DOCSLIB.ORG

262671234.Pdf

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
262671234.Pdf Out of Sight Lynn Abbott and Doug Seroff University Press of Mississippi / Jackson OutOut ofofOut of Sight Sight Sight The Rise of African American Popular Music – American Made Music Series Advisory Board David Evans, General Editor Barry Jean Ancelet Edward A. Berlin Joyce J. Bolden Rob Bowman Susan C. Cook Curtis Ellison William Ferris Michael Harris John Edward Hasse Kip Lornell Frank McArthur W. K. McNeil Bill Malone Eddie S. Meadows Manuel H. Peña David Sanjek Wayne D. Shirley Robert Walser Charles Wolfe www.upress.state.ms.us Copyright © 2002 by University Press of Mississippi All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 4 3 2 ϱ Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Abbott, Lynn, 1946– Out of Sight: the rise of African American popular music, 1889–1895 / Lynn Abbott and Doug Seroff. p. cm. — (American made music series) Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 1-57806-499-6 (cloth: alk. paper) 1. African Americans—Music—Hisory and criticism. 2. Popular music—United States—To 1901—History and criticism. I. Seroff, Doug. II. Title. III. Series ML3479 .A2 2003 781.64Ј089Ј96073—dc21 2002007819 British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data available Contents Acknowledgments ϳ Introduction ϳ Chapter 1. 1889 • Frederick J. Loudin’s Fisk Jubilee Singers and Their Australasian Auditors, 1886–1889 ϳ 3 • “Same”—The Maori and the Fisk Jubilee Singers ϳ 12 • Australasian Music Appreciation ϳ 13 • Minstrelsy and Loudin’s Fisk Jubilee Singers ϳ 19 • The Slippery Slope of Variety and Comedy ϳ 21 • Mean Judge Williams ϳ 24 • A “Black Patti” for the Ages: The Tennessee Jubilee Singers and Matilda Sissieretta Jones, 1889–1891 ϳ 27 • Other “Colored Pattis” and “Queens of Song,” 1889 ϳ 40 • Other Jubilee Singers, 1889 ϳ 42 • Rev. Marshall W. Taylor ϳ 45 • Selected, Annotated Chronology of Music-Related Citations, 1889 ϳ 47 • The Minstrel Profession ϳ 60 • Charles B. Hicks Abroad, 1889–1895 ϳ 60 • McCabe and Young’s Minstrels, 1889–1892 ϳ 65 Contents Chapter 2. 1890 Chapter 4. 1892 • Loudin’s Fisk Jubilee Singers Come Home ϳ 73 • Cake Walks in Context ϳ 205 • Jubilee Singers on the Home Front, 1890 ϳ 86 • Toward a Black National Anthem: “John • “A Woman with a Mission”: Madame Marie Brown’s Body” ϳ 211 Selika, 1890 ϳ 89 • “Colored Pattis” and “Queens of Song,” • Selected, Annotated Chronology of Music- 1892 ϳ 214 Related Citations, 1890 ϳ 91 • Lizzie Pugh Dugan: “God Never Gave a Human • African American Minstrel Companies in the a More Beautiful Voice” ϳ 218 South ϳ 105 • Selected, Annotated Chronology of Music- • Richards and Pringle’s Original Georgia Min- Related Citations, 1892 ϳ 220 strels and Billy Kersands, 1889–1895 ϳ 106 • Barber-Musicians ϳ 244 • Cleveland’s Colored Minstrels, Season of • Mandolin Clubs ϳ 247 1890–1891 ϳ 110 • W. P. Dabney ϳ 251 • Mahara’s Minstrels, 1892–1895 ϳ 115 • “Monarchs of the Light Guitar” ϳ 254 • The Legend of Orpheus McAdoo, • “A Model of Community Service”: John W. 1890–1900 ϳ 119 Johnson and the Detroit City Band ϳ 255 • The Excelsior Reed and Brass Band of Chapter 3. 1891 Cleveland, Ohio ϳ 262 • Benjamin L. Shook: A Community-Based New Departures in African American • Musician ϳ 265 Minstrelsy ϳ 145 • William Foote’s Afro-American Specialty Company ϳ 146 Chapter 5. 