Azalia: The Life of Madame E. Azalia Hackley

By M. Marguerite Davenport

A biography of the singer and educator, perhaps intended for young people. Hackley was African-American, and worked tirelessly to further young African-Americans in music careers. (The author indicated she was an early influence on Marian Anderson.).

“THIS portrait of E. Azalia Smith Hackley is intended to be nothing more than the heightening of a series of common experiences which occurred during the lifetime of one of America’s outstanding pioneers in the field of serious music, who reached her apogee at the dawn of the twentieth century. Some of these experiences I have tried to pitch high, hoping that perchance someone with a sensitivity for pitch and tonation will be listening...yes, listening with both ears; and may in this way recognize his own potentialities. It is when our minds have been made to feel the full vibrations of the lives of others that we can profit most.

So far as possible, I have tried to portray the good rather than the bad, but to include the bitter with the sweet; the failures with the successes. Otherwise, a picture of Azalia would be faulty—she with her ever changing moods and tempos.”-Introduction.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Braunfell Books
• Release date: Feb 6, 2023
• ISBN: 9781805230779

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Publisher’s Note

Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1

DEDICATION 5

FOREWORD 6

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 7

INTRODUCTION 8

PART I 10

I—Grandfather Beard and Detroit 10

II—Azalia 14

III—Azalia Grows Up 20

IV—Azalia Becomes Of Age 26

V—Edwin H. Hackley 31

VI—Denver 41

VII—The Turn Of The Wheel 52

PART II 56

VIII—Azalia Finds Her Mission 56

IX—Madame Hackley Makes A Decision 67

X—Madame Hackley Lectures 79

XI—Success And Failure 85

XII—Her Final Curtain 104

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF SIGNIFICANT EVENTS IN THE LIFE OF AZALIA 110

Source Material 112

AZALIA

THE LIFE OF MADAME E. AZALIA HACKLEY

BY

M. MARGUERITE DAVENPORT

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DEDICATION

I dedicate this little book

to

Those who loved and love us best

FOREWORD

THIS portrait of E. Azalia Smith Hackley is intended to be nothing more than the heightening of a series of common experiences which occurred during the lifetime of one of America’s outstanding pioneers in the field of serious music, who reached her apogee at the dawn of the twentieth century. Some of these experiences I have tried to pitch high, hoping that perchance someone with a sensitivity for pitch and tonation will be listening...yes, listening with both ears; and may in this way recognize his own potentialities. It is when our minds have been made to feel the full vibrations of the lives of others that we can profit most.

So far as possible, I have tried to portray the good rather than the bad, but to include the bitter with the sweet; the failures with the successes. Otherwise, a picture of Azalia would be faulty—she with her ever changing moods and tempos.

No other complete written record of her life has been published or kept. Because of sudden illness at certain intervals in her life, and many cataclysmic changes in the affairs of her immediate family, many of her diaries and records were lost. It was necessary to resort to other primary sources in many instances.

In order to meet the demands of youth today, more and more success and failure stories are needed. Biography has a definite function in the molding of lives of individuals. Through it may come the satisfaction of certain psychological or sociological desires, an association and comparison of present-day conditions and activities with those of the past, and a feeling of stimulation and of confidence: "If she could do it then, I should be more than able to now."

Portraits of characters like Madame Hackley, who so lavishly contributed to the development of Negro youth throughout these vast United States of America, should go far in helping to supply this need. If just one person in some corner of the globe is inspired by the unveiling of this simple painting, the work will have had some value.

The Azalia whose image emerges from this canvas is by no means the full Madame Hackley; it is only a likeness which the author has been able to paint with the material available and with her own personal limitations. While there are some persons who might know the whole Madame Hackley, I simply offer a sketch of the woman whose breadth of vision was perhaps far beyond the imagination of many, who was possibly more greatly loved than any other woman of her group and era, and whose ideals and strength I greatly admire. It is with this in mind that I present AZALIA.

M. M. D.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

AN enumeration of the many persons all over the country to whom I am indebted for advice and voluminous material is hot possible, but the cooperation of all is gratefully acknowledged.

