This presentation has been cancelled.
This session focuses on the life of Mildred Bryant-Jones, an African American woman who taught music at two South Side high schools from 1920 to 1945. She taught theory, composition, and voice to many young African American students who became historically important performers in several Black music genres such as Von Freeman, Johnny Hartman, and Roberta Martin. Incredibly and, unfortunately, typically. she is another African American woman who has been erased from African American cultural historiography. This presentation reviews Bryant-Jones's manifold contributions to South Side and broader African American culture and explores her personal life, particularly her three-decade friendship and romance with W. E. B. Du Bois.