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Acknowledgments
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Acknowledgments This work began as a seminar paper for a Cornell University class in African American women’s history in Spring 1997 and eventually evolved into my doctoral dissertation and finally the completed manuscript. I was fortunate to have a group of dedicated advisors who helped me shape this work from the initial research stages to the final written drafts, including Robert L. Harris, Margaret Washington, Steven Pond, and Jacqueline Goldsby. I am especially grateful to the chair of my committee, Robert L. Harris, for the steadfast guidance he has offered since he met me as an undergraduate participant in the Minority Summer Research Exchange Program in 1994. I thank Joan Catapano, Rebecca Crist, and Matthew Mitchell at the University of Illinois Press for editing the text and answering my many queries as the manuscript moved through each publication stage. Kay Peterson at the Archives Center of the Smithsonian Institution and the Photoduplication Services at Library of Congress were also essential in helping me acquire the images for the book. I completed the present book during my time as a faculty member at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. I appreciate the support of all my colleagues in the history department, especially Kriste Lindenmeyer, who read and critiqued portions of the manuscript; John Jeffries, who supported my search for outside funding; and Terry Bouton, Amy Froide, and Anne Sarah Rubin, who offered their encouragement and friendship. The dedicated students of History 713 in fall 2004 offered weekly insightful and lively discussions of the history of black music performance that greatly aided in the revisions of this text. I also appreciate the members of an informal writ- xii acknowledgments ing group at UMBC in 2003–4 who helped me stay on task with my writing goals and deadlines. I could not have completed the research and writing of this study without the financial resources of several institutions, including the Mellon Mays Completion Fellowship, UMBC Summer Faculty Fellowship, and the Henry C. Welcome Fellowship from the Maryland Higher Education Commission. I completed final revisions during my postdoctoral fellowship leave, made possible through the Career Enhancement Fellowship Program, which is administered by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation and funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The initial stages of this project were funded with the help of the Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship, the Social Science Research Council/Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Predoctoral Grants, the Smithsonian Institution Predoctoral Fellowship, and travel and research grants from Cornell University. I am indebted to the archives and libraries that extended their resources to me and made this project possible. I am particularly grateful for the hospitality and insight of the staff members of the Chattanooga African American Museum, particularly Vilma S. Fields, Paul Moss, and Leroy Henderson. Much of my primary research was made possible by former and current curators and archivists at Smithsonian Institution National Museum of American History, including John Hasse, Charles McGovern, Reuben Jackson, Wendy Shay, and Deborra Richardson. I also appreciate the efforts of reference librarians at the Newspaper, Manuscripts, Performing Arts, and Geography and Maps Reading Rooms in the Library of Congress, as well as the aid of staff members at the University of Maryland’s McKeldin and Clarice Smith Performing Arts Libraries in helping me track down crucial sources. Finally, the reference librarians, interlibrary loan staff, and the rare books staff at Cornell University’s Olin, John Henrik Clarke, and Kroch Libraries, as well as the Sidney Cox Library of Music and Dance, were extremely helpful from the very onset of my study. As this study progressed, I presented excerpts at several different forums and I was fortunate to obtain positive critical feedback. I thank the commentators , fellow panelists, and audience members at meetings of the ASA, ASALH, Berkshires Conference for Women’s History, the Blues Tradition Conference at Penn State, the IASPM International Meeting, the Society for the History of Children and Youth, and the Career Enhancement Fellowship Fall Retreat for their constructive critiques. I am sincerely indebted to my Wilson Fellows cohort, Thomas Hennessey, Tera Hunter, David “Honeyboy” Edwards, Mary Sies, Jacqueline Stewart, Kathleen Thompson, and Clyde A. [52.54.111.228] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 20:52 GMT) acknowledgments xiii Woods. Their queries and encouragement helped to delve deeper into Bessie’s musical past. I am extremely grateful for the mentorship of Daphne Duval Harrison, who read and critiqued the manuscript in its entirety. I am blessed to have the support of both family and friends...