Ernestine Jessie Covington Dent
{{Short description|American musician and community leader}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Ernestine Jessie Covington Dent
| image = ErnestineJessieCovington1925.png
| alt = A young light-skinned African-American woman, with bouffant styled hair and a double ribbon headband across her forehead; she is wearing drop earrings and a scoop-necked dress or blouse
| caption = Ernestine Jessie Covington, from a 1925 issue of The Crisis
| other_names =
| birth_name = Ernestine Jessie Covington
| birth_date = May 19, 1904
| birth_place = Houston, Texas
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2001|03|10|1904|05|19}}
| death_place = New Orleans, Louisiana
| occupation = Pianist
| spouse(s) = Albert W. Dent
| children = 3 (Thomas Dent, Benjamin Albert Dent, Walter Jesse Dent)
}}
Ernestine Jessie Covington Dent (May 19, 1904 – March 10, 2001) was an American pianist, music educator, and community leader. She was the wife of Dillard University president Albert W. Dent, and the mother of poet and activist Thomas Dent.
Early life and education
Ernestine Jessie Covington was born in Houston, Texas,{{Cite journal|last=Thomas|first=Jesse O.|date=July 1936|title=Negroes and the Texas Centennial|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-mvpAAAAMAAJ&q=Jessie%20Covington%20Dent&pg=PA205|journal=The Crisis|volume=43|pages=206}} the daughter of Benjamin Jesse Covington and Jennie Belle Murphy Covington.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_rQRAQAAMAAJ&q=Jessie%20Covington%20Dent&pg=PA155|title=Who's who in Colored America|date=1942|publisher=Who's Who in Colored America Corporation|pages=155|language=en}}Pruitt, Bernardette (2008). [http://www.bu.edu/historic/conference08/Pruitt.pdf "Beautiful People: Community Agency, Work, and The Great Migration Phenomenon in Houston, Texas, 1900-1941"] (conference paper). Her father was a medical doctor; both of her parents were college graduates, and known to be musical. As prominent African-Americans in Houston, the Covingtons hosted house guests including Marian Anderson and Booker T. Washington.{{Cite web|url=https://legacy.lib.utexas.edu/taro/houpub/00151/hpub-00151.html|title=Dr. Benjamin Covington Collection MSS.0170|website=Houston Metropolitan Research Center, Houston Public Library|language=en|access-date=2020-02-10}}{{Cite journal|last1=Lundy|first1=Anne|last2=Dent|first2=Ernestine Jessie Covington|date=1984|title=Pioneer Concert Pianist|journal=The Black Perspective in Music|volume=12|issue=2|pages=245–265|doi=10.2307/1215025|jstor=1215025|issn=0090-7790}}
Covington began studying piano and violin as a little girl, with Madame Corilla Rochon, a neighbor.{{Cite web|url=https://www.amistadresearchcenter.org/single-post/2017/01/29/NOLA4Women-Jessie-Covington-Dent-Pianist-Community-Leader-and-First-Lady-of-Dillard-University|title=NOLA4Women: Jessie Covington Dent: Pianist, Community Leader and First Lady of Dillard University|last=Thomson|first=Laura J.|date=January 29, 2017|website=Amistad Research Center|language=en|access-date=2020-02-10}} By the time she was a teenager, she was playing music in a local women's orchestra{{Cite book|last=Pruitt|first=Bernadette|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5X-zAQAAQBAJ&q=Jessie%20Covington%20Dent&pg=PA128|title=The Other Great Migration: The Movement of Rural African Americans to Houston, 1900-1941|date=2013-10-16|publisher=Texas A&M University Press|isbn=978-1-62349-003-4|pages=128–129|language=en}} and at Baptist church services.{{Cite web|url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fdabp|title=Ernestine Jessie Covington Dent|last=Pruitt|first=Bernadette|date=2013|website=The Handbook of Texas Online, Texas State Historical Association (TSHA)|access-date=2020-02-10}}
