File:Eliza Champ McCabe (13270333994).jpg

English: Biography:Eliza Champ McCabe was a music teacher in private and public schools in Louisiana, Texas, and Washington for 65 years. Born in Louisiana and educated in Texas, she studied music at Wiley College. As a soprano soloist touring with the college choir, Eliza Champ was known as "The Nightingale of Texas." She became head of the music department at Gilbert Academy in Baldwin, LA., for two years, before returning to Texas to teach in the public schools. After the death of her husband, Lionel Vergil Gordon, in 1916, she went back to school to receive certification from the American Institute of Normal Methods at Northwestern University. She implemented a music program for Black students in the Beaumont, Tex., schools; organized a music club for adults; held choral contests; directed the church choir: and taught piano to private students. She established the Texas branch of the National Association of Negro Musicians and served as president for ten years. When she married Louis McCabe and moved to Tacoma in 1933, she was refused a teaching position in the public schools because of her race. She thereupon took positions with the WPA and as a practical nurse until her private piano classes were able to support her and her husband, who had become blind. She has been a member of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union since 1909, was president of the Washington State Association of Colored Women's Clubs from 1943 to 1951, and also affiliated with AAUW, NAACP, and NACWC.

Description: The Black Women Oral History Project interviewed 72 African American women between 1976 and 1981. With support from the Schlesinger Library, the project recorded a cross section of women who had made significant contributions to American society during the first half of the 20th century. Photograph taken by Judith Sedwick
Repository: Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America.
Collection: Black Women Oral History Project
Research Guide: http://guides.library.harvard.edu/schlesinger_bwohp

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