Lila Stephan: The Beginnings of the Next Generation from 78 to 33 RPM
Lila Stephan: The Beginnings of the Next Generation from 78 to 33 rpm Lila Stephan, The Caravan 13 October 1957. Courtesy of Newpapers.com In 1952, the United States lifted its restriction on naturalized citizenship. Previous to this time, only those people classified as racially white had a path toward naturalized citizenship. Arab American music was four decades old and only a handful of the earliest Arab American musicians remained actively connected to the music industry. Historians of Arab immigration to the United States consider 1952 as a year within the second waves of Arab immigrants which spanned from 1944 to 1965. On 25 February 1952, three adolescents left Beirut en route to the United States. Although they arrived in New York, the oldest of the three, 15-year-old Suham, listed 1662 Washington Street in Boston as their future home. According to immigration documents, the youngest of the trio, Lila, was fourteen. There is no evidence that Lila expressed the slightest ...