Frank Fairfax

Frank Thurmond Fairfax (25 November 1899 – 25 January 1972) was the organizer of Philadelphia's Protective Union Local 274 (1935–1971), a charter of the American Federation of Musicians (AFM/AFofM) for black musicians. Fairfax was also a bandleader, musician, music arranger and songwriter, performing in Philadelphia and other northeastern cities.

Born in Bessemer, Virginia on November 25, 1899, Frank Thurmond Fairfax was sixth of the eleven offspring of Matthew L. Fairfax, a preacher, and Maria Elizabeth Cash. The family later moved to Huntington, West Virginia. Frank Fairfax worked his way through West Virginia State College and earned his B.S. degree in Business Administration in the spring of 1921. While attending college, he joined the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity and became active in vocal and instrumental groups, studying under Clarence Cameron White. He learned to play the trumpet, trombone, tenor saxophone, and drums. Frank married Kathryn Ione Adams, daughter of Dr. Arthur Stewart Adams and Mary Leota Taylor Adams in 1925. Their offspring were Dolores Anita Fairfax and Frank Thurmond Fairfax, Jr. When Frank Sr. joined Edwards' Collegians, a West Virginia territory jazz dance orchestra, he left his family with his mother and some siblings in Huntington, West Virginia. His wife and children joined him in Philadelphia in 1935.

During the summer of 1933, Edwards' Collegians, a touring band, migrated to Pennsylvania for a dance tour. Upon arriving in Philadelphia in the fall of 1933, the band signed for a steady gig at The Rafters in West Philadelphia and "ran straight into union trouble." This was a Union band, carrying "Conditional Membership" cards from the American Federation of Musicians. Fairfax, the band's manager, found union recognition in this area unfavorable to black musicians. He wrote, "The musicians needed new union cards. The dues of (white) Local 77, AFM were then $15 a year, over and above a stiff initiation fee that the members of Edward’s Collegians simply could not afford. Each musician received only $3 for a night’s work."

Frank Fairfax contacted the president and secretary of the American Federation of Musicians: Joe Weber and William J. Kerngood, respectively, and after much discussion, was authorized to organize a new local in Philadelphia. Fairfax was instructed to secure the names and addresses of at least 75 interested (black) musicians. Damon Fisher, James Shorter, Harry Monroe, F. E. Walker, and a few others assisted him in recruiting the musicians to make the required number for the charter.

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