Fred "Deacon" Johnson
- Ninfa O. Barnard
- 15 hours ago
- 3 min read
Pine Bluff native, Fred “Deacon” Johnson was an African American entertainer and music contractor who established the Deacon Johnson Music Exchange, a music contracting company that connected studios and orchestras to musicians, conductors, and arrangers.
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Fred "Deacon" Johnson was born on August 12, 1878, in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. His musical education began in Pine Bluff. He later continued his musical education at McGill University in Montreal, Canada.
In 1893, he became an entertainer, going on to perform at the Chicago World’s Fair. From 1893 to 1900, Johnson performed at venues across Montreal. From 1900 to 1903, he toured prodigiously with minstrel and vaudeville companies before finally settling in New York City.
In New York, he established the Deacon Johnson Music Exchange, a music contracting company that connected studios and orchestras to musicians, conductors, and arrangers. In 1911, The New York Age characterized Johnson as “one of New York City’s most popular entertainers.” According to The New York Age, Johnson had spent the past four years as the principal entertainer at the Hotel Martinique on Broadway and 32nd Street, assisted by other African American singers and musicians. Johnson also provided black entertainers for the Hotel Cadillac on Broadway and 43rd Street, the Kaiser-hof on Broadway and 39th Street, and Bretton Hall on Broadway and 86th Street. In total, he employed 17 men. In addition, Johnson had recently won a lawsuit for damages against one of the large hotel firms in New York, after they broke a verbal contract without cause by firing an African American quartet under his management.
In 1921, he advertised his business as a “clearing house for entertainers, orchestras, singers, and players” in The New York Age. The Deacon Johnson Music Exchange remained open until the 1940s.
In 1910, Johnson was an active member of the Clef Club. The Clef Club was founded by James Reese Europe, an African American bandleader, composer, and a leading figure in the transition from ragtime to jazz music. It functioned as a social club, a booking agency, and a labor union for African American musicians in Harlem. The Clef Club functioned much like the whites-only American Federation of Musicians. It connected African American musicians to potential employers and higher-paying jobs.
Europe set a fixed salary and demanded that the Clef Club members receive employment only as entertainers, curbing the habit of black musicians being hired to play music and then forced to do menial jobs like dishwashing and janitorial work instead. For engagements outside of New York City, Europe demanded that Clef Club musicians receive room, board, and transportation, alongside their salary. The Clef Club also secured work for black musicians in society bands, playing for private parties and high social events, changing how black musicians became professionals.
The Clef Club Orchestra, which developed from the Club, included upwards of 125 musicians. From 1912 to 1915, the Clef Club orchestra performed on the stage of Carnegie Hall in New York City, becoming one of the leading black ensembles during the pre-jazz years.
From 1915 to 1919, Johnson served as the Clef Club’s president, ensuring that the Club survived during World War I. Johnson was also a co-founder in 1919 of the National Association of Negro Musicians one of the oldest organizations in the United States dedicated to the preservation, encouragement, and advocacy of all genres of the music of African-Americans. The organization still persists to this day. In the 1920s, he wrote theatrical news columns for The New York Age. During this time, he was also instrumental in the discovery of musicians like Fletcher Henderson, whom he hired after noticing him playing piano on a riverboat. It was Johnson’s recommendation that helped Henderson launch his legendary music career with Black Swan Records, the first major African American record label. Johnson was able to refer several other talents to Black Swan Records and other important Harlem music enterprises.
During the 1930s, one of Johnson’s last great musical assignments was finding musicians for performances at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1933-1934.
Johnson died on March 29, 1944, in New York City at the age of 65.
Sources:
“JOHNSON, FRED”, , Biographical dictionary of Afro-American and African musicians. (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2016–) Article first published 1982. Article published online January 2016. Accessed 13 July 2025.
www.local802afm.org - Swingin’ the Color Line: African American Musicians and the Formation of Local 802, 1886-1946
Written by: Ninfa O. Barnard