The Music School Settlement for Colored People was a

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

school established and operated to provide music education for

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

children, who were generally excluded from other music schools. The school was founded in the memory of violinist and composer

John Thomas Douglass John Thomas Douglass (1847–1886) was an American composer, virtuoso violinist, conductor and teacher. He is best known for composing '' Virginia's Ball'' (1868), which is generally regarded as the first opera written by a Black American comp ...

. The term “settlement school” is to be understood within the context of the

settlement movement The settlement movement was a reformist social movement that began in the 1880s and peaked around the 1920s in United Kingdom and the United States. Its goal was to bring the rich and the poor of society together in both physical proximity and s ...

started in 1884 in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. Growing concern in Victorian England concerning poverty gave rise to a movement whereby those connected to universities settled students in slum areas to live and work alongside local people. Through their efforts, “settlement houses” were established for education, savings, sports, and arts. “Settlement schools” are adjuncts of organizations founded to provide education in various disciplines to the needy. In the United States, the two largest and most influential settlement houses were Chicago's

Hull House Hull House was a settlement house in Chicago, Illinois, United States that was co-founded in 1889 by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr. Located on the Near West Side of the city, Hull House (named after the original house's first owner Cha ...

(founded by

Jane Addams Laura Jane Addams (September 6, 1860 May 21, 1935) was an American settlement activist, reformer, social worker, sociologist, public administrator, and author. She was an important leader in the history of social work and women's suffrage ...

and

Ellen Gates Starr Ellen Gates Starr (March 19, 1859 – February 10, 1940) was an American social reformer and activist. With Jane Addams, she founded Chicago's Hull House, an adult education center, in 1889; the settlement house expanded to 13 buildings in ...

in 1889) and the

Henry Street Settlement The Henry Street Settlement is a not-for-profit social service agency in the Lower East Side neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City that provides social services, arts programs and health care services to New Yorkers of all ages. It was founde ...

in New York (founded by

Lillian Wald Lillian D. Wald (March 10, 1867 – September 1, 1940) was an American nurse, humanitarian and author. She was known for contributions to human rights and was the founder of American community nursing. She founded the Henry Street Settlement in N ...

in 1893). During the 1911-12 season,

David Mannes David Mannes (16 February 186625 April 1959) was an American violinist, conductor, educator, and community organizer. Biography David Mannes was born in New York in 1866. He studied the violin in Harlem with composer and violinist John Thomas ...

, a European-American violinist, and other supporters founded "The Music School Settlement for Colored People". It was to enable "for the first time in the history of the nation the opportunity for talented black youngsters to obtain excellent musical training at nominal fees."Walton In keeping with institutionalized segregation of the times, the school was founded to be an

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

version of the Music School Settlement, which did not accept Black students. The Music School Settlement for Colored People is a small chapter in the much larger history of African-American education in the early 20th century.Luker

References and reading

* * *{{cite journal , last = Luker , first = Ralph E. , title = Missions, Institutional Churches, and Settlement Houses: The Black Experience, 1885-1910 , journal = The Journal of Negro History , volume = 69 , issue = 3/4 , pages = 101–113 , date = Summer–Autumn 1984 , issn= 0022-2992 , doi = 10.2307/2717616 , publisher = Association for the Study of African-American Life and History, Inc. , jstor = 2717616 , s2cid = 150201810 Historically black schools Historically segregated African-American schools in New York (state) Music schools in New York City

See also

References and reading