A Great Act of Faith

Welcome, I am your host, Tara Jabbari. Who was she? Podcast will focus on the stories of women throughout history that were active in the Baha’i Faith. This season is about Hazel Scott, a talented musician and activist. 

Between 1950 to 1952, Hazel had nearly lost her reputation and her life. The Red Scare and the HUAC hearings put a toll on her career. The growing attention on her marriage, the loss of work in the United States, and the constant public attention caused Hazel to have a mental breakdown and attempt suicide. Thankfully by May 1952, Hazel was doing better through the best medical care her husband could find her. She was performing and showing the world that nothing could stop Hazel Scott and her immense talent. 

Paul E. Magliore, the President of Haiti invited Hazel to attend the 150th anniversary of Haiti’s independence. Hazel gladly accepted as she was an anti-colonialist and felt a kinship with the Haiti people. When years later, Trinidad, her birth country became a free country, her son remembered Hazel went screaming through the house, “We’re free! We’re free!” 

In 1955, Hazel wanted to go back to Paris and Adam encouraged the move but would not join her. They already were drifting apart from their marriage and now, they were physically apart. They hadn’t been happy for a while. Adam suggested an open marriage but it was not necessarily to save their marriage. He wanted to keep his family man image for his political look with the freedom of spending time with other women. Hazel did not agree to the proposal. She said, “I couldn’t face a marriage of convenience, especially if it was at my inconvenience.” 

Deeply unhappy with the state of her marriage, she decided faith would be the only thing that could help. In Adam’s memoir, he wrote of Hazel’s spiritual quest: “[T]here took place in her life one of the greatest acts of faith I have ever seen. One morning… Hazel went to the Notre Dame, got down on her knees in front of the altar, and vowed she would not move until God gave her strength. She stayed there until her knees actually became bloody. When she finally did rise to her feet, she had the power and strength and the faith never again to touch or desire a drop of alcohol. She became an exceptionally religious person.” 

In 1956, Hazel recorded Round Midnight. It would be one of her last recordings in America for years. She toured for the album including in Las Vegas which made her one of the first black performers to play the Vegas Strip. The scheduling was grueling, sometimes three or four performances in one evening. Then Paris called wanting her to perform at the Olympia Theater. 

With being tired of performing nonstop in America, she wanted the more relaxed, Parisian lifestyle. The public was also always prying into her marriage. There were so many rumors of Adam’s infidelity. Hazel would ignore reporters and the publics annoying questions of how she felt, “I owe the public my best on the stage and a certain moral fibre and character when I appear in public. But after that, as long as I am a lady, what I do is my business and my God’s.” 

In 1957, the couple decided to formally separate but they would not make it public knowledge. She had an opportunity in Paris and Adam encouraged her to go and stay there longer. They made arrangements so that their 10 year old son would spend equal time with each of them but not to disrupt his studies. She explained to Skipper, “(Your father and I) are still going to be the best of friends and I’ll still yell at him on the phone.”  

In her apartment of 80 Rue Miromesnil in the fashionable eighth arrondisment, she settled in and near her piano, she hung a black and white portrait of her mother Alma. She also toured all over Europe, North Africa and Near East then headed home to Paris. 

Eventually, she learned it was harder to find her footing in the Paris club scene and she started to think twice about her decision to move there. She visited Billie Holiday at the Mars Club one evening and burst into tears. Hazel shared, “While wondering where I was going and what I was doing, I began to cry. Billie stopped me, grabbed my arm and dragged me to the back room and slammed the door. (She said) ‘The next time you begin to feel like this, just remember that you’ve got Skipper and Lady only has a little Chihuahua and Lady’s making it. And another thing: never let them see you cry.’”

Her talk helped Hazel but only a little. Then Adam came to surprise her and tried to convince her to give their marriage another try. It started to work and they even thought about having another baby but ultimately, their fighting began. A close friend explained, “Adam knew how to push all of Hazel’s buttons.” His infidelity, their stubbornness  and independence, it was always a battle. For a second time, Hazel tried to take her own life with an overdose of pills. It was a more serious situation with paramedics having difficulty resuscitating her but she made it through. Hazel vowed to never sink this low again. She wrote a personal message for Ebony magazine about her experience in the fall of 1960, it read: 

“I learned a lot in Paris about people and about myself. One does not look into the face of death as I have, and come away worrying about pettiness and cattiness and gossip and conforming. It seems that every time I am near death, someone or something is asking me over and over, “How stupid can you get? How many changes will you need before you find out what’s important?” This last time, when I spent a month or so in bed, I got the message. I am not likely ever to forget it. Love is important. Love.” 

She knew her marriage was over. 

In the next episode, we will learn about how a curse is finally lifted, the rise of the civil rights movement and Hazel’s life in Europe.

You can also find more information on our Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest @whowasshe podcast. And please, rate and subscribe wherever you listen to this podcast. Who was she was produced, written and edited by me, Tara Jabbari. Script editor is Angela Musacchio. Original music was composed and performed by Sam Redd. Resource material includes two biographies on Hazel, one 

Written by Karen Chilton, published by The University of Michigan Press and written by Susan Engle published by The Baha'i Publishing Trust, U.S.