The Black Troubadours: Black Entertainers in Europe, 1896-1915

Abstract

Fisk University was founded in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1866 for the purpose of educating the former slaves who were emancipated when the American Civil War came to an end in 1865. From its very start Fisk University suffered from severe shortages of funds. The school's treasurer and music instructor, George L. White, organized fund-raising tours of student singers-first to the northern United States, then to Europe in 1873, and eventually around the world. In late 1882 bass singer F. J. Loudin was able to wrest control of the Fisk Jubilee Singers (who had begun traveling on their own account, separated from Fisk University, in 1879) from director George L. White. In the fall of 1884, shortly after Loudin's Fisk Jubilee Singers had sailed to Britain on the first leg of a six-year world tour, yet another former member of the original troupe, Miss Maggie L. Porter Cole, and her new husband, tenor Daniel Cole, formed their own company of Fisk Jubilee Singers, enlisting several individuals from the earlier group. This group, managed by Charles Mumford, spent most of the late 1880s and early 1890s touring the United States and Canada. Sometimes Jennie Jackson-DeHart was the prima donna, and sometimes Maggie Porter Cole herself. Jefferson N. Caldwell was present with that troupe probably from its inception, certainly by 1886. Charles W. Payne seems to have joined Miss Cole around 1886; he, too, had sung earlier with the Fisk Jubilee Singers. Charles H. Lewis was a tenor who was well known around his home town of Indianapolis before he left with Miss Cole's troupe for Europe in January 1895. Cora Cole was the niece of Maggie Porter Cole, and she was with the troupe as early as 1892. Charles Johnston, who may have been from Cleveland or vicinity, joined the European tour of January 1895. The piano accompanist, Charles Sumner