BLSA and The Entertainment Sports Law Society 

Black History Speaker Forum | Presented By: Prof. Antonia Eliason

 The forum will center around Lillian McMurray and the blues contracts of Trumpet Records.  Lillian McMurray was a white female record executive in Jackson, Mississippi in a time when women were not frequently in charge.   McMurray was actually surprisingly fair and her contracts were the same whether they were with Black musicians or White musicians.

Prof. Eliason will talk more about Trumpet Records and some of the varying interpersonal relationships that produced exploitative practices of famous folk and blues collectors from the likes of John Lomax towards African American Mississippi Blues artists they recorded (in contrast to Lillian McMurray).   It resulted in many of the musicians never getting paid or getting exploited in their contractual relationships.  The forum will also explore Blues artist Robert Johnson, the legal disputes surrounding the rights to his music, and legal cases taking place decades after he died.