Earl Carlton Barlow
Coronado Honor Student, Musical Prodigy, Athlete, Trailblazer. At age 19, Earl Barlow became the first African American member of the San Diego Symphony.
It was 1937. The Dust Bowl had just ravaged the Great Plains. Times were hard. Opportunities few. In a sharecropper shack in Woodville, Texas, 15-year-old Bernice Cruse was giving birth. The father, Burrel Barlow, Jr., was just 19. They named their son Earl Carlton Barlow.
Out of this dusty, ravaged era, a star emerged - one whose meteoric rise is what American dreams are made of - until he all but disappeared, then was found dead at 37.
Migration to California
Burrel had a high school education. Bernice had completed 6th grade. They married 3 years after Earl was born as the United States was about to be drawn into WWII and Burrel was required to register for military service.
Burrel was inducted and served in the Navy during the war. It’s not known where he was first stationed or if he was on any warfronts. In 1943, he was relocated to California. The San Diego County Directory of 1943 shows the family living on 30th Street.
“The Coronado Projects”
Earl was 9 or 10 years old, circa 1946-47, when his family moved to an apartment at the newly built Federal Housing Project in Coronado. The complex, operated by the Federal Housing Authority, was constructed at the end of WWII for enlisted and civilian employees of the Navy. It stood facing San Diego bay on the northeast side of Coronado where the Coronado Ferry Landing, Marriott Hotel, Bayside Apartment Complex and Sharp Coronado Hospital now stand.
It was a massive project: 93 buildings containing 744 apartment units. By 1953, some 3154 people lived there. They comprised 25-percent of Coronado's total population of 12,700 people. They were 25-percent of the students in Coronado schools, 25-percent of the customers in its shops, 25-percent of fellow citizens in the community.
Not everyone in town was comfortable with those facts. “The Coronado Projects” were controversial and would eventually put the city and the Navy at odds… but for Earl, like so many others, the projects were home.
A Musical Prodigy
From an early age, Earl Barlow seemed destined for big things. After graduating from Coronado Junior High in 1951, he was heralded in the newspapers as one of only fourteen Coronado High School freshman admitted to the prestigious National Honor Society. While Earl was an academic standout, his musical talents would quickly take center stage.
In 1952, the papers noted that Earl played music at a fashion show. In 1953, a newspaper photo of Earl credited him with providing piano for the Coronado Players at the Strand Theater.
By his senior year, Earl and a fellow classmate became the first-ever CHS students to make the All County and All State Bands. Earl performed at his own 1955 Coronado High School graduation ceremony, playing Chopin's Revolutionary Étude. As a result of his talents, he was awarded numerous scholarships, one coming from the Prince Hall Freemason Lodge, cofounded by Coronado Black pioneers Gus Thompson and Edmund Marshall in 1903.
In addition to being a top student and musical prodigy, Earl played on the Varsity Basketball team and was a star track athlete, running the 880 yard run in 2:04.
Under the Radar
The recently released data from the U.S. Census of 1950 confirms that Earl and his parents lived in the Federal Housing Project, along with another 416 African Americans. While the Barlow family was listed in the County Directory as living in Coronado in 1947 and 1948, all references to them disappear from the County Directory until 1956, when they reappear as living again in San Diego. The Barlows were certainly living in Coronado until Earl's graduation from high school in 1955, but likely kept their presence in the government housing “under the radar.”
Coronado political and business leaders, led by then-Mayor Lloyd Harmon, saw a financial bonanza if they could convince the Navy to deed the property to the city. After several years of contentious negotiations, the city prevailed - but only after promising that the buildings would never be demolished as long as Navy housing was needed.
Four years later, in 1957, Coronado reneged on its agreement with the Navy and began demolishing the housing complex despite efforts by some segments of the community to preserve the housing. After the Navy intervened and allowed Navy personnel to attend a raucous City Council meeting and protest, the City paused the demolition. Many of the buildings were allowed to remain into the 1960s, when they were eventually demolished.
Earl Makes History
After graduating from Coronado High, Earl enrolled at San Diego State College (now SDSU) and joined the Phi Mu Alpha music fraternity. Earl was accomplished on the piano, organ and drums, but the string bass was now taking precedence in his musical life.
At the age of 19, during his first year of college, Earl Barlow made history, becoming the first African American member of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra as a bassist.
Later that same year, Earl was awarded another scholarship: $2000 from Dr. Jack Kimbrough, president of The San Diego Urban League and arguably the most influential civil rights leader in San Diego during the Civil Rights era. According to the newspaper, the scholarship was to help Earl enroll at a premier music school such as Julliard.
Earl played a solo concert that same year at Lincoln High School, performing piano compositions by Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Rachmaninoff and Shubert, plus contemporary pieces by Debussy, Gershwin, and Dohnányi.
Despite his remarkable talents and groundbreaking achievements, Earl never made it to Juilliard or any other school of music. He completed his second year at San Diego State College in 1957, but was not listed as a student in the years that followed although he was pictured in the San Diego State College orchestra yearbooks of 1959 and 1960.
Vietnam War
On January 4th, 1960, Earl joined the Army and was shipped off to Vietnam. He served as a Private First Class in the early stages of the war and was discharged in April 1961. That’s when records about Earl’s life just seem to go blank.
Its as if Earl Barlow just disappeared after returning from the war.
There was no more news of performances or appearances by a musical genius whose numerous talents were remarkable.
There was only a record thirteen years later of his untimely death in 1974.
Earl had been living in Los Angeles when he passed away.
He was just 37 years old.
To this day, the cause of Earl’s untimely death remains unknown.
Footnote: Bernice Barlow passed away at age 90. she was still living in Los
Angeles. Burrel had moved to San Francisco in the 1980s and passed away in 2014 at age 96.
Earl Carlton Barlow
Thank you Dennis for sharing that information. I have made edits to reflect this information you have shared.
My family lived in the housing project from 1959 to 1965. My father was Navy Enlisted. In those days all my friends were Navy family members and were black, white, Philippine, Guamanian and Hispanic. The elementary students went to Glorietta Elementary. Regardless of race or ethnic background kids from the project were not treated well by the kids living in the rest of the city. Even after my Dad retired and bought a house in town, I never felt fully accepted in Coronado.