Covington graduated at the top of her class from Houston Colored High School, and attended Oberlin Conservatory of Music as a music student from 1920 to 1924, where she was a charter member of Pi Kappa Lambda honor society.{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Ernestine Jessie Covington Dent, 1913-1985, undated, 4.|url=https://amistad-finding-aids.tulane.edu/repositories/2/archival_objects/76400|access-date=2021-07-12|website=Amistad Research Center}} After graduating from Oberlin,{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/45462087/houston_girl_wins_1000_scholarship/|title=Houston Girl Wins $1,000 Scholarship|date=1924-11-01|work=The Pittsburgh Courier|access-date=2020-02-23|pages=1|via=Newspapers.com}} she pursued further studies on scholarships at the Juilliard Musical Foundation,{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6915908/the_new_york_age/|title=Second Race Girl Wins Juilliard Mus. Foundation Award|date=November 1, 1924|work=The New York Age|access-date=February 10, 2020|page=7|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/43978432/jessie_covington_returns/|title=Jessie Covington Returns|date=1926-10-02|work=The New York Age|access-date=2020-02-10|pages=7|via=Newspapers.com}} where she worked with James Friskin and Olga Samaroff. Covington was the first African American and the first woman to attend Juilliard. She earned a master's degree in piano at Oberlin College in 1934, with a thesis on the compositions of Franz Liszt. {{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/43979502/jessie_covington_dent_pianist_will/|title=Jessie Covington Dent, Pianist, Will Appear at B. S. T. C. Tonight|date=1935-02-13|work=Bluefield Daily Telegraph|access-date=2020-02-10|pages=4|via=Newspapers.com}} Dent accomplished this with support from the Rosenwald Fund.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/43979763/mrs_albert_w_dent_gets_rosenwald_grant/|title=Mrs. Albert W. Dent Gets Rosenwald Grant|date=1933-07-08|work=The Pittsburgh Courier|access-date=2020-02-10|pages=8}}
Career
= Music =
Dent played piano in recitals and on radio in the 1920s and 1930s.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/43979373/jessie_covington_heard_by_southern/|title=Jessie Covington Heard by Southern Audiences|date=1926-07-17|work=The New York Age|access-date=2020-02-10|pages=7|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news|last=Calvin|first=Floyd J.|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/43979125/madame_jackery_jessie_covington_on/|title=Madame Jackery, Jessie Covington on 'Courier Radio Hour'|date=1927-11-19|work=The Pittsburgh Courier|access-date=2020-02-10|pages=1|via=Newspapers.com}} During this time, she performed with opera singer Florence Cole Talbert. She taught music in Houston and at Bishop College in Marshall, Texas, where she chaired the piano department. She served on the board of the New Orleans Philharmonic from 1971–1976. Dent played a vital role in the desegregation of orchestra concerts in New Orleans, and she encouraged the increase of classical musicians of color in symphony orchestras and teaching positions. In 1985, she was the first recipient of the Fine Arts Award from the Amistad Research Center.
= Community leadership =
Dent retired from performing in 1936, but remained active as a clubwoman, and was a social presence as a university president's wife from 1941 to 1969. As official hostess at Dillard University, she welcomed into her home prominent guests, including Martin Luther King Jr., Duke Ellington, Thurgood Marshall, and Eleanor Roosevelt.{{Cite journal|date=April 2, 2001|title=Jessie C. Dent, 96, New Orleans Pianist, Teacher, and Community Leader who Inspired Creation of the Ebony Fashion Fair, Dies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8cMDAAAAMBAJ&q=Jessie+Covington+Dent&pg=PA55|journal=Jet|pages=55–56}}
Dent was a founding member of the Flint-Goodridge Hospital Women's Auxiliary{{Cite book|title=Flint-Goodridge Hospital Collection.|date=1932|language=en|oclc=53908472}} as well as the New Orleans chapter of the historically black sorority Delta Sigma Theta.{{Cite news|last=Cansler|first=O. J.|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/43979640/jessie_covingtondent_charms_in_piano/|title=Jessie Covington-Dent Charms in Piano Recital|date=1939-02-18|work=The Pittsburgh Courier|access-date=2020-02-10|pages=8|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/7190077/singing_sorors_of_dst_louise_burge/|title=Singing Sorors of DST Louise Burge, Frankye Dixon, & Jessie Covington Dent|date=1948-01-10|work=The Pittsburgh Courier|access-date=2020-02-10|pages=9|via=Newspapers.com}} She was credited for inspiring the creation of the Ebony Fashion Fair, a touring event that raised funds for college scholarships and other charities.