1893 • Sam T. Jack’s Creole Burlesque Company ϳ 151 • Compromises in Jubilee Singing: Thearle’s • The Dvorák Statement—“As Great as a Nashville Students, Wright’s Nashville Beethoven Theme” ϳ 273 Students, and the Canadian Jubilee • Black Music in the White City: African Ameri- Singers ϳ 170 cans and the 1893 World’s Columbian • The Nashville Students ϳ 170 Exposition ϳ 276 • The Canadian Jubilee Singers ϳ 176 • Colored Folks Day ϳ 279 • Selected, Annotated Chronology of Music- • The Midway Plaisance and the Dahomean Related Citations, 1891 ϳ 177 Village ϳ 284 • The Texarkana Minstrel Company and the • Conclusion ϳ 294 Jefferson Davis Monument Fund: “The • Selected, Annotated Chronology of Music- Thing Is Unnatural” ϳ 198 Related Citations, 1893 ϳ 296 • Two Southern Brass Bands in New York City: • “Folk-Lore and Ethnology,”“Coonjine” and Becker’s Brass Band from Kentucky and the “Hully-Gully” ϳ 308 Onward Brass Band from Louisiana ϳ 200 • The “African Prince” Phenomenon, • “Rags” in Tennesseetown, 1891 ϳ 201 1891–1895 ϳ 312 Contents • Prof. Tobe Brown: “Terpsichorean • The Black Patti Troubadours and Madame Soiree” ϳ 315 C. C. Smith, “the Patti of Topeka” ϳ 438 • Blind Boone: “Clear out of Sight” ϳ 318 • The Whitman Sisters ϳ 440 • “A Little ‘Ragging’”: The Emergence of Ragtime in the Land of John Brown ϳ 443 Chapter 6. 1894 • Preserving the Spiritual Legacy: The Last Days ϳ • “Black and White” Minstrelsy ϳ 325 of Frederick J. Loudin 455 • “Darkest America”: Al G. Field’s Real Negro Minstrels ϳ 331 Appendix 1: Repertoire of the Tennessee Jubilee ϳ • Selected, Annotated Chronology of Music- Singers, 1888–1889 463 Related Citations, 1894 ϳ 335 Appendix 2: Personnel Listings of Orpheus M. A Tour of Conquest and Melody: Prof. W. H. McAdoo’s and M. B. Curtis’s Troupes in • ϳ Councill and the Alabama State Normal Australia, 1899–1900 463 School Quartette ϳ 351 Appendix 3: Repertoire of McAdoo’s Virginia That Barbershop Chord ϳ 357 Concert Company and Jubilee Singers, • ϳ • Quartets to the Fore: The South Before the War 1892–1893 464 Company and Its Plantation Pretenders, Appendix 4: Roster of the Detroit City Band, ϳ 1892–1895 ϳ 360 1891–1892 465 ϳ A Low and Narrow Pathway of Opportunity in Notes 467 • ϳ the Circus Sideshow “Colored Annex,” Index 485 1891–1895 ϳ 373 • Dime Museums ϳ 380 Chapter 7. 1895 • “Black America” ϳ 391 • Brass Bands in Kansas ϳ 395 • “Kid Bands” in Kansas: The John Brown Juve- nile Band and N. Clark Smith’s Pickaninny Band ϳ 403 • “In Old Kentucky” ϳ 406 • “The Fake and His Orphans”: Sherwood’s Youth Missionary Band, 1889–1895 ϳ 409 • Selected, Annotated Chronology of Music- Related Citations, 1895 ϳ 419 • From the Criterion Quartet to “In Old Ten- nessee”: The Rise of Ernest Hogan, 1889–1895 ϳ 433 This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgments In the early 1980s, when we began our survey Fisk Jubilee Singers. Thanks particularly to Spe- of African American newspapers on microfilm, cial Collections Librarian Beth Madison Howse we were motivated by a common interest in the for many years of assistance and kindness. early evolution of black vocal harmony singing. The Hogan Jazz Archive at Tulane University We gradually began to appreciate the broader in New Orleans also threw open its doors to us. context. In 1989 we inaugurated a series of five We are grateful for our long-term working rela- essays which appeared in 78 Quarterly under tionship with curator Dr. Bruce Boyd Raeburn the title “100 Years from Today.” Our intent was and his staff, especially Mrs. Alma Freeman, to bring to light and comment on the music- who negotiated an endless river of requests on related citations we were discovering in 1890s our behalf. Thanks as well to the staff of Tulane’s newspapers. Those essays represent the rough Howard Tilton Memorial Library, especially in beginnings of the book at hand. the Music, Microforms, and Interlibrary Loan Special thanks to 78 Quarterly editor Pete divisions; and to the Amistad Research Center, Whelan for his early support and continued which is also located on the Tulane campus. cooperation; and to Ray Funk, who was in on We thank the staff of the Center for Popular our early black newspaper research and who Music at Middle Tennessee State University in remains a valued friend and colleague. Murfreesboro, especially Bruce Nemerov, for Thanks to Dr. David Evans