Harry Herbert Pace (1884–1943) was an African American businessman, music publisher, and record executive best known as the founder of Black Swan Records, one of the first Black-owned and operated record companies in the United States. Born in Covington, Georgia, Pace graduated from Atlanta University in 1903 and later moved to Memphis, where he worked in banking and became involved in the insurance business.
Pace entered the music business through his partnership with W. C. Handy, forming the Pace & Handy Music Company in 1913. The firm published many of Handy’s compositions and became an important African American music-publishing company. Pace later moved to New York and established the Pace Phonograph Corporation in 1921, launching Black Swan Records.
Black Swan sought to record and promote African American performers across a wide range of styles, including blues, jazz, spirituals, classical music, and popular music. Fletcher Henderson served as recording manager, while William Grant Still worked as musical director. The label recorded artists including Ethel Waters, Alberta Hunter, Trixie Smith, and the Johnson brothers.
The company expanded and became the Black Swan Phonograph Company in 1923, but financial difficulties led to its collapse. Paramount Records acquired the Black Swan catalog in 1924. Pace subsequently left the music business and returned to insurance, founding the Pace Life Insurance Company in Chicago. He died in 1943.
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