Fisk Jubilee Singers

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Date: 1871
Location: Nashville, Davidson, Tennessee, United States

Surnames/tags: US Black Heritage African American History Black Heritage

Profile manager: L A Banta

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The Fisk Jubilee Singers are an African-American a cappella ensemble, consisting of students at Fisk University. The first group was organized in 1871 to tour and raise funds for college. Their early repertoire consisted mostly of traditional spirituals, but included some songs by Stephen Foster. The original group toured along the Underground Railroad path in the United States, as well as performing in England and Europe. Later 19th-century groups also toured in Europe.^[1]

1 History
2 Present Day
3 People
4 Sources
5 See Also

History

The singers were organized as a fundraising effort for Fisk University. The historically black college in Nashville, Tennessee, was founded by the American Missionary Association and local supporters after the end of the American Civil War to educate freedmen and other young African Americans. In 1871, the five-year-old university was facing serious financial difficulty. To avert bankruptcy and closure, Fisk's treasurer and music director, George Leonard White, a white Northern missionary dedicated to music and proving African Americans were the intellectual equals of whites, gathered a nine-member student chorus, consisting of four black men (Isaac Dickerson, Ben Holmes, Greene Evans, Thomas Rutling) and five black women (Ella Sheppard, Maggie Porter, Minnie Tate, Jennie Jackson, Eliza Walker) to go on tour to earn money for the university. On October 6, 1871, the group of students, consisting of two quartets and a pianist, started their U.S. tour under White's direction. They first performed in Cincinnati, Ohio. Over the next 18 months, the group toured through Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland, and Washington, D.C.

Present Day

The Jubilee Singers continue to perform as a touring ensemble of Fisk University students. As of 2000, the group had 14 members who sang without instrumental accompaniment and with their director offstage. They also have appeared with popular performers including Danny Glover, Hank Williams Jr., Faith Hill, and Shania Twain. The group was also inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame.

People

Hinton Alexander
George E Barret
Henry Bennet, Pastor
A Cushing
Isaac Dickerson
Greene E. Evans (September 19, 1848 – October 1, 1914) was a porter, groundskeeper, laborer, deputy wharf-master, city councilman, census enumerator, mail agent, teacher, and state legislator in Tennessee. He was enslaved early in his life.^[2]
Georgia Gordon Georgia Gordon Taylor (née Georgia Gordon; 1855 - June 7, 1913) was an American soprano singer from the U.S. state of Tennessee. She was the leader of the "Original Fisk Jubilee Singersht^[3]".
R A Hall
Benjamin M Holmes ^[4]
Jennie Jackson (1852 – May 4, 1910) was an American singer and voice teacher. She was one of the original members of the Fisk Jubilee Singers. She toured with the group from 1871 to 1877. In 1891 she formed her own sextet, the Jennie Jackson Concert Company.^[5]
Mattie Lawrence
Mabel (Lewis) Imes (1858-1936) Mabel Lewis Imes was born 'Marie' Lewis in New Orleans. She knew very little about her parentage but had assumed her mother was a slave and her father a slave-owner. She was sent to live in the North when she was two years old and brought up by a wealthy family. At the age of ten she ran away from the family and drifted from place to place, changing her name to Mabel. She entered the Lancaster Industrial School after a "benevolent gentleman" secured her admission. She joined the Jubilee Singers in 1872 after auditioning for them while they were on their tour of the American Northern states. She retired from the singers in 1880 and married Martin H. Imes in 1885 and moved to Ohio. She is buried in Nashville City Cemetery.^[6]
Frederick Jeremiah Loudin (c.1836 – November 3, 1904) was the leader of the Loudin Jubilee Singers. His commanding presence and ambitious personality caused him to emerge as an unofficial spokesperson during the four years he toured with them. He later became internationally famous as the leader of his own brand of Jubilee Singers, the Loudin Jubilee Singers, who toured internationally^[7]
Patti J. Malone (born 1858, at Cedars Plantation in Athens, Alabama), was best known as a mezzo-soprano vocalist.^[8]
Maggie Porter Cole (1853–1942) was a first-generation-freed slave, and she is most notable as an original member of the Fisk Jubilee Singers, one of only four members to participate in all three of the original tours by the group. She was known for her vocal talents as a soprano and also worked as a schoolteacher.^[9]
America W Robinson (January 1855 – 23 April 1912) was an American educator. Robinson was in the first graduating class of Fisk University and sang as a contralto with the Fisk Jubilee Singers. She was the first woman to graduate from Fisk University.^[10]
Thomas Rutling (1854-1915) was an American former slave who became an original member of the Fisk Jubilee Singers, a choral group that toured throughout the United States and Europe. He was a tenor in the group.^[11]
Ella Sheppard (February 4, 1851 – June 9, 1914) was an American soprano, pianist, composer, and arranger of Negro Spirituals. She was the matriarch of the original Fisk Jubilee Singers of Nashville, Tennessee. She also played the organ and the guitar. Sheppard was a friend and confidante of African-American activists and orators Booker T. Washington and Frederick Douglass.^[12]

Minnie Tate (1857 – April 29, 1899) was the youngest original member of the Fisk Jubilee Singers, based in Nashville, Tennessee.^[13]
Mary Eliza Walker Crump (1857 – August 6, 1928) was an African-American contralto singer and manager, one of the original Fisk Jubilee Singers.^[14]
George Leonard White, a white Northern missionary dedicated to music and proving African Americans were the intellectual equals of whites (Fisk Faculty member who organized and toured with first group)^[15]

Fisk Jubilee Singers

Contents

History

Present Day

People

Sources

See Also