Edith Player Brown
{{short description|American artist}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Edith Player Brown
| image = EdithPlayerBrown1925.png
| alt = Edith Player at age 17, a young African-American woman wearing her hair in a 1920s bob with bangs.
| caption = Edith Player at age 17, from a 1925 issue of The Crisis
| other_names =
| birth_name = Edith Amelia Player
| birth_date = December 14, 1907
| birth_place = Jackson, Mississippi, U.S.
| death_date = November 5, 1999
| death_place = Greensboro, North Carolina, U.S.
| occupation = Musician, artist, arts educator
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
| spouse(s) =
| children = 3, including Linda Beatrice Brown
| relatives = Willa Beatrice Player (sister)
}}
Edith Player Brown (December 14, 1907 – November 5, 1999), born Edith Amelia Player, was an American musician, artist, and arts educator in Akron, Ohio.
Early life
Edith Amelia Player was born in Jackson, Mississippi, the daughter of Clarence Cromwell Player and Beatrice Day Player. The Player family moved to Akron in 1917, as part of the Great Migration. In 1925, at age 17, she won a statewide "music memory contest", and a scholarship to Ohio Wesleyan University.{{Cite journal|last=|first=|date=April 1925|title=The Horizon|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=inu.30000054421528&view=1up&seq=276|journal=The Crisis|volume=29|pages=270|via=}} She graduated from Ohio Wesleyan in 1929;{{Cite news|last=|first=|date=1927-01-20|title=Akron Student is Honored at College|pages=25|work=The Akron Beacon Journal|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/69453230/akron-student-is-honored-at-college/|access-date=2021-02-05|via=Newspapers.com}} she also attended Oberlin Conservatory of Music.{{Cite news|last=|first=|date=1928-04-06|title=Fraternity Names Musician of Akron|pages=10|work=The Akron Beacon Journal|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/69453400/fraternity-names-musician-of-akron/|access-date=2021-02-05|via=Newspapers.com}} Her younger sister was Willa Beatrice Player (1909–2003), who became president of Bennett College.{{Cite book|last=Brown|first=Linda Beatrice|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O6_LPAAACAAJ|title=The Long Walk: The Story of the Presidency of Willa B. Player at Bennett College|date=1998|publisher=Bennett College|language=en}}
Career
Edith Player trained as a pianist, played organ at church services, and taught piano for much of her life, in private lessons and as music director with the Association for Colored Community Work.{{Cite news|last=Thompson|first=George W.|date=1930-04-09|title=Social Progress|pages=4|work=The Akron Beacon Journal|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/69455431/social-progressgeorge-w-thompson/|access-date=2021-02-05|via=Newspapers.com}} She also provided music at women's club meetings in the 1930s,{{Cite news|last=|first=|date=1931-03-23|title=Federation Activities|pages=10|work=The Akron Beacon Journal|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/69455052/federation-activities/|access-date=2021-02-05|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news|last=|first=|date=1931-04-02|title=Club Women Elect Group, Hear Program|pages=14|work=The Akron Beacon Journal|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/69455201/club-women-elect-group-hear-program/|access-date=2021-02-05|via=Newspapers.com}} and in 1935 she accompanied a chorus at an anti-lynching mass meeting in Akron.{{Cite journal|last=|first=|date=April 1935|title=Branch News|url=https://archive.org/details/sim_crisis_1935-04_42_4/page/120/mode/2up?q=Edith+Player+Brown|journal=The Crisis|volume=42|pages=120|via=Internet Archive}} She composed the music for the Bennett College alma mater.[https://archive.org/details/bennettbelle1993benn/page/n1/mode/2up?q=Edith+Player+Brown "Alma Mater"], Bennett Belle (1993): 2. via Internet Archive.
Brown began painting seriously in mid-life, had a one-woman show of abstract works in 1965,{{Cite news|last=Weiner|first=Bernard|date=1965-01-10|title=Edith's Honest 'Poet'|pages=102|work=The Akron Beacon Journal|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/69456588/ediths-honest-poetbernard-weiner/|access-date=2021-02-05|via=Newspapers.com}} and had paintings in the collections of the Akron Art Museum, the Akron-Summit County Public Library,{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Untitled by Edith Brown|url=https://www.summitlive365.com/public-art/untitled-12/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200923145234/https://www.summitlive365.com/public-art/untitled-12/ |archive-date=2020-09-23 |access-date=2021-02-05|website=Summit Live365}} and Bennett College. She taught painting classes at Bennett College and the Akron Art Institute, and moved into multimedia techniques in later years, incorporating collaged photographs and text into her paintings.McKee, Pamela. [https://academic.csuohio.edu/tah/regional_arts/africanamerican/p41creativity.pdf "Creativity in a Time of Social Change: African American Art in Cleveland, 1940 to 1970"] in Yet still we rise : African American art in Cleveland, 1920-1970 (exhibit catalog, 1996): 47-48. {{ISBN|9780963956248}} She was active in the YWCA, the Urban League, and Alpha Kappa Alpha.{{Cite news|last=|first=|date=1999-11-08|title=Obituary for Edith Amelia Player Brown|pages=22|work=The Akron Beacon Journal|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/47857009/obituary-for-edith-amelia-player-brown/|access-date=2021-02-05|via=Newspapers.com}}
Personal life
Edith Player married Raymond R. Brown, who was a social worker, a lecturer at the University of Akron, and an executive with the Urban League.Mihelich, Dennis N. [https://history.nebraska.gov/sites/history.nebraska.gov/files/doc/publications/1979-3-WWII_Omaha_UL.pdf "World War II and the Transformation of the Omaha Urban League"] Nebraska History 60 (1979): 401-423.{{Cite news|last=McMahan|first=Kim|date=1989-12-24|title=Modesty, Dedication Strong Suits of Retired AU Lecturer|pages=49|work=The Akron Beacon Journal|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/69455675/modesty-dedication-strong-suits-of/|access-date=2021-02-05|via=Newspapers.com}} They had four children; one of their daughters is author Linda Beatrice Brown.{{Cite book|last=Brown|first=Linda Beatrice|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dYaQmQEACAAJ|title=Belles of Liberty: Gender, Bennett College, and the Civil Rights Movement in Greensboro, North Carolina|date=2013|publisher=Women and Wisdom Press|isbn=978-0-9888937-0-2|language=en}} Her husband died in 1998,{{Cite news|last=|first=|date=1998-08-23|title=Area Civil Rights Pioneer Raymond R. Brown, 91|pages=28|work=The Akron Beacon Journal|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/69454612/area-civil-rights-pioneer-raymond-r/|access-date=2021-02-05|via=Newspapers.com}} and she died in 1999, aged 91 years, at her daughter's home in Greensboro, North Carolina.{{Cite news|last=Haferd|first=Laura|date=1999-11-08|title=Former Akron Artist Dies in N. Carolina|pages=C1|work=The Akron Beacon Journal|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/69453645/former-akron-artist-dies-in-n/|access-date=2021-02-05|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news|last=Haferd|first=Laura|date=1999-11-08|title=Brown Memorial Service Planned for Next Week|pages=C4|work=The Akron Beacon Journal|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/68533128/the-akron-beacon-journal/|access-date=2021-02-05}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- Shirla Robinson McClain, [https://www.akronlibrary.org/images/Divisions/SpecCol/images/Contribution_-Blacks_Akron.pdf "The Contributions of Blacks in Akron, 1825-1975"] (PhD dissertation, University of Akron 1975).
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{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Edith Player}}
Category:Artists from Akron, Ohio
Category:Ohio Wesleyan University alumni
Category:Oberlin Conservatory of Music alumni