walbridge Shirley was the third of 4 sons of Reverend Edwin
Samuel Shirley and elementary school teacher Stella Gertrude Young Shirley.
Reverend Edwin Samuel Shirley attended Mico College in Jamaica and was a
schoolmaster before immigrating to the USA in 1914; he attended the Divinity
School at Howard University, then served as the priest at the St. Cyprian’s Episcopal,
Church in Pensacola, Florida. Stella Gertrude Young Shirley was 32 years old
when she transitioned to the ancestral realm on May 8-1936; her youngest child
was only two days old and Donald was 9 years old.
Donald Walbridge Shirley began
playing piano when he was 2 ½ years old; taught by his mother. He was a musical
prodigy who gave his first public performance when he was 3 years old. On June
25-1945 Donald Walbridge Shirley was 18 when he made his debut as a
professional pianist (performing Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat
minor) with the Boston Symphony Orchestra as part of their “Colored American
Night” series of concerts. In 1946, his first major composition was performed
by the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
Donald Shirley, a musical prodigy was
thwarted by the White supremacist American culture from fulfilling his ambition
to become a concert pianist. He was told: “American audiences were not willing
to accept a ‘colored’ pianist on the concert stage.” He turned his attention to
the academic field where he obtained Doctorates in Music, Psychology (University
of Chicago) and Liturgical Arts. While teaching Psychology at the University of
Chicago in the early 50's he returned to a musical career when he received a
grant to study the possible relationship between music and juvenile crime. He
performed experiments which showed that certain tonal combinations affected the
reactions of the audience in a nightclub. He studied music at the Catholic
University of America in Washington and graduated in 1953.
Dr. Donald Shirley returned to his
musical career where he was a prolific composer, developing his own genre of
music, melding blues, spirituals, show tunes and popular music. The original music
Shirley composed included at least three symphonies, two piano concertos, a
cello concerto, three string quartets and a one-act opera, a symphonic tone
poem based on "Finnegan's Wake" and a set of "Variations"
on the legend of Orpheus in the Underworld. In 1955, Dr. Shirley made his
Carnegie Hall debut with iconic African American composer/musician Duke
Ellington and the Symphony of the Air Orchestra. Shirley performed with the
Detroit Symphony, the Chicago Symphony and the Cleveland Orchestra. He
performed in varied prestigious venues including Milan's La Scala Opera House
and New York's Metropolitan Opera House. He recorded 24 albums between 1955-62.
In 1962 Dr. Shirley decided to take
his music on the road but was aware of the vicious physical attack on Nat King
Cole by a group of White supremacists 6 years before (April 10-1956) in Alabama.
He decided to employ Frank Anthony “Tony Lip” Vallelonga, a proudly racist Italian-American
bouncer who worked at Manhattan's Copacabana nightclub, to work as his
chauffeur/bodyguard. The “relationship” was fraught with the tension of an
African American man in close quarters with a known, vocal White supremacist.
The relationship between African-Americans and Italian-Americans was anything
but cordial or friendly. Italian American and African American relations have
generally been characterized as hostile with the murder of 16-year-old African
American Yusuf Hawkins on August 23-1989 by a group of Italian men in
Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, New York as an example. This was compounded when 300 African-Americans
marched through the neighborhood demanding justice for Yusuf Hawkins’s murder
were confronted by Italian-Americans chanting “Nig--rs go home,” screaming
obscenities and holding up watermelons. The Reverend Al Sharpton, leading the
march was stabbed by one of the Italian-Americans. With this history it is
hardly likely that any kind of “friendship” between Dr. Donald Shirley and his
racist Italian-American chauffeur/bodyguard “Tony Lip” would be viable.
