H B C U
T I M E S
Black people.
Singers’ seven years of national and international tours.
As Ella Sheppard later noted, such incidents made them terribly aware of the “caste prejudice which was to follow us, and which it was to be a part of our mission if not to remove at least to ameliorate.” Despite the bitter sting of these incidents, the Jubilees won allies among leading American personalities such as William Lloyd Garrison, Mark Twain, and President Ulysses S. Grant, who invited them to perform at the White House in 1872. By the close of their first tour, the troupe had raised $20,000. Not only were the funds enough to pay off many of the university’s debts, but they also secured the purchase of the present site of Fisk University. The following year, a reconstituted group boarded a ship bound for Europe. There they accumulated an impressive list of admirers, including United Kingdom Prime Minister William E. Gladstone and Queen Victoria. This time the Jubilees raised $50,000, which was used to build Jubilee Hall on the new campus. Named in its patrons’ honor, the Victorian-Gothic six- story structure was the first permanent structure erected in the South for Black co-education.
When the Jubilees returned to the Fisk campus in July 1878, they had achieved world renown. Having raised more than $150,000, the Singers had grown from mere adolescents and young adults. In the face of a nation that questioned their dignity, the Jubilees grew into a distinguished and cosmopolitan group of women and men boasting national and international repute. In addition to enabling the purchase of Fisk University’s present site and the building of the Jubilee Hall, the capital the Jubilees raised also practically sustained the entire AMA. The Fisk University campus and community annually celebrates the anniversary of the original troupe’s departure every October 6. Dubbed Jubilee Day, the observation is arguably Fisk’s most sacred gathering, honoring the life and work of the original Jubilees and their director George L. White as well as all subsequent troupe members and directors over the past century. Because of a raging pandemic that is disproportionately killing the Black and the poor, this year’s Jubilee Day may look slightly different. But in all of the ways that truly matter, it will be that which it always has been: a celebration of the marvel of Black self-determination, the wonder of Black educational persistence, and the singular sound that is the Fisk Jubilee Singers.
Dedicated on January 1, 1876, Jubilee Hall was the crowning achievement of the numerous benefits reaped by the Jubilee
Crystal A. deGregory, Ph.D . is a research fellow at Middle Tennessee State University’s Center for Historic Preservation. A proud alumna of the historic Fisk University, she is also the founder of HBCUstory. Follow her online @hbcustorian.
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