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Books by Tom Dent
Southern
Journey /
Blue Lights and River Songs /
The Free Southern Theater
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Jessie
Covington Dent
Concert
Artist & Humanist
By
Rudolph Lewis
On
Afro-American college campuses in the 1920s and 1930s, Jessie
Covington Dent won acclaim as a concert pianist. A reporter for
the Nashville Tennesseean analyzed her style as follows: "The most
striking thing about her playing is her lovely tone. Technique she
has in abundance, but the listener does not think so much of that
as the poetry of her playing. She plays with freedom and repose of
style and never seeks to excite her hearers by a shadowy bravura
of needless forcing of tone." In an autobiographical sketch,
Mrs. Dent suggests that it might have been a "prenatal
influence," for "I showed signs of . . . musical talent
at the age of two years."
In
their Ennis Street home in Houston, Dr. Benjamin Covington, a
graduate of Meharry College, and his wife Jennie Murphy Covington,
a graduate of a Texas Baptist College, created a musical
environment for their daughter Jessie. After her marriage to
Benjamin, Jennie began piano lessons under Madame Corilla Rochon,
former native of Honduras and a life long friend. Jessie's father
sang in a quartet, played piano, violin, cornet, and the guitar.
At age four, Jessie also began to take piano lessons with Madame
Rochon and continued them until she went to Oberlin.
One
of Jessie Dent's "fondest musical recollections is of the
innumerable afternoons and evenings" that she and her father
would play together. "I at the piano and he with his
instruments, changing from one to the other, attracted the
attention of neighbors and passersby--even the streetcar motormen
would stop their cars long enough to hear a few strains of
music."
Learning
the Semi-Classics
In
1915 when Jessie was eleven, Jennie, along with Madame Rochon and a
German music teacher, organized a women's orchestra. So that
Jessie
could be a part of the orchestra, Dr. Covington arranged for her
to take violin lessons with a young man who was a mail clerk on a
train that ran between New Orleans and Houston, named Willie
Nickerson, brother of the famous Camille Nickerson, writer of Creole
songs. The orchestra played at various concerts and affairs, Mrs.
Dent possesses a photo of the 14-member Ladies Orchestra, which
pictures her at twelve years old sitting in the first row with a
violin.
Willie
Nickerson, the violin teacher, suggested to the Covingtons that
they send Jessie to Oberlin, a college with "a reputation for
being perhaps the greatest of the music conservatories, with fine
teachers and a fine curriculum, with high ideals and
standards." Camille, Willie's sister, graduated from Oberlin
in 1916 with a B.A. degree in music. Jessie's mother, who was
"very civic minded," organized a recital to present
Camille to Houston. Camille's recital and her regard for her alma
mater convinced the Covingtons to send Jessie to Oberlin, once an
underground station for slaves and the "first college in our
country to admit women." The Covingtons applied two years
before Jessie completed her high school studies.
In
Houston, Jessie was a member of Bethel Baptist Church. She played
for its Sunday school, which granted her two dollars a month for
her services. After her graduation in 1920 from Houston Colored
High School as class valedictorian,, Jessie received from the
church's Sunday School "a diamond ring as an expression of
their appreciation." Her father added other diamonds; Mrs.
Dent. still has the ring, which is now a cluster.
Before
Jessie entered Oberlin she took a correspondence course to learn
the scales, keys, chords, and chord changes. Her father helped her
to "learn the solmization syllables in order to meet a
solmization examination on the first day." In her first
semester at Oberlin, Jessie caught on rapidly and was allowed to go
into an advanced class in ear training. Jessie's course followed
the formal conservatory requirements. She had a major in piano and
a minor in violin.
"During
the first year, I appeared on the public student recital,"
Mrs. Dent recalled, "which was considered quite an attainment
for a first-year student." In 1924, Jessie Covington graduated
from Oberlin with a B.A. degree in music. Oberlin honored her by
allowing her to play a recital and at commencement with its
symphony. Jessie played at both programs Saint-Saens Second
Piano Concerto, Op. 22.
Juilliard
& Classical Piano
Dr.
