#ThrowbackThursday: Hazel Scott

A few weeks ago, I expressed my newfound (well I guess now not so new found) love for Vintage Black Glamour. One of my favorite pics was the one above of the amazing Hazel Scott. 

Hazel Dorothy Scott was born on July 11th, 1920 in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobego. At the age of four, Hazel moved with her mother to New York. Quickly regaled as a musical prodigy, Hazel was given scholarships to study at the Julliard School. Hazel officially began performing jazz in her early teens and was performing on the radio by the age of 16. 

She continued to dazzle film and live audiences leading to her becoming the first African American Woman with her own television show. However soon after, she like other artists, escaped to Paris to evade persecution, not returning to the states until 1967. She passed in 1981. 

Some quotes by Hazel: 

"Who ever walked behind anyone to freedom? If we can't go hand in hand, I don't want to go."

"I've always known I was gifted, which is not the easiest thing in the world for a person to know, because you're not responsible for your gift, only for what you do with it."