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David Lee Johnson, “The Contributions of William L. Black Baptist Church, 1880–1920 (Cambridge, Mass.: Har-
Dawson to the School of Music at Tuskegee Institute vard University Press, 1993).
and to Choral Music” (EdD diss., University of Illinois 18 Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in
at Urbana, Champaign, 1987), 136–66. the Age of Colorblindness (New York: New Press, 2012), 212.
4
See Gwynne Kuhner Brown, “Whatever Happened to Wil- 19 Marti Newland Slaten provides thoughtful consideration
liam Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony?” Journal of the So- of the ongoing relevance of respectability politics for
ciety for American Music 6, no. 4 (November 2012), 433–44. HBCU choirs in “Sounding ‘Black’: An Ethnography of
5
Bertha L. Gilbert, “Tuskegee Choir Opens Her Eyes to Racialized Vocality at Fisk University” (PhD diss., Co-
Negro Music,” Pittsburgh Courier, August 25, 1934. Note: lumbia University, 2014).
I have corrected “pianoissimo” and “undescribably,” 20 Mark Hugh Malone provides a detailed, succinct overview
found in the original. of encoded messages in spirituals in William Levi Dawson:
6
See Eugene Thamon Simpson, Hall Johnson: His Life, His American Music Educator (Jackson: University Press of Mis-
Spirit, and His Music (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, sissippi, 2023), 84–8.
2008), 5–25. 21 Dawson, “Interpretation of the Religious Folk-Songs of the
7
H.H., “Music,” New York Times, February 10, 1933. American Negro,” 61.
8
“Tuskegee Choir: Negro Group Gives Concert for Forum in 22 Cecile was named among the country’s “best dressed wom-
Academy of Music,” Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, Febru- en” in Ebony’s May 1963 issue.
ary 10, 1933. 23 Jeannie Gayle Pool, American Composer Zenobia Powell Perry:
9
Thomas B. Sherman, “Classical Records: Mozart Magic,” Race and Gender in the 20th Century (Lanham, MD: Scare-
St. Louis (Missouri) Post-Dispatch, December 5, 1955. crow Press, 2009), 93.
10 For more on this topic, see Gwynne Kuhner Brown, “Gen- 24 Quoted in Johnson, “The Contributions of William L.
der in the Life and Legacy of William Levi Dawson,” Dawson,” 151.
Journal of the American Musicological Society 73, no. 3 (Fall 25 Caroline Gebhard, “Ghosts of Tuskegee,” in Ralph Ellison in
2020), 754–63. Context, ed. Paul Devlin (Cambridge: Cambridge Univer-
11 The Tuskegee Institute Choir Sings Spirituals, Westminster Re- sity Press, 2021), 25–8.
cording Co., WM 18080, 1955. The album can be heard 26 Quoted in Johnson, “The Contributions of William L.
on YouTube. Vernon Huff writes perceptively about Dawson,” 143.
“There Is a Balm in Gilead” in Choral Journal 59, no. 10 27 Malone, William Levi Dawson: American Music Educator, 151.
(2019), 23–4. 28 Undated speech, William Levi Dawson Papers, Stuart A.
12 Elinor Hastings Foster and Arthur Shaw, quoted in Johnson, Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Em-
137 and 139. ory University. Quoted in Vernon Huff, “William Levi
13 Foster, quoted in Johnson, “The Contributions of William Dawson: An Examination of Selected Letters, Speeches,
L. Dawson,” 137. and Writings” (DMA thesis, Arizona State University,
14 William L. Dawson, handwritten biographical notes ca. 2013), 36. Huff transcribes the full handwritten speech
1973, William Levi Dawson Papers, Stuart A. Rose as Appendix A, 59–67.
Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Emory
University.
15 Huff illuminates Dawson’s originality by comparing four of
his spiritual arrangements to earlier printed versions in
“William Levi Dawson (1899–1990): Reexamination of
a Legacy,” Choral Journal 59, no. 10 (May 2019), 20–32.
16 William L. Dawson, “Interpretation of the Religious Folk-
Songs of the American Negro,” Etude (March 1955), 61.
17 The concept was first theorized by Evelyn Brooks Higgin-
botham in Righteous Discontent: The Women’s Movement in the

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