for friendship, assistance and encouragement. The staff of the advice, and a critical reading of the manuscript Country Music Foundation Library in Nashville, which inspired many significant improvements. specifically Bob Pinson, Ronnie Pugh, and Thanks to Wayne D. Shirley for an equally Alan Stoker, were also helpful over many years. illuminating review of the manuscript and for Thanks as well to the Nashville Public Library; responding to our many requests for copies of the New Orleans Public Library, especially the sheet music and copyright deposits held by the staff of the Louisiana Division; the Earl K. Long Library of Congress. Library of the University of New Orleans, especi- Thanks to Chris Ware for the book jacket art ally Interlibrary Loan librarian Evelyn Chandler; and for his enthusiastic support of our work. and the Virginia State Library in Richmond, We are grateful to the Fisk University Library Virginia. in Nashville for the use of resources and facilities, Thanks are due to the Portage County His- most notably their extraordinary collection of torical Society Museum in Ohio, which houses African American newspapers on microfilm and many personal effects of Frederick and Harriet their incredible body of materials relating to the Loudin; the Detroit Public Library, which Acknowledgments houses the E. Azalia Hackley Collection, which Settlers Museum in Dunedin; the National contains the invaluable Leota Henson Turner Library of Australia, Canberra, ACT; the Mitchell scrapbooks; Deborah W. Walk at the John & Library (State Library of NSW), Sydney; and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, the Latrobe Library (State Library of Victoria). Florida; the Alabama A&M University Library, Thanks also to Tony Backhouse in Sydney for and the Scarritt-Bennett Library in Nashville. friendship and facilitation; also to Chris Bourke Thanks to Rob Bird for sharing the results in New Zealand and Rick Milne in Melbourne. of his research on the 1870s New York Clipper; Dr.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • JPMS3202 05 Marshall 50..62
    WAYNE MARSHALL Berklee College of Music Email: [email protected] Ragtime Country Rhythmically Recovering Country’s Black Heritage ABSTRACT In 1955, Elvis Presley and Ray Charles each stormed the pop charts with songs employing the same propulsive rhythm. Both would soon be hailed as rock ’n ’roll stars, but today the two songs would likely be described as quintessential examples, respectively, of rockabilly and soul. While seeming by the mid-50s to issue from different cultural universes mapping neatly onto Jim Crow apartheid, their parallel polyrhythms point to a revealing common root: ragtime. Coming to prominence via Maple Leaf Rag (1899) and other ragtime best-sellers, the rhythm in question is exceedingly rare in the Caribbean compared to variations on its triple-duple cousins, such as the Cuban clave. Instead, it offers a distinctive, U.S.-based instantiation of Afrodiasporic aesthetics—one which, for all its remarkable presence across myriad music scenes and eras, has received little attention as an African-American “rhythmic key” that has proven utterly key to the history of American popular music, not least for the sound and story of country. Tracing this particular rhythm reveals how musical figures once clearly heard and marketed as African-American inventions have been absorbed by, foregrounded in, and whitened by country music while they persist in myriad forms of black music in the century since ragtime reigned. KEYWORDS race and ethnic studies, popular music, music history In , Elvis Presley and Ray Charles each stormed the pop charts with songs employing the same propulsive rhythm. Both would soon be hailed as rock ’n’ roll stars, but today the two songs would likely be described as quintessential examples, respectively, of rockabilly and soul.