Special mention is due Marian Anderson, Malcolm Poindexter, Helen A Pinkett, George Smiley, Charles McCabe, of Philadelphia; to L. N. Cooper, Louisville, Kentucky; Priscilla Aubrey, New Orleans, Louisiana; to the late Dora Scribner, James Weldon Johnson, Dr. C. V. Roman, formerly of Fisk University; to Zelma Watson Duke, Los Angeles, California; E. A. Davis, Murfreesboro, Tennessee; Harriet E. Hale, Nashville, Tennessee; Monroe Work, Tuskegee, Alabama; Marie Busch, Charleston, West Virginia; William Boston, Detroit, Michigan; and to the staff of the Armstrong Association of Philadelphia.

Perhaps my greatest indebtedness is to Mrs. Marietta Boston and Mr. Edwin Hackley, who gave me access to their old newspapers, correspondence, family documents, scrapbooks, their memories, and everything in their possession pertaining to Madame Hackley—her manuscripts, notes, and partial diary, to be used at my discretion. Because of Mr. Hackley’s state of health repeated visits were necessary, yet I found him to be understanding and very helpful at all times, even to a fortnight before his death, July 11, 1940.

I owe deep gratitude to Madame Hackley’s friends and students who gave liberally of their time, their material (letters, pictures, and information), and their fertile memories: Florence Cole Talbert McCleave (Memphis); Lorenzo L. Reid (Detroit); Anna Dempsey (Denver); Carl Rossini Diton (New York); Borena Anderson Sogers (Chicago); Octavia Lindsay (Media); Edwin Francis Hill, Lelia Walker Jones, Lucille Tate (Philadelphia),

To J. B. Lippincott, Jr., Arthur Huff Fauset, and Dr. Thomas P. Haviland, I owe my hearty thanks for their valuable suggestions. To the late Dr. and Mrs. Benjamin Brawly, I am grateful for their having encouraged me to see the work to a finish: and to Horace N. Mays who worked untiringly in helping to prepare the manuscript, I am deeply appreciative.

M. MARGUERITE DAVENPORT

INTRODUCTION

When things go wrong as they sometimes may,

When the ship you are sailing seems to turn

The opposite way,

When funds are low and debts are high

And you want to smile—but have to sigh,

When care is pressing down a bit,

Rest, if you must, but never quit!

MADAME Azalia Hackley was not a quitter and not much of a rester, either. A statistician would no doubt find it difficult to figure out the aggregate mileage she traversed in the interest of music, the hours she devoted to it, and the number of people she reached. We are told that she worked always at an accelerated pace, traveling from coast to coast, north, south, east and west.

Truly there was never a person more completely consumed by her mission than was Madame Hackley. It has long been evident that she was chosen to do that missionary labor; she carried so much love in her heart and knowledge in her head for her people that it radiates still, Eulee Townes said in commenting on her experience with Madame Hackley.

She lent dignity to the music profession and gave the public ideals of professional musicianship. She tried to center the public’s mind on another type of Colored singer from that of Black Pattie or the Jubilee Singers, and to prove that there was a place for them all.

She endeavored to raise the standard yet to make its appreciative value available to all. She dreamed and tried to stimulate a response to the realization of this dream, that symphonies and established musical centers would be playing Negro works of a more serious nature, and accepting them as any other recognized music; and that the Negro’s approach through music to the great world problem of misinterpretation of the Negro would go far in a cultural way toward the solution.

In 1932 J. Berne Barbour, who was inspired by Madame Hackley, wrote and presented in Chicago a music fantasy, Rhapsody in Color—The Voice of Azalia Hackley, to pay tribute to the impressive work she performed in the perpetuation of the Negro Spirituals. He writes: If the one cast to portray the part of Azalia Hackley, in Rhapsody, possesses the voice, the charm, the radiating smile and personality of the one to whom I am paying tribute, I shall then feel that my effort has not been in vain. A synopsis of the fantasy reveals an appeal to Azalia to return to Earth; and Azalia hears the advanced ideas in composition—Barbour’s Plantation Suite, embodying different Negro Spirituals.

In November 1939, Roland Hayes gave a Benefit Recital at Town Hall in New York for the Azalia Hackley School of Music. The appearance was described as not just another recital by Mr. Hayes, but one that extolled in song the pioneer spirit that worked untiringly years ago with an effectiveness that shall linger forever.

Yes, her spirit still lingers. The effectiveness of the work for which she made such great sacrifices we can see reflected even in the work of the Federal Music Projects throughout the country. The works of over two hundred Negro and white American composers have been introduced and presented by the Federal Music Project. Scholarships for further study and compilation have been awarded by the Federal Music and Theatre Projects, in addition to the use of a portion of the millions of dollars appropriated to them for the education of the general public to a more lofty appreciation of the works of American composers and the only true American folk song—the Negro Spiritual.

