INFEMNITY™ Voices of Color

Frederick Loudin's (center) Fisk Jubilee Singers of 1900 I am currently having a delightful correspondence with a gentleman in Dublin, Ireland, who is a member of the Historical Society of Dublin. As some of you are aware, I have been steadily transcribing letters written by my maternal grandmother, Nina Hortense Clinton, during her travels in Great Britain with the Fisk Jubilee Singers under Frederick Loudin. In a letter written in Dublin in 1901, my grandmother mentions that she and the group were filmed with a "cinematograph." Of course, I am now on a mission to find that footage. Meanwhile, here is a short promotional article on her letters, which will certainly become a book in the near future. Letters to my Parents from the United Kingdom: 1900-1903 By Nina Hortense Clinton Edited by Nina Kennedy* While rummaging through my parents’ belongings after their deaths, I happened upon a ...

Back in October when we were in Nashville for the Fisk Jubilee Singers Alumni Awards Concert, we met with the directors of the new National Museum of African American Music, which is scheduled to open later this year. The curators for the museum had asked me for some materials on my parents, which would be included in the exhibit on the Fisk Jubilee Singers. They were also interested in the fact that my maternal grandmother Nina Hortense Clinton had sung with Frederick Loudin's group of Jubilee Singers from 1900 to 1903.  The Loudin Jubilee Singers Frederick Loudin had sung with the original Fisk Jubilee Singers of 1872. But after he was no longer affiliated with the school, he formed his own group of singers and traveled with them across the globe. The museum curators were especially interested in the letters my grandmother had written to her parents in Ohio while travelling with the group in Great Britain, in which she described the mourning period following the dea...

Leota Henson I was so gratified to see the photograph of African American pianist Leota Henson in the new book by historian Bill Egan titled African American Entertainers in Australia and New Zealand: A History, 1788-1941 . Bill Egan saw my blog  on Leota Henson last year, and asked for my permission to use the photograph. The reason I had that photograph was because Leota and my grandmother Nina Clinton were dear friends. They had traveled together as part of Frederick Loudin's "Fisk Jubilee Singers," who had traveled and performed in Australia and New Zealand in the 1880s. As some you have read, I opened a box of papers and photos that belonged to my grandmother, and found the autographed portrait of Miss Henson, along with seven typed pages titled "A Few Notes on the Life of Leota Henson." I immediately posted the writings online, along with the photograph. Frederick Loudin and Leota Henson Bill Egan informed me that he was including a section ...

Frederick J. Loudin and Leota Henson, Belfast Ireland, 1886 I have found much material online about the Jubilee Singers' tour of Australia and New Zealand, including a chapter in the book Out of Sight: The Rise of African American Popular music, 1889-1895  by Lynn Abbott and Doug Seroff, and an excerpt from Uncle Tom in the White Pacific  by Melissa Bellanta. In this segment of Leota's writings she often speaks of her uncle who is Frederick J. Loudin, director of the group called Loudin's Jubilee Singers. Continued from  Part 3 .        "One bright morning a few weeks later we landed all safe and sound in Melbourne, Australia and we were glad to be on land once more, even though we were on the other side of the globe. We found Melbourne a lively bustling city, the buildings and activities much like our own American cities. The weather was warm and bright. Our advance agent, Mr. Sharp, had secured very nice accommodations at the Grand Hotel...

Loudin's Jubilee Singers, (Leota is seated at the keyboard) While researching Leota Henson's family, I was delighted to discover that we are related. Her cousin, William Loudin, married my grandmother's half-sister, Rosetta Clinton. Members of that Ohio settlement ended up marrying their cousins in many cases. I'm happy to call myself a great-grand niece of Frederick Loudin. This is a tradition handed down from the first piano accompanist for the Fisk Jubilee Singers,  Ella Sheppard , to Leota Henson, to my mother,  Anne Gamble Kennedy . Now that my grandmother's friendship with Leota has been revealed to me, I know that Leota's role-modeling was at the forefront of my grandmother's thinking while she raised my mother. Here is part 2 of the writings of Leota Henson Turner, describing the world concert tour of Loudin's Jubilee Singers from 1888 to 1900. Continued from  Part 1 .       “During our stay of two years in Great Britain we ...

Leota Henson Turner While going through a box of my grandmother’s papers and photo albums, I happened upon seven stapled, typed pages written by her friend Leota Henson. I recognized the name because my grandmother had mentioned her in her letters. Then I found this autographed photo of Leota in one of the photo albums. It turns out that Miss Leota had studied piano at the Conservatory of Music in Leipzig, Germany, was the piano accompanist for Frederick Loudin ’s Jubilee Singers, and traveled with them throughout Europe, Egypt, Arabia, Australia, India, China, and Japan. The trip took six years, ending in 1900. My grandmother joined the group later that year. Leota Henson married Dr. Alexander L. Turner, a respected surgeon and physician. She went on to become the founder and first board chair of the Colored Y.W.C.A. in Detroit. The ladies of the Board decided to name the branch in honor of Mrs. Lucy Thurman , “… a nationally known Colored woman who worked hard for Women’s Suf...

Nina Hortense Clinton, around 1900 When I think of the humiliations endured by my mother and grandmother, it makes my blood boil. My grandfather had built his house in a rural area, which was eventually swallowed up by the city of Charleston, West Virginia. The people who built their houses around his happened to be white, which meant that by the time my mother was old enough to attend school, she was not allowed to go to school in her own neighborhood. She had to travel for miles to get to the nearest “Colored” school. My grandfather faithfully paid his taxes so that his children could attend public school, all for naught. My mother told me a story that she and her mother were taking a trip on a bus, and they had pulled into a bus station for bathroom breaks. The humiliation of segregated bathrooms was bad enough. But my grandmother had already returned to the bus and was seated when my mother tried to board. “You can’t get on this bus!” the new driver spat at my mother. She ...