    [Show full text]
  • Building Networks: Cooperation and Communication Among African Americans in the Urban Midwest, 1860-1910
    Building Networks: Cooperation and Communication Among African Americans in the Urban Midwest, 1860-1910 Jack S. Blocker Jr.* In the dramatic narrative of African-American history, the story of the post-Emancipation years begins in the rural South, where the rights won through postwar constitutional amendments gradually yield to the overwhelming forces of segregation and disfranchisement. During the First World War, the scene shifts to the metropolitan North, where many members of the rapidly growing southern-born migrant population develop a new, militant consciousness. Behind this primary narrative, however, lies another story. An earlier, smaller migration flow from South to North had already established the institutional and cultural foundations for the emergence of a national racial consciousness in postbellum America. Much of this crucial work took place in small and mid-size towns and cities. Some interpreters have seen the creation of a national racial consciousness as a natural and normal product of African heritage. This view, however, neglects the diverse origins and experiences of African Americans during the slavery years. “Alternatively,”writes historian Harold Forsythe, “we should consider that a distinctive national community developed from local roots during emancipation. Local associations of freedpeople, organized in families, neighborhood groupings, churches, [and] benevolent and fraternal orders, slowly developed into regional, statewide, and ultimately national consociations. This process of unification involved not only consciousness, but [also] institutional and power connections. It matured between 1909 and about 1925.”’The process of community-building can be seen clearly in the three states of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, which I call the Lower Midwest. On the eve of the Civil War, about 56,000 African Americans lived in the Lower Midwest.
    [Show full text]
  • The Supreme Court, Segregation Legislation, and the African American Press, 1877-1920
    University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 12-2007 Slipping Backwards: The Supreme Court, Segregation Legislation, and the African American Press, 1877-1920 Kathryn St.Clair Ellis University of Tennessee - Knoxville Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss Part of the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Ellis, Kathryn St.Clair, "Slipping Backwards: The Supreme Court, Segregation Legislation, and the African American Press, 1877-1920. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2007. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/160 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Kathryn St.Clair Ellis entitled "Slipping Backwards: The Supreme Court, Segregation Legislation, and the African American Press, 1877-1920." I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in History. W. Bruce Wheeler, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Ernest Freeberg, Stephen V. Ash,
    [Show full text]
  • Finding and Using African American Newspapers
    Finding and Using African American Newspapers Timothy N. Pinnick [email protected] http://blackcoalminerheritage.net/ INTRODUCTION African American researchers will find black newspapers an extremely valuable part of their search strategy. Although mainstream newspapers should always be consulted, African American newspapers will provide nuggets of information that can be found nowhere else. Although the first African American newspaper was established in 1827, it is in the post Civil War period that the black press experienced tremendous growth. Hundreds of newspapers appeared to quench the thirst for knowledge in the newly freed slaves, and to provide an accurate and positive image of the race. Clint C. Wilson took the incomplete manuscript of the foremost historian of the African American press, Armistead Pride and produced A History of the Black Press in 1997. It is a great source of information on black newspapers. Another worthwhile source can be found online at the public television website of PBS. They produced the documentary film, “The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords” in 1999, and their website is rich in reference material. http://www.pbs.org/blackpress/index.html VALUE OF BLACK NEWSPAPERS Aside from the most obvious benefit of locating obituaries, researchers can discover: an exact or nearly exact event date (birth, death, or marriage) of an ancestor, therefore enhancing the odds of a successful outcome when the eventual request for the vital record is made. Remember, some places will only search a short span of years in their index, and charge you whether they find the record or not. additional information on the event that will not be found on the vital record.
