Formerly enslaved students sang spirituals to save their university. The Fisk Jubilee Singers, 1871

In October 1871, nine students from Fisk University left Nashville with their music director and little money. Their school was nearly bankrupt. They hoped to raise funds by singing.

Fisk University had been founded in 1866, after the Civil War, to educate freed African Americans. By 1871, it was in financial crisis, with buildings falling apart. The treasurer and music director, George L. White, decided to take a group of students on tour.

The singers

Most of the original singers were formerly enslaved or the children of enslaved people. They included Ella Sheppard, the pianist, Maggie Porter, Jennie Jackson, Isaac Dickerson and others.

Spirituals

At first, the group sang popular songs and ballads to mixed reactions. As the tour continued, they began to sing spirituals, the religious songs created by enslaved African Americans, such as “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot”, “Steal Away” and “Go Down, Moses”. These songs, which they had learned in their families and communities, moved audiences deeply.

White named them the Jubilee Singers, after the year of jubilee in the Old Testament, when slaves were freed (Leviticus 25).

Success

The tour struggled at first, but after performing for church gatherings in the northern United States, the singers gained fame. They sang for President Ulysses S. Grant at the White House.

Europe

In 1873, the Jubilee Singers toured Britain. They sang for Queen Victoria, who is said to have commissioned a portrait of the group, which still hangs at Fisk University. They toured Europe, performing for royalty and large audiences.

Jubilee Hall

The singers raised about 150,000 dollars, a huge sum at the time, which paid for Jubilee Hall, the first permanent building for the education of Black students in the American South. It still stands on the Fisk campus.

Legacy

The Fisk Jubilee Singers introduced spirituals to the world, preserving songs that might otherwise have been lost. Their success influenced gospel music, choral traditions and the image of African American culture abroad.

Fisk University still has a Jubilee Singers ensemble, which won a Grammy Award in 2021. Each year on 6 October, Fisk celebrates Jubilee Day, marking the date the first singers left Nashville.

They set out to save a school with songs their parents had sung in slavery. The songs outlived the debt and are still sung today.