Lions Clubs in Virginia hold annual Music Scholarship Contests.  If you are reading this and are not a Virginia Lions club, you too might be interested in starting such a program in your state.  See the item at the end of this section for more information. If you are interested in participating please contact :LionEllen Turman for information

2004-2005 Schedule of events:

August/September 2004: District Bland chairmen from each of Virginia's six districts meet to conduct business and determine any rule changes required.  They wlll also recommend award level increases if appropriate which must be approved by the Council of Governors.
September 2004: Bland information packets are distributed to clubs interested in conducting a contest.  Club president name a Bland chairman and notify District Chairman who that Lion is.  Make sure that there is a Bland item in your budget.
All winter: Clubs holding contest make preparations.  Arrange for venue, piano, contact schools, music teachers, identify judges etc.  If your club is not holding a contest, schedule a presentation by the district Bland chairman to learn more about how to do it.
February 2005: Individual Lions Clubs hold local contests.  Try to keep contestants at about eight vocalists and eight instrumentalist.  Refer excess applicants to other clubs.   Result: one vocal and one instrumental first place winner to proceed to Zone/Region contest.  Clubs may award cash, bonds, trophies, or other prizes.  All entrants receive certificates
March 2005 :Region or Zone Chairmen conduct Region or Zone contest where Club winners compete to move up to next level.  (Note if only one club in a zone has a contest, that club must participate in a Region contest.  Club winners may not proceed directly to the District level)
April 2005: District Contest where first place vocalists and instrumentalists from region/zone contests compete to determine who represents the district at the state level.
May 2005: State contest held at the State Convention.   First place vocalist and first place instrumentalists from each of the six districts in the state compete for scholarship awards.  2000 awards were: First place in each category $2000 scholarship; second place $1,500 scholarship; Third place $1,000 scholarship.  Fourth, fifth and sixth place winners each receive a check for $600.  Attendance at this event is generally in excess of 800 Lions and family.  It is also open to the general public.

Below is some background on why we call it the Bland Contest.
"Carry Me Back to Ole Virginny"
By James A. Bland

"Carry Me Back to Ole Virginny" was written by James A. Bland. This is special music to the Lions in Virginia, and was our state song until retired several years ago.  It remains our "emeritus" state song. The Lions Clubs of Virginia sponsor a music scholarship contest for school students at the high school and lower level.  It is  called the "Bland Contest" in honor of James Bland.  In District 24-D more than twenty clubs participate in these contests.  
The Annual Bland Music Scholarships Program was established in 1948 to assist and promote cultural and educational opportunities for the musically talented youth of Virginia. The program consists of elimination contests starting at club level and continuing through ""State Final Contest."" The program is open to any boy or girl, vocalist or instrumentalist, properly sponsored by a Virginia Lions Club. Any resident of Virginia (or within the club jurisdiction) and attending elementary, junior, or senior high school is eligible to participate.
    Over $25,000 is awarded yearly in state, regional, district, and local scholarships and cash awards. The total amount awarded can vary from year to year. To obtain information on the awards or to participate in the Bland Contest, please contact the Lion's Club in your area.

