Jackie McLean lectures at the University of Connecticut

In McLean's 1974 lecture, he discussed his research of African-American music. He confided that growing up all he learned about black people was from "Tarzan" movies and even after he started teaching music at the University of Hartford, he was amazed how often people told him jazz was not serious music. This repeated dismissal of a musical form dear to him lead to him looking at the ways black men affected classical music.

McLean brought along with him trumpeter and arranger William Skinner to play music while he presented a slide show to students detailing African art and African musical performances. He urged students to learn more about Blind Tom Wiggins and Scott Joplin and claimed that courses like the Black Experience in the Arts are a great way for students to learn about the contributions of black artists. He closed his lecture with recommendations of the books, "Music of Black Americans" by Eileen Southern (who also lectured to the class) and John A. Roger's "World's Great Men of Color."