America W. Robinson
{{short description|American singer}}
America W. Robinson (January 1855 – 23 April 1912) was an American educator. Robinson was in the first graduating class of Fisk University and sang as a contralto with the Fisk Jubilee Singers. She was the first woman to graduate from Fisk University.{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/beaconlightsrac00hamigoog|quote=america Robinson fisk.|title=Beacon Lights of the Race|last=Hamilton|first=Green Polonius|publisher=E. H. Clarke and Brother|year=1911|pages=[https://archive.org/details/beaconlightsrac00hamigoog/page/n317 311]}}
Life and times
Robinson was born into slavery in January 1855 near Murfreesboro, Tennessee, where both her parents were slaves. Her father was a carpenter. When the Civil War started, his master opened an ammunition factory that produced guns for the Army of the South. He worked in the factory as a carpenter, making stocks for muskets.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XLZFxMw-MAcC&q=%22dark+midnight+when+i+rise%22|title=Dark Midnight When I Rise: The Story of the Fisk Jubilee Singers|last=Ward|first=Andrew|publisher=Harper Collins|year=2001|isbn=9780060934828}}
The Battle of Stones River, 31 December 1862 – 2 January 1863 took place at Murfreesboro. Robinson witnessed treatment of soldiers from both Union and Confederate armies in a makeshift hospital established in her family's house. Her father took the chance to hide their family in a Union Army wagon, and they all escaped to the city of Nashville, finding freedom with the Union troops that occupied the city.
In 1912 when Robinson died, her address was listed as 502 West Pearl Street in Jackson, Mississippi.Editor. (1912). Class 1875. College Alumni. Catalog of the Officers, Students and Alumni of Fisk University. Volume 3. Issue 3.
Education and training
In 1866, Robinson enrolled on opening day in the new Fisk Colored School at Nashville, founded by the American Missionary Association. Her teaching career began at the age of thirteen. She earned money for tuition and living expenses by teaching during the summer breaks each year.{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/storyofjubileesi00mars|title=The Story of the Jubilee Singers Including Their Songs|last=Marsh|first=J.B.T.|publisher=Hodder and Stoughton|year=1903}}{{Cite web|url=http://amst312.umwblogs.org/2009/01/30/the-fisk-jubilee-singers/|title=The Fisk Jubilee Singers|date=30 January 2009|website=Our Nineteenth-Century American Museum|access-date=26 September 2016}}Kwami, Paul T. (2015). Fisk Jubilee Singers. Our History. Who We Are. About Us. Fisk University. Nashville, Tennessee.
In 1870, the US Census recorded the Robinson family lived in Davidson County, Tennessee. Her father Patrick Robinson, age 40, was noted as born in Virginia, and with the occupation of carpenter. He was classified as mulatto or mixed-race. Her mother was Elizabeth Robinson, age 34, born in Tennessee, also classified as mixed-race, which meant that both lines (and America and her siblings) had European-American ancestry as well as African. Her brother Martin Robinson, age 11, born in Tennessee, was also still living at home.United States Census, 1870. Database with images. FamilySearch. America Robinson in household of Patrick Robinson. Tennessee, United States. Citing p. 26, family 237. NARA microfilm publication M593. Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration. FHL microfilm 553,020.
In 1875, Fisk University graduated James Dallas Burrus, John Houston Burrus, America W. Robinson, and Virginia Eliza Walker as the first class of Fisk University. These classmates were the first blacks to earn a bachelor's degree from a liberal arts college located south of the Mason–Dixon linedeGregory, Crystal A. (May 1999). Raising a Nonviolent Army: Four Nashville Black Colleges and the Century-Long Struggle for Civil Rights, 1830s–1930s. Dissertation, Doctor of Philosophy in History. Vanderbilt University. Nashville, Tennessee. In the late 1870s, Robinson and James Dallas Burrus became engaged, and Burrus borrowed money from her in order to attend graduate school at Dartmouth. But they ended their engagement by 1878.Richardson, Joe M. "A negro success story: James Dallas Burrus." The Journal of Negro History 50, no. 4 (1965): 274-282. In 1890, Robinson earned a Master of Arts degree from Fisk.
Robinson married Edward Lucas, a schoolteacher, and the couple moved to Noxubee County, Mississippi. She opened a teacher's school and dedicated her life to the education of black children.Editor. (June 1987). Outstanding Blacks. Noxubee County Mississippi Quarterly Bulletin. 42(June 1987): 2-3.
Fisk Jubilee Singers
Robinson became a member of the Fisk Jubilee Singers, and was the only Jubilee singer to graduate from Fisk University.{{Cite journal|last=Moon|first=Fletcher F.|date=2016|title=So "Fisk"ticated Ladies and Gentlemen: Highlights from 150 Years of Fisk University's Musical Tradition, Impact and Influence|url=http://digitalscholarship.tnstate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1014&context=lib|journal=Library Faculty and Staff Publications and Presentations|volume=15|access-date=27 September 2016}} Because they were touring, she did not attend her graduation ceremony.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6798587//|title=The First commencement Exercises of the Institution|date=28 May 1875|work=Nashville Union and American|access-date=27 September 2016|via=Newspapers.com}} For the third tour from January 1875 until July 1878, she was a lead contralto with the Fisk Jubilee Singers.
The group photograph of the Fisk Jubilee Singers, circa 1870s, shows the following members: Jennie Jackson – soprano, Maggie L. Porter – soprano, Edmund W. Watkins – bass, Mabel R. Lewis – contralto, Ella Sheppard – pianist, Maggie Carnes – soprano, Hinton D. Alexander – tenor, Frederick J. Loudin – bass, and America W. Robinson – contralto. During her time with the singers, Robinson asked for and won better pay and working conditions.{{Cite web|url=http://www.blackpast.org/aah/robinson-lucas-america-w-ca-1855-post-1920|title=Robinson, America W. (ca 1855-post 1920)|last=Ward|first=Andrew|website=Black Past.org|date=26 April 2008 |access-date=26 September 2016}}
Robinson continued to tour with the Fisk Jubilee Singers until 1878. After touring Europe for 3 years, she stayed in Europe and studied French and German before returning to the United States to make a life as a teacher. She earned a master's degree in 1890. She became principal of the Macon Public School in Macon, Mississippi.Collins, L.M. (1989). One Hundred Years of Fisk University, 1875-1935. Hemphill’s Creative Printing, Inc. Nashville, Tennessee.
References
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Category:People from Murfreesboro, Tennessee
Category:Singers from Nashville, Tennessee
Category:Fisk University alumni
Category:19th-century African-American women singers
Category:19th-century American women singers
Category:African-American educators
Category:African-American women educators