Lulu Vere Childers
*This date marks the birth of Lulu Vere Childers in 1870. She was a Black classic vocalist and educator.
She was born in Dry Ridge, KY. She studied voice at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, earning her B.A. in Music in 1896. She was a teacher at Knoxville College that same year and joined the faculty of Howard University in 1905. She continued to perform, singing contralto in a 1908 concert organized by E. Azalia Hackley at the Philadelphia Academy of Music.
A close friend of Marian Anderson, Lulu Vere Childers became the founder and director of the Howard University School of Music from 1909 to 1942. She accomplished major successes with the Howard Orchestra, Band, Choral Society, Women's Glee Club, and Men's Glee Club. Lulu Vere Childers Hall is located in the Arts Building at Howard University. She died on March 6, 1946.
Dictionary of American Negro Biography,
by R. W. Logan & M. R. Winston;
Catalog of Officers and Graduates, by Oberlin College (1905)
A History of Three African American Women Who Made Important Contributions to Music Education Between 1903-1960 (thesis)
by D. R. Patterson.
Subjects: Education and Educators, Migration North, Musicians, Opera, Singers, Song Writers, Migration South
Geographic Region: Dry Ridge, Grant County, Kentucky / Washington, D.C.