    [Show full text]
  • Passing for Black: Coon Songs and the Performance of Race Patricia R
    Ursinus College Digital Commons @ Ursinus College English Faculty Publications English Department 6-9-2010 Passing for Black: Coon Songs and the Performance of Race Patricia R. Schroeder Ursinus College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/english_fac Part of the African American Studies Commons, American Studies Commons, Ethnomusicology Commons, Music Performance Commons, Other Theatre and Performance Studies Commons, Performance Studies Commons, and the United States History Commons Click here to let us know how access to this document benefits oy u. Recommended Citation Schroeder, Patricia R., "Passing for Black: Coon Songs and the Performance of Race" (2010). English Faculty Publications. 4. https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/english_fac/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the English Department at Digital Commons @ Ursinus College. It has been accepted for inclusion in English Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Ursinus College. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 1 Passing for Black: Coon Songs and the Performance of Race Until recently, scholars exploring blackface minstrelsy or the accompanying “coon song craze” of the 1890s have felt the need to apologize, either for the demeaning stereotypes of African Americans embedded in the art forms or for their own interest in studying the phenomena. Robert Toll, one of the first critics to examine minstrelsy seriously, was so appalled by its inherent racism that he focused his 1974 work primarily on debunking the stereotypes; Sam Dennison, another pioneer, did likewise with coon songs. Richard Martin and David Wondrich claim of minstrelsy that “the roots of every strain of American music—ragtime, jazz, the blues, country music, soul, rock and roll, even hip-hop—reach down through its reeking soil” (5).
    [Show full text]
  • Chronology and Itinerary of the Career of J. Tim Brymn Materials for a Biography Peter M
    University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Faculty Publications: School of Music Music, School of 8-26-2016 Chronology and Itinerary of the Career of J. Tim Brymn Materials for a Biography Peter M. Lefferts University of Nebraska-Lincoln, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/musicfacpub Part of the African American Studies Commons, American Popular Culture Commons, and the Music Commons Lefferts, Peter M., "Chronology and Itinerary of the Career of J. Tim Brymn Materials for a Biography" (2016). Faculty Publications: School of Music. 64. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/musicfacpub/64 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Music, School of at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications: School of Music by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. 1 08/26/2016 Chronology and Itinerary of the Career of J. Tim Brymn Materials for a Biography Peter M. Lefferts University of Nebraska-Lincoln This document is one in a series---"Chronology and Itinerary of the Career of"---devoted to a small number of African American musicians active ca. 1900-1950. They are fallout from my work on a pair of essays, "US Army Black Regimental Bands and The Appointments of Their First Black Bandmasters" (2013) and "Black US Army Bands and Their Bandmasters in World War I" (2012/2016). In all cases I have put into some kind of order a number of biographical research notes, principally drawing upon newspaper and genealogy databases. None of them is any kind of finished, polished document; all represent work in progress, complete with missing data and the occasional typographical error.
    [Show full text]
  • Aunt Jemima Explained: the Old South, the Absent Mistress, and the Slave in a Box Maurice M
    $XQW-HPLPD([SODLQHG7KH2OG6RXWKWKH$EVHQW0LVWUHVV DQGWKH6ODYHLQD%R[ Maurice M. Manring Southern Cultures, Volume 2, Number 1, Fall 1995, pp. 19-44 (Article) Published by The University of North Carolina Press DOI: 10.1353/scu.1995.0059 For additional information about this article http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/scu/summary/v002/2.1.manring.html Access provided by Florida State University Libraries (8 Aug 2014 05:58 GMT) Aunt Jemima Explained: The Old South, the Absent Mistress, and the Slave in a Box Maurice M. Manring Before ...our joy at the demise of Aunt Jemima and Uncle Tom approaches the indecent, we had better ask whence they sprang, how they lived? Into what limbo have they vanished? —James Baldwin1 Peering out from every supermarket's shelves, between the Pop-Tarts and maple syrup, is a smiling riddle. Aunt Jemima brand pancake mix has been a part of American life for more than a century now, an overwhelmingly popular choice of consumers. The woman on the box has undergone numerous makeovers, but she remains the same in important ways, a symbol of some unspoken relationship among black servant women, the kitchen, and good food. This symbol remains too strong a merchandising tool for its owners, the Quaker Oats Company, to give up. Aunt Jemima's story should interest us for a number of reasons. She might have been the first walking, talking trademark, and the product she pitches was among the first of a wave of supposedly labor-saving products at the turn of the century. But the reasons that a nineteenth-century mammy still decorates the front of a box of ready-mix batter in the 1990s seem elusive.
