Oscar Jones, Jackie Ivory, and Bobby Stone

Oscar Jones, Jackie Ivory, and Bobby Stone were heavily inspired by the Mississippi Delta blues they heard growing up. As teenagers, they’d sing doo-bop music on street corners on the west side of South Bend. It led to lifelong careers in music for both Bobby Stone and Jackie Ivory, and a lifelong love of music for all three. They performed together in what was known then as the “chitlin’” circuit, a network of clubs that played black music to almost entirely black audiences. As the blues was appropriated by white musicians, their lives changed. They played with local legends like the late Billie “Stix” Nix, and national treasures like Muddy Waters and Etta James.  In 2003, they sat down with the Civil Rights Heritage Center's David Healey. They talked about their careers, about growing up in South Bend, and how the music borne from African American culture has changed the whole world.   Jackie Ivory's music is available on many formats, including Apple Music: https://itunes.apple.com/artist/id4626201 Learn more about South Bend’s history from the photographs and documents that helped create it. Visit Michiana Memory at http://michianamemory.sjcpl.org/.  Title music, “History Explains Itself,” from Josh Spacek. Visit his page on the Free Music Archive, http://www.freemusicarchive.org/.