Jesse Moorland of the National YMCA sent Jessie Covington an
announcement of the establishment of the Juilliard Musical
Foundation, out of which came Juilliard School of Music. The
Foundation was to give scholarships of $1,000. The young Miss
Jessie Covington arranged a trip to New York. She played for the
judges. She waited for the judges to determine her fitness for the
program. She won her first of four competitive fellowships. Jessie
studied with Madame Olga Samaroff for two years and with James
Friskin the final two years. "I must say that those four
years of my training," Mrs. Dent recalled, "were filled
to the brim with the finest in training class work, private
lessons, and advanced theory; wonderful contacts through
privileges and experiences for hearing and seeing great
personalities and performances on the concert and operatic stage
and exposures to the finest musical culture--the broadening
effects of which could only be reaped with maturity."
In
Houston, with Madame Rochon and the Ladies Orchestra, Jessie
Covington did not study "the real classics, except maybe in
one or two instances when they appeared in a book called Popular
Classics." At Juilliard, Mrs. Dent recalled in an
interview with Anne Lundy (The
Black Perspective in Music, Fall 1984), "some of those
students were artists." Jessie had not had the musical
background of many of the students. "Now I had only seen one
opera when I got to New York, and that was Il
Travatore. We were way up in the 'peanut gallery' and felt
fortunate to be able to see it even there. But, you see, I didn't
have the experience of knowing operas and the stories behind them
and knowing the Beethoven sonatas and symphonies and other
symphonies. That was not a part of my culture."
The
Juilliard Musical Foundation was at 49 E. 52nd Street, a
magnificent mansion once occupied by the Rockefellers. To the
twenty-year old Jessie Covington of Houston, the place was
"just a dream." "There were the business offices on
one floor, and on the other floors they turned the rooms into
teaching rooms. Each room had a new grand piano. Some of them very
elaborate with oriental rugs that were made to fit a curved room
and tapestries on the walls. In that house I think there were
marble bathrooms, one of every color. It was beautiful beyond
description and beyond imagination."
After
her four years of study at Juilliard, Jessie Covington returned to
Houston and announced the opening of her "Studio for the
Instruction of Pianoforte and Theory of Music" at 2219
Dowling Street on Monday, September 24, 1928. Jessie Covington
closed the studio after a year. She exhausted herself. She became
thin and "had a deficiency in iron." In 1929, she
accepted the position of Head of the Piano Department at Bishop
College in Marshall, Texas.. "During those two years,"
Mrs. Dent recalled, "I became engaged and married Albert
Dent. After that I didn't teach anymore, but I did give
recitals."
Marriage
& Continuing Education
Albert
Dent was anxious for Jessie to continue her recitals. After their
first son Tom, Albert also encouraged Jessie to return to Oberlin.
"Her husband," Mrs. Borders, Senior Archivist at Amistad
Research center, pointed out, "wanted his wife to have some
security if anything were to happen." In 1933, Jessie began
her studies at Oberlin with a Rosenwald Fund grant. In 1934, she
received her M.A. degree in music. Her thesis was on Franz Liszt.
Oberlin again honored her with a recital with Oberlin's symphony.
On this occasion, Jessie Covington Dent played Schumann's piano Concerto
in A minor, Op. 54.
In
her interview with Anne Lundy, Mrs. Dent explained why she did not
continue as a concert pianist. "I didn't consider myself a
top-flight concert artist. I think I had some degree of talent and
a feeling for piano and, certainly, a love for it. And I had a
certain facility; but I never was note perfect." Mrs. Dent
also believed her having three sons discouraged her from going on
with a career. She explained at length.
"Well,
when you do solo work there's a lot of tension, and the people who
do the best are the ones who don't have any encumbrances. So it's
like being wedded to it. You have to 'give your all'--your
thoughts, your time, your energy. If you want to have a home, I
think you can do some work, but I think something will suffer.
"During
that time, too, my husband became president of Dillard University,
and he was working awfully hard to build the school. Places were
not integrated then, and when people came to Dillard, we had to
entertain them in our home. My children were growing; they needed
attention. I decided that I needed to do that
and I preferred that."
Jessie
Covington Dent gave recitals at Afro-American schools throughout
the South, including Fisk, Spelman, and Southern University.