The 2018 movie “Green Book” told
through the eyes of “Tony Lip” (by his son Nick Vallelonga) would have us
suspend belief and watch a complete retelling of reality in this movie. Similar
to the 2011 movie “The Help” that glorified the “liberal” White woman
journalist involved in saving/empowering 2 African American domestic workers in
White supremacist Jim Crow South, a racist Italian-American bodyguard/chauffeur
teaches an African-American how to be “Black.” What would a racist
Italian-American know about how to be “Black” other than what was in his
feverishly racist imagination? The stereotypes that abound about African
Americans among many white Americans, including Italian-Americans, are legion
and legendary! According to members of Dr. Shirley’s family (who describe the
movie as a “symphony of lies,”) Dr. Shirley was active in the civil rights
movement, friends with Dr. King, marched with Dr. King in Selma and was close
friends with Nina Simone, Duke Ellington and Sarah Vaughn. He was accompanied
by the Alvin Ailey dancers when he performed "Concerto in F" at the
Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. So much for the myth that “Tony Lip”
had to teach Dr. Shirley anything about his culture and history. The movie also
portrays Dr. Shirley as being “estranged” from his family which is a
fabrication. Dr. Shirley had a close relationship with his siblings as
evidenced by photographs and the words of the surviving family members. Dr.
Shirley obviously knew about “The Negro Motorist Green Book” so he was “Black”
enough to know about that and the fact that his life could be in danger as he
was “travelling while Black” through the USA. Tony Lip would not have known
about “The Negro Motorist Green Book” before being employed by Dr. Shirley.
The title of the movie comes from “The
Negro Motorist Green Book” which was a travel guide for African Americans published
from 1936-1966. African-American Victor Hugo Green and his wife Alma Green documented
restaurants, hotels, gas stations and more, that African-American travelers
could use while traveling throughout the USA to remain safe. Dr. Shirley would
have needed the Green Book for his safety. Members of his family insist that
Dr. Shirley was never friends with his employee Tony Lip; it was an
employer-employee relationship. Dr. Shirley eventually fired Tony Lip most
likely for being a rabid racist. The Green Book seems to be a valiant effort to
make White supremacy and racism funny and palatable. Members of Dr. Shirley’s
family insist that D r. Shirley “flatly
refused” permission to have his story told when he was approached by Nick
Vallelonga to do a movie about his life 30 years ago.
In 2018, five years after Dr. Shirley
transitioned to the ancestral realm (April 6-2013) Nick Vallelonga defied the
wishes of Dr. Shirley and made the movie. Although the story is supposedly
about the life of Dr. Shirley, the main character is the white man Tony Lip.
The actor portraying Tony Lip spent time with Lip's family. Mahershala Ali (who
portrayed Dr. Shirley and gained a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor)
only watched movie clips of Dr. Shirley as if Dr. Shirley dropped from the sky
or was delivered by a stork. The producers, writers etc., most likely out of
disrespect for the African American family of Dr. Shirley did not do due
diligence in contacting the family. They only seem to have seen Dr. Shirley as
a prop to telling the story of Tony Lip, whitewashing the life, culture and
history of the African American man, Dr. Donald Shirley, his family and
community. The Green Book is about a White man's "understanding" and
his interpretation of who an educated “Negro” was in the 1960s; the story of
how the child of a racist Italian-American interpreted the stories his father
told him about a "road trip" adventure/incident he (the father) had
with an "uppity Negro" in the 1960s.
It was a time of turbulent change in
the USA when African Americans rose up in numbers to demand their Human Rights.
That is mostly glossed over if not outright disregarded. The makers of the Green
Book had to take into account the awareness of white privilege in the 21st
century and social media holding white supremacists accountable. They tried it;
trying to make white supremacy funny! In spite of their efforts, The Green Book
remains the latest in a string of movies made to salve the conscience of White
people and absolve them of the crimes committed against racialized people from
the beginning of the nation. The Shirley family is making their voice heard,
correcting the false narrative of the Green Book movie. Dr. Shirley’s family is
(https://www.blackenterprise.com/don-shirley-the-green-book-family-blasts-movie/) “calling for a
boycott of the film and asking moviegoers to wait to watch until it appears on
cable.”
Murphy
Browne © January 27-2019
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