Perhaps she lived and passed on into eternity before her time. Or it may be that the many who were touched by her influence, not willing to make the sacrifice that ultimately hastened her death, have seized the first opportunity that presented itself to perpetuate her teachings.

Be that as it may, we do know that her heart would swell with pride to know that the recipient of her six hundred dollar scholarship award to study abroad—Clarence Cameron White—became Regional Director of the Federal Music Project. Madame Hackley was never happier than when she saw those whom her influence had touched, even lightly, doing creditable things.

To the memory of this great artist, lecturer, missionary and philanthropist, her friend Borena Anderson Sogers wrote:

Again we hear the voice of Azalia above the noise of strife,

Teaching us to love and sing songs of Negro life.

She left to us a heritage, let us guard it well.

And in the pages of Memory’s book, of Azalia let us tell.

Again it is as it should be that AZALIA should be so feminine, the sincere admiration of youth for talent and distinguished maturity, exhibiting what lies deeply hidden of mystery and passion, of domestic love, joy and sorrow, of romantic visions and practical ambitions, in the heart of a woman. In spite of the great strides of progress that have been made in placing woman on a par with man, yet we still feel a certain thrill to read a book whose author is a woman, or sing a song whose composer is a woman. This is why we are especially pleased with AZALIA, as it is the holding high on the summit of fame of a woman by another woman, the appreciation of an artist for her own talents, and the fulfilment of her debt to her race to pass on to posterity her great achievements and cause herself to live on and on through the accomplishments of youths of tomorrow.

This lovely, youthful writer reflects her own brilliant career through the pages of a biography, which is a refreshing inspiration to us all, and a call to colors of our better selves to achieve for our race.

HARRIET E. HALE

Nashville, Tennessee

PART I

I—Grandfather Beard and Detroit

WILSON BEARD was a young man when he came to Detroit, just prior to the organization of the Michigan Anti-Slavery Society in 1840. He saw Detroit as it is now and as it always has been—a city with an ever-changing complexion, a city on the Dardanelles of America just across the river from Canada. To him it offered security and an opportunity to use his talents to some avail. He was a man of vision, of hope, and a great deal of moral courage.

Detroit in those bygone days had still some of the more restless aspects of a carnival. For the first hundred years of its existence the change of customs was as common as the change of dress in a show. The city had changed its flag five times, had vowed its allegiance to three different countries, and had been the scene of a dozen or more massacres. It had been attacked by the Indians, seized by the British, and taken possession of by the Americans. By 1840 the city contained about twenty thousand people—five thousand of them were Negroes.

The majority of the inhabitants were drawn there by the commercial opportunities; the Negroes by something more.

The Detroiters had assumed an open attitude toward all people. During the days of the underground railroad, the slaves headed for Canada—principally from Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia—often tarried in Detroit, making it their last rest stop. Carrying away memories of the superior economic advantages offered by the city, together with its high degree of tolerance, many returned from Canada after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, to establish homes, rear families and obtain a share of the city’s wealth.

With the development of the Eight Mile Road and Grosse Pointe race tracks, and in 1899 the replacing of the carriage by the automobile, Detroit’s prosperity advanced at the double-quick, but the Negro’s social and economic status was at its peak in the period between 1863 and 1865 when the Colored population was something less than six thousand.

With the ensuing growth (by 1900 the population was to number more than 285,000 including over 5,000 Negroes) came the formation of new patterns. And as often happens, with new attitudes on the part of the Whites came prejudice and grievous riots, and the Negro’s struggle for recognition, chance for advancement, and a share in the opportunities offered by the city’s commercial enterprises.

For the most part the Negroes who comprised the greater segment of the New Detroit were the underprivileged type from the rural South who had been recruited by labor representatives, sent for by relatives, or who had come of their own volition as race-track followers or as workers in search of industrial opportunities. The city was now divided; it had New Detroiters and Old Detroiters separated by a boundary which was none the less sharp for its being imaginary.

Grandfather Beard, as he was popularly called, was one of the Old Detroiters...and a unique character indeed. Others among this group included Dr. James W. Ames, whose son was the first Negro interne at City Hospital, Detroit; Ben Pelham, first Negro Politician;