Estelle Ricketts (publication)
*This date in 1871 celebrates the birth of Estelle Ricketts, a Black composer who lived in Darby, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. She lived with her mother, her younger brother, and her father, who operated a boarding stable. She was the only one in her family who could read and write.
Career
Estelle Ricketts's 1893 parlor piano piece, 'Rippling Spring Waltz,' is the earliest known piano solo written by a Black woman. Rickets' piece is in Gertrude Bustill Mossell's 1908 book The Work of the Afro-American Woman, which highlights the achievements of African American women in various disciplines.