    [Show full text]
  • American Spiritual Program Fall 2009
    Saturday, September 26, 2009 • 7:30 p.m. Asbury United Methodist Church • 1401 Camden Avenue, Salisbury Comprised of some of the finest voices in the world, the internationally acclaimed ensemble offers stirring renditions of Negro spirituals, Broadway songs and other music influenced by the spiritual. This concert is sponsored by The Peter and Judy Jackson Music Performance Fund;SU President Janet Dudley-Eshbach; Provost and Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs Diane Allen; Dean Maarten Pereboom, Charles R. and Martha N. Fulton School of Liberal Arts; Dean Dennis Pataniczek, Samuel W. and Marilyn C. Seidel School of Education and Professional Studies; the SU Foundation, Inc.; and the Salisbury Wicomico Arts Council. THE AMERICAN SPIRITUAL ENSEMBLE EVERETT MCCORVEY , F OUNDER AND MUSIC DIRECTOR www.americanspiritualensemble.com PROGRAM THE SPIRITUAL Walk Together, Children ..........................................................................................arr. William Henry Smith Jacob’s Ladder ..........................................................................................................arr. Harry Robert Wilson Angelique Clay, Soprano Soloist Plenty Good Room ..................................................................................................arr. William Henry Smith Go Down, Moses ............................................................................................................arr. Harry T. Burleigh Frederick Jackson, Bass-Baritone Is There Anybody Here? ....................................................................................................arr.
    [Show full text]
  • JUMPING SHIP: the DECLINE of BLACK REPUBLICANISM in the ERA of THEODORE ROOSEVELT, 1901—1908 a Thesis Presented to the Graduat
    JUMPING SHIP: THE DECLINE OF BLACK REPUBLICANISM IN THE ERA OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT, 1901—1908 A Thesis Presented to The Graduate Faculty of The University of Akron In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts Mark T. Tomecko August, 2012 JUMPING SHIP: THE DECLINE OF BLACK REPUBLICANISM IN THE ERA OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT, 1901—1908 Mark T. Tomecko Thesis Approved: Accepted: _______________________________ ______________________________ Advisor Dean of the College Dr. Tracey Jean Boisseau Dr. Chand Midha _______________________________ ______________________________ Department Chair Dean of the Graduate School Dr. Martin Wainwright Dr. George Newkome ______________________________ Date ii ABSTRACT Most analysts of black voting patterns in the United States have assumed that the first substantive abandonment of the Republican party by black voters occurred in the 1930s, when the majority of black voters embraced Franklin Roosevelt‘s New Deal. A closer examination, however, of another Roosevelt presidency – that of Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909) – demonstrates the degree to which black voters were already growing disenchanted with the Republicans in the face of what they viewed as uneven support and contradictory messages from the highest ranking Republican in the land. Though the perception of Theodore Roosevelt‘s relationship to black Americans has been dominated by his historic invitation of Booker T. Washington to dine with him at the White House in 1901, in fact even this event had assorted and complex meanings for Roosevelt‘s relationship to the black community. More importantly, his dismissal of black troops following a controversial shooting in southern Texas in 1906 – an event known as the Brownsville affair – set off a firestorm of bitter protest from the black press, black intellectuals, and black voters.
