We did not dream of ever using them in public. Sitting upon the floor (there were but few chairs) softly, learning from each other the songs of our fathers. The door was shut and locked, the window curtains were drawn, and, as if a thing they were ashamed of, they sang some of the old-time religious slave songs now long since known as Jubilee songs.Įlla Sheppard, the leader of this group of students, who would become lead soprano, pianist, and onstage director of the Jubilee Singers, wrote of this experience: One day there came into my room a few students with some air of mystery. The second president of the new school, Adam Knight Spence, wrote in 1871 of an incident: The repertoire was drawn from the popular songs of the day, abolitionist hymns, Scottish folks songs, and eventually even complete cantatas. He was inspired by their voices and the dire financial straits of the college, so he began arranging occasional fund-raising concerts for the choir. After a time, White began gathering a group of students together for informal singing in his home, in part to keep his and their spirits from flagging in the midst of struggles to keep the new school from going under. White (1838-1895), became the treasurer and one of the first teachers at the Fisk Free Colored School, funded by the American Missionary Association, an abolitionist organization. In 1867, a white, former Union army sergeant named George L.
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