[Eoscstudents] Black History Awareness

[Levenia Carey]

More great information about Black History:

BLACK HISTORY MONTH

QUICK FACTS

 

DID YOU KNOW?

 

In 1867 * The first black college was founded in Tennessee, and still in 
existence, is Fisk University.   Although work on the founding of the 
school was begun in October 1865, it did not become incorporated under 
the laws of the State of Tennessee until August 22, 1867, under the 
auspices of the American Missionary Association.  The institution opened 
on January 9, 1866.  It was named in honor of General Clinton B. Fisk of 
the Freedmen's Bureau.


At the beginning of the twentieth century, Scott Joplin (1868-1917) was 
known as the "King of Ragtime."  If anything, his music is more popular 
today than it was then.  During his lifetime, Joplin experienced both 
widespread popularity and relative obscurity.

 

Joplin was born in Texarkana, Arkansas, in 1868.  He began to study 
piano as a child, demonstrating an unusual style.  He started on a tour 
of the Midwest while he was still a teenager.  In 1893, he performed at 
the Columbian Exhibition in Chicago.  During those first years as a 
performer, he played classical music and showed himself to be an 
extremely competent musician.  Joplin settled in Sedalia, Missouri, in 
1893.  Intending to become a classical pianist, he studied music at the 
George R. Smith College for Negroes.  While in Sedalia, he wrote and 
published a number of songs and found early fame.

 

Joplin spent a great deal of time writing his own music.  His most 
productive period was from 1899 through 1911.  He published his first 
major ballet suite in 1902.  His instruction book for the piano, The 
School of Ragtime, was published in 1907.  It became a standard for 
pianists who played ragtime, a lively kind of music.  Joplin, through 
his ragtime compositions, has had a lasting influence.  His "Maple Leaf 
Rag," is one of the most famous American rags.  Some of his ragtime 
music was adapted for the score of The Sting, a movie that was released 
in 1973. The composer Marvin Hamlisch won an Academy Award for the music. 

 

In 1911, Joplin, published what many consider his most important work, 
Treemonisha.  It has been called a folk opera or a ragtime opera, but in 
it Joplin combined all of his musical ideas.  He not only wrote the 
music but also choreographed it.  Even though he became obsessed with 
its success and invested a lot of money in its production, it was 
performed only once during his lifetime.  Treemonisha was revived in 
1972 and met with critical acclaim.  

MARIAN ANDERSON (1897-1993) was an opera singer.  Marian Anderson was 
said by the great conductor Arturo Toscanini to have the kind of voice 
that is "heard only once in a hundred years."  A contralto, she began 
singing as a child at Philadelphia's Union Baptist church.  In 1925, she 
won the Lewisohn Stadium Concert Award after competing against 300 other 
young singers.  This was followed by a concert tour and an appearance as 
a soloist with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.  Anderson then 
traveled throughout the world, singing to packed audiences in country 
after country.  But in 1939, she was barred from singing in Constitution 
Hall in Washington, D.C. because she was black.  The incident made 
headlines across the country.  In protest, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt 
resigned from the Daughters of the American Revolution (D.A.R.), which 
owned Constitution Hall.  She also arranged for Anderson to sing instead 
at the Lincoln Memorial, where she performed before a crowd of 75,000.  

        In 1955, Marian Anderson became the first African American to 
sing at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. Two years later, she 
toured Asia at the request of the State Department.  In 1958, she was 
appointed a member of the U.S. delegation to the United Nations.  Her 
autobiography is entitled My Lord, What a Morning.

Dean Charles Dixon (1915-76) was the first black to conduct the New York 
Philharmonic at the age of twenty-six and was possibly the first black 
American recognized as a symphonic conductor of international stature.   
He was the first to hold permanent positions for long periods with 
symphony orchestras, and toured worldwide as a guest conductor.  Born in 
New York City, Dixon was educated at Juilliard School of Music and 
Columbia University Teachers College.  Dean Dixon grew up in New York 
City and attended concerts with his mother when he was only three years 
old.  His mother arranged for him to take violin lessons at an early 
age.  While Dean was in high school, he organized an orchestra that met 
at the Harlem YMCA.  There was no discrimination in Dean's orchestra, 
which became the Dean Dixon Symphony Society.  Throughout his career, 
Dixon inspired others to pursue careers as musicians and composers.

Keep reading - more to come.

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