A SHORT HISTORY OF JAMES A. BLAND

James A. "Jimmy" Bland, the greatest Black writer of American Folk Song composed over seven hundred songs, a number of which were outright contributions to Americana.
He was born October 12, 1854, at Flushing, Long Island, N.Y., a free American, one of eight children. His family was from Charleston, South Carolina. His father, Allan Bland, an alumnus of Wilberforce University, was one of the first College Trained Blacks. He attended night classes and received his law degree from Howard University, and was the first Black man to be appointed examiner in the United States Patent Office.
Jimmy Bland, as a boy 12 years old and living in Philadelphia, saw an old black man playing a Banjo and singing Black Spirituals. Jimmy was so elated over this that he was determined to have his own Banjo. So he built a crude imitation with old bailing wire for strings, but a larger kid picked a fight with him and tore it up. His father bought Jimmy an eight-dollar Banjo. Soon thereafter the family moved to Washington D.C.. Having taught himself to play exceptionally well, Jimmy earned spending money by playing and singing in the streets. By the time he was fourteen he had become professional and was entertaining in hotels, restaurants and for private parties. At fifteen, he started composing some short pieces of his own, but did not record any of them.
He finished high school in Washington and strummed and sang his way partly through Howard University. At seventeen, he tried to put on a musical show at Howard and was banned from the University. While at Howard University, he met a girl, Mannie Friend, who was destined to help shape his future life. Then he met Professor White, an old black man with snow white hair, who recognized Bland's God Given musical talents and began teaching him how to write songs and music. One night while playing and singing in Lafayette Park to his girl friend Mannie, Mr. John Ford, owner of the Ford Theater, saw him and offered to introduce Jimmy to George Primrose, one of the great minstrel men of the time.
The introduction to Primrose was delayed by a trip to Mannie's birthplace in Tidewater, Virginia, which was on Judge White's plantation on the James River, between Charles City and Williamsburg. Here, while James Bland and Mannie Friend were sitting on the bank of the James River, Jimmy composed "Carry Me Back to Ole Virginny." Mannie wrote the words down for him as he played and sang it. On returning to Washington, Mr. John Ford introduced Jimmy Bland to George Primrose of Primrose and West. With his one song "Carry Me Back To Ole Virginny," Jimmy, now age 19 made a big hit with Primrose and Billy West and within a week they opened their new show in Baltimore.
Mr. Tom Harvey, owner of the then famous Harvey's Restaurant in Washington, D.C., had Jimmy play and sing his composition "In The Evening By The Moonlight" for the Canvas Back Club, now the Gridiron Club, that met at his restaurant. President Cleveland and General Robert E. Lee were both member and present for the affair. Bland, realizing the limitations of the four-stringed Banjo, added a fifth string to the instrument and it became known as the Bland Banjo.
In his middle twenties, Jimmy worked the minstrel shows and eventually joined Colonel Jack Harvey's minstrel troupe and toured the United States. In 1881, Bland's salary was $10,000.00 a year; the highest ever paid a minstrel man. Then Bland and Harvey's minstrel went to Europe and became a sensation overnight. Jimmy gave a command performance at Buckingham Palace before Queen Victoria and the Prince of Wales.
When Harvey's show came back to the States, Bland stayed in London. During the twenty years he lived abroad, he toured the continent earning $12,000.00 a year. Up to this time, only three American composers had made a dent in the German music conscience, John Philip Sousa, James A. Bland and Stephen Foster. In 1901, he returned from Europe, penniless and broke, and went back to Washington, D.C.
While abroad he had lived high and dressed well, probably why he and his money soon parted company. Aided by friends, he tried to compose but the old spirit was gone. Eventually, he did compose and write lyric for a musical production called "The Sporting Girl" which had 18 songs in it. After having sold the work for only $250.00, he gave up and returned to Philadelphia, broke and in very poor health.
Bland died of tuberculosis on May 6,1911. He was buried in Merion Cemetery near Philadelphia, with not even a death notice in the newspaper to mark his passing. The once handsome, happy-go-lucky, good natured, slight of build black man, with wavy hair, light complexion, and who was often called, "The Worlds Greatest Minstrel Man", passed into oblivion. Bland's body remained obscure in the little Merion Cemetery covered with weeds until 1939, when the Lions of Virginia aided by Dr. J. Francis Cooke, editor of Etude Magazine, found his unmarked grave.

Virginia Lions rededicated a new plaque in 1997

At the International Convention in Philadelphia in 1997, Virginia Lions gathered at the grave site of James Bland and installed a new plaque.  Several hundred Virginia Lions joined in singing our beloved song.

Merion Cemetery Location and Directions

The entrance to the Merion Cemetery is at the corner of Rock Hill Road and Bryn Mawr Avenue in Bala Cynwyd, PA, about 2 miles from the Belmont exit of Interstate 76, and about 10 miles from Center City Philadelphia. From I 76, turn south onto Belmont (Should you mistakenly go north, you would be on Green Street going across a bridge.). At the second traffic light, turn right onto Rock Hill Road. Rock Hill curves for about 3/4 of a mile and seems to end at a T-intersection with a traffic light. Turn left at the light but be ready to make another right rather quickly. Follow Rock Hill Road again, paralleling the cemetery until you reach the intersection with Bryn Mawr Avenue. The cemetery entrance is on your right, and there is a memorial plaque at the gate giving some information on James Bland. To get to the gravesite, take the fork left once you enter the cemetery. It is a large stone about 200 feet down the road on your left.
A Special Thanks to Joe Lex, MD.  Anyone wishing to visit the burial site of James Bland may contact Doctor Joe Lex at joelex@home.com. Doctor Joe Lex provided the excellent directions to the cemetery. He resides close to the Merion Cemetery and has offered to supply any additional information, if required.