That article mentions a “negro orchestra” that performed at the College for Junior Prom, describing the concert as a “very novel feature, and as for jazz music, they ‘put it out.’” The band was delayed in their arrival by missing a train en route to the campus, but the overall reception to their performance seemed very positive. Throughout the next two decades, there are scattered mentions of Black performers who gave concerts, including Graham Jackson, the famous pianist and close friend of US President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Jackson performed at Clemson with his group, the Seminole Syncopators, for the Athletic Ball in 1931. This concert’s reception matched that of the earlier 1920 group, with The Tiger hailing it as a rousing success.

In 1939, Jimmie Lunceford, one of the biggest names of the swing era, performed at Clemson after an extensive series of negotiations. Lunceford and his band were such a hit that they were invited back for headlining performances in 1940 and a posthumous performance by his band in 1948. Lunceford’s 1939 performance marks the beginning of a trend that would continue until the early 1960s, wherein the CDA would invite more Black performers to campus, reaching bigger names in the industry, until just after desegregation, when declining profits and student complaints forced the organization to scale back its operations. Lunceford’s performance was also the result of an extensive negotiation process, with his marketing agents trying to convince the college to book him and his group, while the CDA expressed concerns about the students’ reaction to a Black group headlining a student dance. 

From the CDA’s reticence to hire Lunceford, who was a nationally prominent name at the time, it can be inferred that there are quite possibly other Black musical groups that tried to perform at Clemson but were turned down. That ended up being the case with Edward “Duke” Ellington. As early as 1938, his agents had been reaching out to the CDA, trying to get them to book him for a headlining performance; however, the CDA’s representatives shrugged off the requests, stating that the Duke was ostensibly too expensive for its budget. The CDA was indeed concerned with its bottom line—though they feared the effect inviting a Black performer might have on the student organization, not necessarily the performance’s cost itself. Eventually, the Duke did perform at Clemson, over a decade later in 1955. His performance was widely praised by white students at the time, but it foreshadowed the growing discontent among white students that would manifest itself later in 1963, when some began to complain about the profusion of Black artists that were being invited to headline CDA-sponsored events in the same year that Clemson was forced to accept its first Black students. Eventually, Ellington’s son would bring the orchestra back to Clemson in 1978 for a concert in September of that year, with far less advertisement and acclaim, partly due to the declining bottom line of the CDA and its decision to scale back from large dance events headlined by big bands.