Gussie Davis

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Gussie Lord Davis (1863 - 1899) was an African-American songwriter from Cincinnati, Ohio. Davis was one of America's earliest successful African-Americans, having been the first Black songwriter to acquire fame on Tin Pan Alley as a composer of minstrels.

Some of his songs include:

We Sat Beneath the Maple On The Hill
In The Baggage Coach Ahead
Footprints In The Snow
My Creole Sue
She Waited at the Altar in Vain

Perhaps his most notable song, Irene, Good Night (1886), entered the folk song repertoire albeit significantly altered as Goodnight, Irene in Negro Folk Songs as Sung by Leadbelly (1936), edited by John Lomax and Alan Lomax.