Kansas City's champion cakewalker, Doc Brown.

I'm Galen Wilkes, a longtime advocate for the music and history of ragtime music. As a humanitarian aspect to this, I have assisted with the other projects to raise memorials on the unmarked graves of ragtime composers. This time it is a renowned dancer to the music of early ragtime, William Henry Joseph Cutter Brown, better known to all as "Doc Brown." I have organized a committee to do this. Like some of the other personalities of the ragtime world, Doc lies in an unmarked grave, since 1905. I want to do something about it so this time I am leading the effort. Doc was a known personality around Kansas City in the late 19th century and early 20th. He competed in many cakewalk contests which he won, including the World's Championship at Madison Square Garden in 1893. He is often referred to as "the Champion Cakewalker of the World". Doc was one of the earliest black performers to be captured on movie film. Photographer and filmmaker George Curtiss filmed Doc cakewalking through the streets of Kansas City in 1897. By the time that Curtiss' films were restored, some 86 years later, the scene of Doc had decomposed. A tragedy in our American music and dance heritage. In 1899 Doc was celebrated in composer Charles Johnson's Doc Brown's Cake Walk. When Doc died in February of 1905 a collection had to be taken up for his burial. There has never been a headstone. A dedication ceremony will be announced in the future.