SOUTH BEND — In a tiny alcove, just off of the dining room, a half-repaired 1946 RCA Kit TV sits where the man of the house spent his time repairing televisions — one of two side gigs to his job at the Studebaker car plant.
His musical instruments sit below that, a coronet and tambourine. As a Black man, he normally wouldn’t have been allowed into the local musicians union. World War II gave him a break. White musicians were off to war, so unions opened their doors. But nightclubs didn’t want to book Black artists for too many…
