Mount Glenwood Memory Gardens in Thornton, IL to visit #blackhistory musicians and athletes!

[Music] I've Got the Blues I feel so lonely I'd  give the world if I could only make you   understand it surely would be grand I'm going to  Telegraph my thank you for joining us on another   episode of Tombstone tea where we take a walk  through history in the cemeteries and today we   are in Mount Glenwood Memory Gardens in Thornton  Illinois to visit the grave of Edith Wilson who   was a Blues singer here in Chicago she began  as a stage actress and then she was assigned   to Colombia records after being discovered in  a stage play and she actually sang for Duke   Ellington in The Cotton Club and she performed  with Louis Armstrong, Bill Bojangles, Robinson,   Cab Callaway and she was actually the very  first Aunt Jemima, the very first one,   but unfortunately due to controversy from the  african-american community they felt like,   you know, she was shucking and Jiving so she quit  being Aunt Jemima she toured and recorded several   albums and she actually died in 1981 and then here  on this long pathway in the back of the cemetery   we're actually going to visit the grave of two  important people in black history the first one   that we are going to visit is Marshall Major  Taylor who was actually the fastest cyclist   in the world now Major Taylor was born in 1878  in Indianapolis and by 1897 he was considered   the fastest bicycle rider in the world he had  established several World Records in bicycle   racing and in 1899 he won the World Championship  in bicycle Sprint racing he was the second   African-American to earn a world championship and  he toured Europe in the early 1900s becoming the   European bicycle Sprint Champion of that year and  then he also traveled to Australia to become the   Sprint Champion there as well and he moved to  Illinois later on in his life and he died of a   heart attack in 1932 pretty penniless and actually  what happened was he was buried in a Pauper's   grave and the Schwinn company actually paid for  him to be reinterred here with a proper burial   marker and then the next grave that is right  nearby is the grave of Duke Slater now Frederick   Wayman Duke Slater was born in 1898 and he was an  All-American football player for the Iowa Hawkeyes   leading them to a 1921 National Championship  he also joined the NFL becoming the first black   lineman in league history and he also earned  his law degree in 1928 and began to practice   law in Chicago and then in 1948 he was elected  to the Cook County Municipal Court becoming just   the second african-american judge in Chicago  History to be elected to that position and he   served as a Chicago judge for nearly two decades  he was married he didn't have any children but he   was buried here with his wife after passing  away in 1966 at the age of 67 from stomach [Music] cancer the last grave that we are going  to visit today is of jazz musician Walter B Barnes   Jr who was the leader of the Royal Creolians and  he was actually the first black musician to play   on radio out of Chicago and that is believed to  be because he was friends with Al Capone and his   family and he also was playing at the Rhythm  Club in Mississippi in 1940 the club actually   caught on fire and it claimed the lives of more  than 200 people including most of the members of   his band and he actually ordered the band to  play some music to try to calm the crowd but   unfortunately all of them passed away so thank  you for joining us on this episode of Tombstone   tea through the wonderful beautiful grounds of  Mount Glenwood Memory Gardens we have one more   episode of Mount Glenwood we are going to visit  the grave of Elijah Muhammad in their family plot   so I hope to see you next time on Tombstone  tea and as of always make sure to click the   like button and subscribe to our newest videos  make sure those notifications are on and leave   us a comment or two we like to hear a little  bit of feedback all right see you next time