(MUSIC--SHEET MUSIC.) LUCAS, SAM. Every Day Be Sunday By and By * Two Favorite Songs. Engraved sheet music with lithographic covers. Folio, 5 pages each; the second title with some wear to the edges, and spine; paper toned, a bit darker on the second title. Boston: White & Smith; Philadelphia: W. A. Evans & Bro.,
Two rare pieces of music by the noted African American actor, singer, musician and songwriter Sam Lucas (1850-1916). Lucas began his career as did many African American performers, in minstrelsy. But he was later to become one of the first African Americans to branch out into more serious drama. In 1875 he appeared with the Hyer Sisters in "Out of Bondage," a musical drama about a freed slave who "passes" into upper class white society. He was the first African American actor to play Unlce Tom both on stage and screen. James Weldon Johnson referred to him as the "Grand Old Man of the Negro Stage."
