10/07/2025
On 7th October, 1955, Ella Fitzgerald, Georgina Henry, Illinois Jacquet, Dizzy Gillespie, and jazz impresario Norman Granz were arrested for “shooting dice” in Fitzgerald’s dressing room at the Music Hall in Houston, TX.
Houston-born Jacquet had wanted to integrate audiences ever since he had played in Los Angeles in 1944 for a benefit organized by Granz (to raise money for the defendants in the Zoot Suit Riots). “I seem to excel on my instrument when I play for an integrated audience,” the saxophonist said.
“I love Houston,”Jacquet said after the October concert. “This is where I went to school. This is where I learned everything I know. I was fed up with coming to Houston and playing to a segregated audience. I felt if I didn’t do anything about segregation in my hometown, I would regret it.”
Granz arranged the show, and the contract was explicitly worded that the show would be integrated.
After the first set, the Houston vice squad stormed into Fitzgerald’s dressing room, guns drawn with the intention of stopping a second set. Fitzgerald and Henry were quietly drinking coffee, but Gillespie and Jacquet were playing dice in the corner, providing the police with an excuse for an arrest. Granz entered the room after hearing the police. He later claimed he saw an officer try to plant drugs in the bathroom. “I’m watching you,” Granz said, and the cop pointed his gun at Granz and threatened to shoot him.
The group was met by photographers when they arrived at the jail, tipped off by the cops, and all were booked and fined ($10) before being released. Granz and his musicians returned to perform a second set.
