Anna Gardner Goodwin
*The birth of Anna Gardner Goodwin is celebrated on this date in 1874. She was a Black composer, mainly of religious music and marches.
Anna Gardner was born in Augusta, Georgia, and is the daughter of Daniel and Anna Gardner. Dan Gardner was remembered as "the March King of Augusta," a cornet player who led a Sunday afternoon concert series for Black Augustans. Anna Gardner Goodwin later wrote, "To dance and watch my father blow his cornet with such enthusiasm created within me a desire to make music." She was assistant house director of the Chicago YWCA in the 1930s.
Goodwin wrote and taught music for much of her adult life. She married the Rev. George A. Goodwin, a professor of theology at Morehouse College, in 1895. They had a son, George Jr., and daughters, Janie, Anna, and Eunice. She assisted him in playing and leading music at Morehouse and accompanying the school's glee club. She was widowed when George died in 1914. Her published compositions included "I Will Follow Jesus" (1906), "Do Not Touch the Wine Cup" (1906), "Jesus Don't Pass Me By" (1906), "Praise the Lord" (1906), "Tell the Story Everywhere" (1906), "Willing Workers" (1906), "Adalene" (1909), and "I'm Lonely Just for You" (1934).
Her last composition, "Freedom to All March," was written to commemorate the 1951 race riot in Cicero, Illinois. Goodwin's "Cuba Libre March" (1898) was included in the book Black Women Composers: A Century of Piano Music, 1893-1990 (1992). As a widow, she lived in Chicago with her widowed sister, Janie Gardner Burruss. Anna Gardner Goodwin died in 1959, aged 85 years.
Her papers are archived at the Center for Black Music Research, Columbia College Chicago. Her granddaughter Jane Alexander Robinson was one of the founders of the Michigan Association of Black Psychologists. Jane's sons, David E. Robinson III and Richard Robinson, became professional musicians and composers. Anna Gardner Goodwin's great-grandson Richard Robinson became a full member of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in 1989. In 2010, he was a Kresge Arts Fellow.
