Martha Broadus Anderson

For the American research scientist, hydrologist, and remote sensing professional, see Martha Anderson.
Martha Broadus Anderson
A middle-aged African-American woman
Martha Broadus Anderson, from a 1925 publication
Born1875
Richmond, Virginia, US
DiedJanuary 11, 1967 (aged 91)
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, US
Other namesMartha B. Anderson-Winn, Martha B. Winn (after about 1927)
Occupation(s)Musician, singer, music educator, choral director
Known forVice-president, National Association of Negro Musicians (1925)

Martha Broadus Anderson (1875 – January 11, 1967), later Martha B. Anderson-Winn or Martha B. Winn, was an American singer based in Chicago, and vice-president of the National Association of Negro Musicians.

Early life

Martha Broadus was born in Richmond, Virginia (some sources give Texas as her birthplace), and raised in Washington, D.C.[1] She trained as a singer with John T. Layton in Washington, with Mabel C. Goodwin at the American Conservatory of Music,[2] and at the Chicago College of Music,[3] where she was the school's first Black graduate, earning a bachelor of music degree in 1908.[2] She was a member of Zeta Phi Beta.[4]

Career

Anderson was a soprano singer and voice teacher[5] based in Chicago,[6] where she was a leader of the Choral Study Club, a soloist at Quinn Chapel, and gave musicales at her home on Champlain Avenue.[7] She was a soloist with the Louisville Choral Society and the Fisk Glee Club in 1909,[3][8] and in 1911, she made her own costume to sing the leading role in a cantata about Queen Esther.[9] She sang with Emma Azalia Hackley and blind singer and pianist Mary Fitzhugh at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville in 1913.[10] In 1916 she conducted a 40-voice women's choir in a performance of Henry Smart's King Rene's Daughter, with Florence Cole Talbert among the soloists.[11] She was choir director at Bethesda Baptist Church in Chicago.[12] She was a co-founder of the Coleridge Taylor School of Music in Chicago.[13]

Anderson wrote a column, "The Music Cabinet", for The Broad Ax weekly newspaper.[13][14][15] In 1925, she was vice-president of the National Association of Negro Musicians.[16] Margaret Bonds was one of her music students in Chicago.[17] She managed singer Roland Hayes when he was a young performer.[9]

After 1925, she lived and worked in Texas, where she served on the faculty of Manet Fowler's Mwalimu School in Fort Worth, Texas.[18] and was head of the music department at Wiley College in Marshall, Texas.[19] She performed with pianist Ernestine Jessie Covington Dent in 1928, in Fort Worth.[20] In 1929, she (and Dent, Fowler, and Camille Nickerson) taught at a summer teachers' institute in Fort Worth, sponsored by the Texas Association of Negro Musicians. During this period she began using the name Martha B. Anderson-Winn.[21]

As Martha B. Anderson-Winn or Martha B. Winn, she moved to Oklahoma City, where she continued to direct choirs in Black churches into the late 1940s, and remained active in Oklahoma City music into the 1960s.[22][23][24]

Personal life

Martha Broadus married railroad porter Henry S. Anderson in 1898. They had one child who died before 1910. She was widowed by 1920. She married again in Texas in the 1920s, to Rev. John Henry Winn, a Black Baptist minister;[25] he died in 1955.[26] Martha Broadus Anderson Winn died in 1967, aged 91 years, at a nursing home in Oklahoma City.[4]

References

  1. ^ Gibson, John William (1920). Progress of a Race: Or, The Remarkable Advancement of the American Negro, from the Bondage of Slavery, Ignorance, and Poverty of the Freedom of Citizenship, Intelligence, Affluence, Honor and Trust. J. L. Nichols. pp. 331–332.
  2. ^ a b "Mrs. Martha Broadus-Anderson". The Broad Ax. 1908-06-20. p. 1. Retrieved 2021-02-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ a b "Singing a Feature". The Courier-Journal. 1909-08-15. p. 3. Retrieved 2021-02-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ a b "Obituary for MARTHA B. WINN (Aged 91)". The Daily Oklahoman. 1967-01-14. p. 11. Retrieved 2021-02-19 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ "Delightful Musicale Given by the Pupils of Mrs. Martha Broadus Anderson". The Broad Ax. 1919-06-14. p. 5. Retrieved 2021-02-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ Richardson, Clement (1919). The National Cyclopedia of the Colored Race. National Publishing Company. p. 143.
  7. ^ "Prof. J. T. Layton in Chicago--Big Reception to Him". The Washington Bee. 1907-08-31. p. 5. Retrieved 2021-02-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ "Mrs. Martha Broadus-Anderson, Graduate of the Chicago Musical College". The Broad Ax. 1909-05-22. p. 1. Retrieved 2021-02-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ a b "The Cantata of Queen Esther". The Broad Ax. 1911-06-10. p. 1. Retrieved 2021-02-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ "Three Bright Stars". The Nashville Globe. 1913-09-12. p. 4. Retrieved 2021-02-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ^ "The Treble Clef Club Will Render Henry Smart's King Rene's Daughter". The Broad Ax. 1916-04-29. p. 4. Retrieved 2021-02-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ "Madam Martha Broadus Anderson". The Broad Ax. 1919-04-26. p. 1. Retrieved 2021-02-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ a b "Extraordinary Announcement". The Broad Ax. 1920-02-28. p. 1. Retrieved 2021-02-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ^ Anderson, Martha Broadus (March 13, 1920). "The Music Cabinet: Folk Music". The Broad Ax. p. 2. Retrieved February 18, 2021 – via Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections.
  15. ^ Anderson, Martha Broadus (1909-01-02). "Evidences of Musical Progress Among Colored People". The Broad Ax. p. 2. Retrieved 2021-02-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ^ "Newly Elected Officers of the National Association of Negro Musicians" The Crisis (September 1925): 233. via HathiTrust
  17. ^ Walker-Hill, Helen (2007). From Spirituals to Symphonies: African-American Women Composers and Their Music. University of Illinois Press. p. 146. ISBN 978-0-252-07454-7.
  18. ^ "Talented Texas Woman Plants a Novel Art School in the Warm and Sophisticated Heart of Harlem". The Pittsburgh Courier. 1934-02-03. p. 8. Retrieved 2021-02-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ^ Beasley, Delilah L. (1927-09-18). "Activities Among Negroes". Oakland Tribune. p. 32. Retrieved 2021-02-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. ^ Whitlock, E. Clyde (1928-07-22). "Negro Pianist, Soprano Give Concert". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. p. 19. Retrieved 2021-02-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  21. ^ "Many Negro Musicians Expected for School". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. 1929-05-19. p. 4. Retrieved 2021-02-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  22. ^ "Interdenominational Choir (advertisement)". The Daily Oklahoman. 1948-02-22. p. 84. Retrieved 2021-02-19 – via Newspapers.com.
  23. ^ Silvester, Tracy (1949-02-28). "Choir's Spiritual Program Gives Thrill to 2,500". The Daily Oklahoman. p. 6. Retrieved 2021-02-19 – via Newspapers.com.
  24. ^ "Mrs. J. H. Winn Honored During Sacred Concert". The Black Dispatch. 1960-06-03. p. 3. Retrieved 2021-02-19 – via Newspapers.com.
  25. ^ "Negro Revival Under Way". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. 1929-03-26. p. 10. Retrieved 2021-02-19 – via Newspapers.com.
  26. ^ "In Memoriam". The Black Dispatch. 1957-02-08. p. 7. Retrieved 2021-02-19 – via Newspapers.com.