Personal life and legacy
Ernestine Covington married college president Albert W. Dent in 1931,{{Cite journal|last=Richardson|first=Joe M.|date=1996|title=Albert W. Dent: A Black New Orleans Hospital and University Administrator|journal=Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association|volume=37|issue=3|pages=309–323|jstor=4233313|issn=0024-6816}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/43978285/dr_and_mrs_covington_announce/|title=Dr. and Mrs. Covington Announce Engagement of Their Daughter|date=1931-05-23|work=The Pittsburgh Courier|access-date=2020-02-10|pages=9|via=Newspapers.com}} in a "brilliant wedding" in Houston. Composer and Howard University music professor Camille Nickerson played the organ at the ceremony, and Manet Harrison Fowler was a soprano soloist; biologist Samuel M. Nabrit stood as Dent's best man.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/43978615/ernestine_covington_becomes_mrs_a_w/|title=Ernestine Covington Becomes Mrs. A. W. Dent in Brilliant Wedding|date=1931-07-11|work=The New York Age|access-date=2020-02-10|pages=10|via=Newspapers.com}} They had three sons. Their eldest son, Thomas Covington Dent (1932) became a poet and civil rights activist.{{Cite book|last=Flucker|first=Turry|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=934kUiIribMC&q=Jessie%20Covington%20Dent&pg=PT158|title=African Americans of New Orleans|date=2012-09-18|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|isbn=978-1-4396-2241-4|language=en}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-1998-06-13-9806120382-story.html|title=Tom Dent, NAACP Worker Campaigned for Civil Rights|date=June 13, 1998|website=The New York Times|language=en-US|access-date=2020-02-10}}{{Cite web|title=Dent, Tom (1932-1998) {{!}} Amistad Research Center|url=http://amistadresearchcenter.tulane.edu/archon/?p=creators/creator&id=101|access-date=2021-07-13|website=amistadresearchcenter.tulane.edu}} She was widowed when Albert Dent died in 1984, and she died in 2001, aged 96 years. The Albert and Jessie Covington Dent Papers are archived in the Amistad Research Center.{{Cite web|url=https://www.amistadresearchcenter.org/single-post/2016/03/21/New-Orleans-Movers-and-Shakers-The-Dent-Family|title=50 Years/50 Collections - New Orleans Movers and Shakers: The Dent Family|last=Thomson|first=Laura J.|date=March 21, 2016|website=Amistad Research Center|language=en|access-date=2020-02-10}}{{Cite book|last=Rogers|first=Kim Lacy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hZw-AAAAQBAJ&q=Albert+W.+Dent+Papers&pg=PA239|title=Righteous Lives: Narratives of the New Orleans Civil Rights Movement|date=1995-01-01|publisher=NYU Press|isbn=978-0-8147-6947-8|pages=120, 239|language=en}} There was a Jessie Covington Dent Music Festival in 1998, and there is a Jessie Covington Dent Memorial Scholarship in Music, both at Dillard University, named in her memory.
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://scholarship.rice.edu/handle/1911/36863 "Program from Memorial Service for Jessie Covington Dent"] (March 15, 2001), Museum of Houston and the Robert J. Terry Library at Texas Southern University.
- {{Find a Grave|id=168748552|name=}}
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Category:American women pianists
Category:Oberlin College alumni