Black Swan Records

CTL-E-6275 · Institution · label · 1921–1924

VERIFIED evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)

Combined Graph record U-07463 · provenance: build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-6275.

Black Swan Records was a Harlem record company founded in 1921 by music publisher Harry Pace as the record division of his Pace Phonograph Corporation. It was the first Black-owned recording company to sell popular music to Black audiences nationally, and the first company to record Black classical musicians as well as blues and jazz artists. Pace named the label for the nineteenth-century concert singer Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield, known as the Black Swan, and its board of directors included Bert Williams, Lester Walton, and W. E. B. Du Bois. The label's first recording appeared in May 1921, and its first hit was Ethel Waters's Down Home Blues, released the same month. Fletcher Henderson worked as recording director and assembled the backing bands, William Grant Still arranged and directed music, and James P. Johnson recorded some of his first solos for the label. In 1922 Pace entered an arrangement with the white-owned Olympic Disc Record Corporation as larger white-owned companies moved into the market for Black artists. Black Swan released more than 180 records before Pace declared bankruptcy in December 1923. Paramount Records bought the catalog in March 1924 and issued records under the Black Swan name until December 1924.

The record

• Also known as: Black Swan, Black Swan Phonograph Company, Pace Phonograph Corporation

Notes

Staged 2026-10-16 under CTL-GOV-006 (Scan Tail Wave 7 — 747 Program, FINAL Wave 13; seventh Scan Tail packet at the founder's 40-record size). Gate A (2026-10-16): Gate A CLEAR (hand-checked 2026-10-16): no Black Swan Records entity or alias in the live graph (3,910 entities); the corpus scan string was 'Black Swan' (scan #3130), the label's short form, carried here as an alias. ID CTL-E-6275 free at staging. Supply: 747 Supply Ledger — Tier 4 corpus scan tail, corpus-gap-candidates-2026-10-15.json ranked #3130. The scan supplied the name string only; every fact is sourced under CTL-GOV-004. SCOPE GATE: The first major Black-owned record company in the United States, founded by Harry Pace in Harlem in 1921; the institutional ancestor of every Black-owned label the graph already holds. Vital status: LABEL — not applicable as a life status; the company operated 1921-1924: bankruptcy declared December 1923, catalog sold to Paramount Records in March 1924, and the Black Swan name retired by Paramount in December 1924 (BlackPast.org; EBSCO Research Starters, both accessed 2026-10-16). STATISTICS — Output, BlackPast.org (accessed 2026-10-16): more than 180 records released in 1921-1923, a total no later Black-owned record company surpassed until the 1950s. Corporate span differs by framing and is shown, not blended: EBSCO dates the company January 1921-March 1924 (through the Paramount sale), while BlackPast's entry is titled 1921-1923 (through the bankruptcy); Paramount continued issuing under the name to December 1924 per EBSCO. NOTE: BlackPast prints Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield's dates as 1809-1976, an apparent typographical error; her dates are not carried in this record. TYPE NOTE: typed Institution/label to match the graph's peer labels — Chess Records (CTL-E-0165), Vee-Jay Records (CTL-E-0166), Curtom Records (CTL-E-0167), and Motown Records (CTL-E-1639) are all Institution/label in the live graph. MEDIA: photo HELD (named candidate in media spec; no license claimed); chart staged in media spec; video HELD (no matching-entity CTL Short); audio HELD (no rights-cleared matching-entity audio staged); map N/A (label record). MEDIA LAYER (staged 2026-10-16; full per-asset PHOTO-001 records + embed specs in the packet's staged JSON, Drive packet folder): map = N/A (Label records carry no map slot at packet stage; maps attach to places and institutions.) | visual_assets = HELD: | chart = FILLED (Created for this packet (CTL graphic, CTL-PHOTO-001 lane) from the record's sourced facts.) | video = HELD (No matching-entity CTL Short in the Shorts Link Map (shorts-link-map-2026-10-15.json, 233 rows, checked by nam) | audio = HELD (HELD: No CTL-owned or rights-cleared matching-entity audio exists at staging.)

Referenced by

• Ethel Waters — recorded for → this record

Sources

• BlackPast.org, Black Swan Records (1921-1923) (accessed 2026-10-16) — first black-owned recording company that sold popular music to black audiences; founded in Harlem in 1921 as the record division of the Pace Phonographic Corporation by Harry Pace; named for opera singer Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield, 'The Black Swan'; released over 180 records between 1921 and 1923; Fletcher Henderson served as recording director and William Grant Still arranged and directed music; first recording May 1921; Ethel Waters's 'Down Home Blues' an early success; James P. Johnson recorded early solos for the label; arrangement with the white-owned Olympic Disc Record Corporation in 1922; bankruptcy December 1923; Paramount bought the catalog in March 1924 — https://blackpast.org/african-american-history/black-swan-records-1921-1923/ (build store)
• EBSCO Research Starters, Black Swan Records (accessed 2026-10-16) — dated January 1921-March 1924; first music company owned by African Americans dedicated to recording and nationally distributing music by African American artists; founded in Harlem in 1921 by music publisher Harry Pace through the Pace Phonograph Corporation; board included Bert Williams, Lester Walton, and W. E. B. Du Bois; first hit was Ethel Waters's 'Down Home Blues,' released May 1921; Fletcher Henderson central as accompanist, talent scout, and band assembler; Pace declared bankruptcy in December 1923 and sold the label to Paramount Records the following March; Paramount issued race records under the Black Swan name until December 1924 — https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/music/black-swan-records (build store)

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Record CTL-E-6275 · Combined Graph record U-07463 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · 2 sources · 1 mapped relationship.
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Researched and maintained by the CultureTechLens research program · CultureTechLens Combined Graph, Release 2026-11-04. Corrections are public: the corrections log.

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