It’s all about the music for Doratha “Dodie” Smith-Simmons. Going out to listen to it, dancing, meeting up with friends, the joy.
Music has been a passion since, no doubt, from when she was born in Mississippi, with it solidified when she arrived in New Orleans at just past two years old.
A love of music — and everything surrounding it — lead to unexpected pathways, such as being an integral part of the Civil Rights movement; to working at Preservation Hall, seeing jazz greats perform and helping spread traditional jazz, or what they called back in the day New Orleans jazz, throughout the world; to sitting in at one of the first meetings about starting the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.
Smith-Simmons may not have planned being front and center for key moments in New Orleans history, but when they happened, she was there — and made things happen and made a difference.
Civil Rights Movement
Smith-Simmons was a teenager when she overheard her sister, Dorothy Smith Venison, talking about going to the Golden Pheasant, a Black club, where NAACP members would head to after meetings.
“I blackmailed her. I told her if you don’t take me to the next meeting, pay my dollar membership for dues [for the NAACP youth council] and my seven cents car fare, I’ll tell Mama,” she says, according to an article in Verite News.
A deal between sisters was struck, and Smith-Simmons went to the meetings. One night Jerome Smith and Rudy Lombard from CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) came to a meeting to see if any of the youth council could help with picketing Woolworth’s and McCrory’s. Smith-Simmons joined CORE because she “liked what they were doing because the NAACP wasn’t doing any direct action,” she says in an interview for New Orleans Historical, finding CORE’s approach “exciting.”
Smith-Simmons participated as a CORE member in boycotts, picket lines and sit-ins of establishments that had racist policies.
She was active in the Freedom Rides, becoming a trainer for CORE, as well as a test rider, participating in a test ride to McComb, Mississippi, when in 1961 a white mob attacked the group as they tried to integrate an all-white waiting room at the Greyhound Bus Station.
“I thought we would all die that day, because they were trying to kill us,” says Smith-Simmons in a Mississippi Today article.
Smith-Simmons participated in the March on Washington in 1963 when she was 20 years old.
During this time, Smith-Simmons was also going to college, Southern University at New Orleans, originally studying secretarial duties, then switching to business administration.
Preservation Hall
It was during her Civil Rights work that she got introduced to Preservation Hall.
It was 1964 and after a CORE meeting, Smith-Simmons and a group decided to check out the music at Preservation Hall, looking inside at the musicians perform. One night, Smith-Simmons and a friend went by and decided they wanted to go inside. The man at the front door, Mike Stark, let them in, but gave back their money because Smith-Simmons said they were students (she was, her friend was not, she notes.)
“We were like kids in a candy store. We stayed all night, to 12:30 a.m.,” says Smith-Simmons.
As they left, Stark told the women that they could come back any night as his guest.
“And we went every night,” says Smith-Simmons. Among the musicians she heard was Sweet Emma (Barrett), George Lewis, De De and Billie Pierce, Percy Humphrey and son, Willie Humphrey, Emanuel “Manny” Sayles, Narvin Kimball, among many, many others.
She was introduced to Larry Bornstein, whose art gallery evolved into showcasing musicians, turning into Preservation Hall with Sandra and Allan Jaffe continuing the musical vision.
At Preservation Hall, Smith-Simmons originally sold records and did other jobs until she was ultimately hired full-time by the Jaffes.
“Every night except Thursday,” she says. As that was when she went to the Joy Tavern on Pine Street in Gert Town. “Everybody played there,” she says, also noting that, “All over New Orleans we had music, all types of music.”
“Dodie was one of those people that was always in our lives,” says Ben Jaffe, son of Sandra and Allan Jaffe and current owner of Preservation Hall.
Smith-Simmons ultimately toured the U.S. and the world with bands, including one visit to the White House in 1978 with the Young Tuxedo Brass Band. Thailand (where she met the King, who she said played the clarinet), France, Portugal, and Spain were among the countries she brought New Orleans jazz to.
“Dodie was one of these people who bridged generations, bridged classes, bridged races and was just a pivotal person at a pivotal moment,” says Jaffe.
New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival
It was 1969 and producer and jazz pianist George Wein, known for establishing the Newport Jazz Festival in 1954, had been part of a group of people trying to produce a jazz festival in New Orleans since the early 1960s. After the International Jazz Festival at Municipal Auditorium in 1968 and 1969, Wein landed in New Orleans for what would become the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.
One of the first meetings about it was at Buster Holmes restaurant and included Wein and his wife, Joyce, the Jaffes, Bruce Brice, Geraldine and Sonny Vaucresson, Larry Bornstein, Dick Allen, Bill Russell and herself, said Smith-Simmons.
The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival debuted, April 22-26, 1970.
“Dodie was integral to starting Jazz Fest. At the very beginning, Dodie was working with George Wein and the Jaffes when the festival was still a concept,” says Rachel Lyons, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation archivist.
Smith-Simmons started off as a volunteer, but was then hired as the office manager, ultimately becoming associate producer, traditional jazz coordinator and financial director. She gave Economy Hall, where traditional jazz is performed, its name.
“Dodie was the first employee of the Foundation and she did everything – from meeting minutes, to accounting, to leading productions,” says Lyons. “Her organizational skills and deep knowledge of New Orleans was essential in making the Jazz Fest successful.” (The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation is the nonprofit that owns the festival.)
“Dodie was, and is, an amazing role model for women and people of color in festival and non-profit business sector,” says Lyons.
Smith-Simmons left the Jazz Fest in the 1990s, but continues to enjoy going to it. She still enjoys music in the city, as well active in speaking about civil rights.
“I’ve discovered at important times in history there are important people making it happen behind the scenes, not always in view of the public,” says Jaffe, about Smith-Simmons, who was there making it happen.
