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William Dawson: An Introduction

contrast to the guarded reception he and his students University of Missouri-Kansas City Archives, as well as
bore when he brought the Tuskegee Choir to Missis- the Missouri Valley Collection of the Kansas City Public
sippi in 1936, fifty years prior. Because it was the law Library.
at that time, the flyer announcing the concert included
a clause at the bottom indicating that the balcony was
reserved for “Negroes.” 18 NOTES

1 Mark Hugh Malone, William Levi Dawson: American Music
1990: Dawson Passes Away at 90 Educator (Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi,
Tuskegee University hosted a marvelous ninetieth 2023), 3.
birthday party September 24, 1989, two days before 2 Ibid., 4.
his actual birthdate. Dawson personally signed cop- 3 Ibid., 9.
ies of the program at the event, during which invited 4 Ibid., 14-16.
guests and Tuskegeeans paid tribute to him through the 5 Ibid., 25-32.
reading of scripture, singing of hymns, renditions of 6 Ibid., 27-28, 133-134.
his spirituals, and honors from state and national of- 7 Ibid., 32-33.
ficials. 8 Ibid., 33-36.
ACDA continued to recognize William Dawson as 9 Ibid., 40-41.
a gifted and celebrated composer with a post-birthday 10 Ibid., 55-60.
celebration at the Southern Division Convention a year 11 Ibid., 93-101.
later in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1990. My article, 12 Ibid., 61.
“William Dawson and the Tuskegee Choir,” appeared 13 Ibid., 61-73.
in the March 1990 issue of the Choral Journal, which 14 Ibid., 101-108.
coincided with the salute to Dawson “for his excellent 15 William L. Dawson, “Interpretations of the Religious Folk
achievements in choral music.” 19 Songs of the American Negro,” Etude, March 1955, 11.
Less than two months following the convention trib- 16 Malone, William Levi Dawson, 121-123.
ute, Dawson passed away on May 2, 1990. He had ful- 17 Ibid., 120-130.
filled a wish in his early childhood to “be something!” 18 Ibid., 129.
The song There is a Balm in Gilead seems to sum up Wil- 19 Mark Hugh Malone, “William Dawson and the Tuskegee
liam Dawson’s response to life with the words: “Some- Choir,” Choral Journal, March 1990, 17-20.
times I feel discouraged, And think my work’s in vain,
But then the Holy Spirit, Revives my soul again.”

There is More to Learn
about William Dawson
An important goal of the first published volume cel-
ebrating the accomplishments of this remarkable Af-
rican American composer and Alabama native is that
the rest of the “good news” about the life and work
of William Levi Dawson has yet to be discerned. His
extensive collection of papers and ephemera can be
found in the Rose Archives at Emory University in
Atlanta, Georgia. In addition, other sources can also
be discovered in the Tuskegee University Archives, the

12 CHORAL JOURNAL September 2024 Volume 65 Number 2