Sissieretta Jones: "The Greatest Singer of Her Race," 1868-1933

Preface

PREFACE Some biographers claim their subjects choose them. Such was my experience with Sissieretta Jones. I first heard about her while visiting family in my native state of Rhode Island. My brother, George Donnelly, was working with others in Providence to create a unique Rhode Island history exhibit called “Rhode Island Treasures.” The idea behind the exhibit was to feature artifacts and historical documents seldom seen by most Rhode Islanders. Two of those items were dresses worn by Matilda Sissieretta Jones, the African American soprano who is the subject of this book. Sissieretta, born in Virginia in 1868, grew up in Providence and retired there after a lengthy singing career. From the moment I read a brief description of her life and saw her photograph, I was fascinated and wanted to know more about her. Soon after I retired from Clemson University, I began researching more about her life. My husband, John, and I visited the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Manuscript Division, at Howard University in Washington, D.C., where Sissieretta ’s scrapbook and three of the nearly twenty medals she received for singing are kept in the Dr. Carl R. Gross Collection. It was a thrill to touch the scrapbook Sissieretta must have held in her hands many times, to see her photographs, and to hold three of the medals she wore. After reviewing the newspaper clippings in the scrapbook, most of which are not dated and many of which do not bear the name of the newspaper, John and I began a four-year task of methodically reviewing old New York entertainment weeklies and two prominent African American newspapers (the New York Age and the Indianapolis Freeman) that provided news of the stage. We examined these newspapers, which were available on microfilm, for the years 1885 to 1915 (the year she retired from the stage). With the information we gathered, we put together a schedule of her whereabouts, month by month, for the years she performed on the stage. (See appendix B for a sample of her touring schedule, this one for the 1901–2 theater season.) Using these schedules, as well as newspaper articles and reviews about her concerts and shows, I was able to piece together details about her career and chronicle her : xi : xii : Preface professional life. Unfortunately Sissieretta did not leave diaries or letters that might have provided more insight into her private life. I must ask readers to forgive the demeaning language and derogatory terms quoted in the text from newspaper articles written during Sissieretta’s career. These words reflect some of what she and other African Americans were subjected to in their daily lives in the late 1800s and early 1900s. I have tried to ensure that these derogatory terms and prejudicial comments have been placed in historical context, as well as to show how African Americans led the movement in the early 1900s to remove these harmful words from use. The pages that follow describe Sissieretta’s early years, how she became a singer, and her rise to fame on the concert stage. The second half of the book traces her career as the head of her own road company, the Black Patti Troubadours , later called the Black Patti Musical Comedy Company. The final chapter tells what little is known about Sissieretta’s retirement years in Rhode Island before her death in 1933. I have enjoyed adding to the knowledge about this remarkable singer. I hope my work will help to foster the recognition Sissieretta Jones so richly deserves. ...