    [Show full text]
  • In Search of Helen Maria Chesnutt (1880-1969), Black Latinist
    New England Classical Journal Volume 48 Issue 1 Pages 110-121 5-14-2021 In Search of Helen Maria Chesnutt (1880-1969), Black Latinist Michele Valerie Ronnick Wayne State University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://crossworks.holycross.edu/necj Part of the Classics Commons Recommended Citation Ronnick, Michele Valerie (2021) "In Search of Helen Maria Chesnutt (1880-1969), Black Latinist," New England Classical Journal: Vol. 48 : Iss. 1 , 110-121. https://doi.org/10.52284/NECJ/48.1/article/ronnick This Announcement is brought to you for free and open access by CrossWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in New England Classical Journal by an authorized editor of CrossWorks. In Search of Helen Maria Chesnutt (1880-1969), Black Latinist MICHELE VALERIE RONNICK Abstract: Classical scholars have begun to delineate the dynamic pattern of black classicism. This new subfield of the classical tradition involves the analysis of the creative response to classical antiquity by artists as well as the history of the professional training in classics of scholars, teachers and students in high schools, colleges and universities. To the first group belongs Helen Maria Chesnutt (1880-1969). Born in Fayetteville, NC, Chesnutt was the second daughter of acclaimed African American novelist, Charles W. Chesnutt (1858-1932). She earned her B.A. from Smith College in 1902 and her M.A. in Latin from Columbia University in 1925. She was a member of the American Philological Association and the Classical Association of the Middle West and South. Her life was spent teaching Latin at Central High School in Cleveland, OH.
    [Show full text]
  • Jubilee Singers Archives 1858-1924 Reprocessed by Aisha M. Johnson Special Collections Librarian Fisk University September 2013
    Jubilee Singers Archives 1858-1924 Reprocessed by Aisha M. Johnson Special Collections Librarian Fisk University September 2013 Background: The tradition of excellence at Fisk has developed out of a history marked by struggle and uncertainty. The Fisk Jubilee Singers originated as a group of students who set out on a concert tour of the North on October 6, 1871 to save a financially ailing school. Their ages ranged from fifteen to twenty-five years old. The idea to form the group was conceived by George L. White, the University’s treasurer, against the disapproval of the University. White borrowed money for the tour. In the beginning, the group met with failure, singing classical and popular music. When they began to sing slave songs, they bought spirituals to the attention of the world during their national and European concerts. It was White who gave them the name Jubilee Singers in memory of the Jewish Year of Jubilee. The original Jubilee Singers (1871) are Minnie Tate, Greene Evans, Isaac Dickerson, Jennie Jackson, Maggie Porter, Ella Sheppard, Thomas Rutling, Benjamin Holmes, Eliza Walker, and George White as director. The Singers raised $150,000, which went to the building of Jubilee Hall, now a historic landmark. Today, the tradition of the Jubilee Singers continues at Fisk University. On October 6th of every year, Fisk University pauses to observe the anniversary of the singers' departure from campus in 1871. The contemporary Jubilee Singers perform during the University convocation and conclude the day's ceremonies with a pilgrimage to the grave sites of the original Jubilee Singers to sing.
    [Show full text]
  • Exposing Minstrelsy and Racial Representation Within American Tap Dance Performances of The
    UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Masks in Disguise: Exposing Minstrelsy and Racial Representation within American Tap Dance Performances of the Stage, Screen, and Sound Cartoon, 1900-1950 A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Culture and Performance by Brynn Wein Shiovitz 2016 © Copyright by Brynn Wein Shiovitz 2016 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Masks in Disguise: Exposing Minstrelsy and Racial Representation within American Tap Dance Performances of the Stage, Screen, and Sound Cartoon, 1900-1950 by Brynn Wein Shiovitz Doctor of Philosophy in Culture and Performance University of California, Los Angeles, 2016 Professor Susan Leigh Foster, Chair Masks in Disguise: Exposing Minstrelsy and Racial Representation within American Tap Dance Performances of the Stage, Screen, and Sound Cartoon, 1900-1950, looks at the many forms of masking at play in three pivotal, yet untheorized, tap dance performances of the twentieth century in order to expose how minstrelsy operates through various forms of masking. The three performances that I examine are: George M. Cohan’s production of Little Johnny ii Jones (1904), Eleanor Powell’s “Tribute to Bill Robinson” in Honolulu (1939), and Terry- Toons’ cartoon, “The Dancing Shoes” (1949). These performances share an obvious move away from the use of blackface makeup within a minstrel context, and a move towards the masked enjoyment in “black culture” as it contributes to the development of a uniquely American form of entertainment. In bringing these three disparate performances into dialogue I illuminate the many ways in which American entertainment has been built upon an Africanist aesthetic at the same time it has generally disparaged the black body.
    [Show full text]