The
Toast of Dillard University
The
Dents moved to New Orleans from Atlanta after Albert accepted a
job offer as superintendent of Flint-Goodridge Hospital, owned by
Dillard University. In 1935, Albert Dent became Business Manager
for Dillard, and in 1941 its president. Jessie Dent, according to
Mrs. Borders, "found a natural outlet in promoting the work
of the hospital through the Auxiliary." On a Ways and Means
committee, Jessie Dent contacted John H. Johnson, publisher of Ebony
magazine, about promoting a fashion extravaganza. "Details
were finalized," Mrs. Borders explained, "and Ebony
Fashion Fair was born. It had its very first showing at the Booker
T. Washington Auditorium. It featured the exotic Dorothea Towles,
a black high fashion model. The Fair became an annual Auxiliary
presentation until the hospital was sold."
Jessie
Dent's achievements as a concert pianist, Mrs. Borders concluded,
were matched by her humanitarian work in New Orleans. Her work in
raising money allowed Flint-Goodridge "to highlight
pre-natal, parturient, and post-natal care." "During the
early Depression years," Mrs. Borders pointed out,
"black mothers were not receiving proper medical care during
pregnancy and after. The number of black women who used the
hospital's services for themselves and their children grew
dramatically." Tom, Benjamin, and Walter--the Dent boys--were
also born in Flint-Goodridge during Albert's administration of the
hospital (1932-1939).
Jessie
Covington Dent, as "First Lady" of Dillard, helped
charter or organize several organizations to promote her
humanitarian and artistic concerns. She was instrumental in
organizing at Dillard an undergraduate chapter of Delta Sigma
Theta Sorority. She was a charter member of its graduate chapter
in New Orleans. Mrs. Dent also organized the Dillard Women's Club
and Women Interested in Dillard (WIDs). In 1957 she also became a
charter member of LINKS. All of these organizations sought to
promote cultural activities and community projects and raise money
for the Negro College Fund.
Jessie
Dent's artistic concerns also found expression in the B-Sharp
Music Club, which presented her in a recital in 1932. She also
served six years on the board of the New Orleans Philharmonic
Society. Her interest in horticulture found its outlet in her
membership in the Gentilly Dirt Daubers Garden Club and the
Louisiana Iris Garden Society, which she co-sponsored. According
to Mrs. Borders, Jessie Dent was very fond of begonias.
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In
the last thirty years, Jessie Dent received many awards for her
work. In 1954, the National Association of Negro Musicians
presented her a certificate in the field of music at Mt. Zion
Methodist Church. In 1968, Dillard Women's Club hosted a
testimonial dinner in her honor. In 1983, Friends of Amistad
honored the Dents at the annual membership luncheon. Amistad
Research Center honored Jessie Dent September 27, 1985, at its
benefit Gala in the Pontchatrain Ballroom at Sheraton Hotel.
William Houston & His Orchestra played for this musical
tribute, along with their special guests--Marilyn Bernard,
soprano, and Moses Hogan, pianist.
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On
May 19, 1985, Jessie Covington Dent celebrated her 81st birthday. New
Laurel Review sent its best regards.
Postscript Albert
Dent died in 1984. Tom Dent died in
1998. Jessie Covington Dent died in 2001. Research on the Dent
family can be done in New Orleans in the Dent
Family Collection, housed at Dillard University.
Source:
"Jessie Covington Dent: Concert Artist & Humanist," The
New Laurel Review (Spring/Fall 1985). Editor: Lee Meitzen Grue.
Journal Address: 828 Lesseps, New Orleans, LA 70112.* * *
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Audio:
My Story, My Song (Featuring blues guitarist Walter Wolfman Washington)
The Katrina Papers, by Jerry W.
Ward, Jr. $18.95 /
The Richard Wright Encyclopedia (2008)
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Marcus Bruce
Christian
Selected Diary Notes
/ Selected Poems
/
Selected Letters
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American Uprising
The Untold Story of America’s Largest Slave
Revolt
By
Daniel Rasmussen
In
January 1811, a group of around 500 enslaved
men, dressed in military uniforms and armed
with guns, cane knives, and axes, rose up
from the slave plantations around New
Orleans and set out to conquer the city.
They decided that they would die before they
would work another day of back—breaking
labor in the hot Louisiana sun. Ethnically
diverse, politically astute, and highly
organized, this slave army challenged not
only the economic system of plantation
agriculture but also American expansion.
Their march represented the largest act of
armed resistance against slavery in the
history of the United States—and one of the
defining moments in the history of New
Orleans and the nation. |
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American Uprising is the riveting and
long—neglected story of this elaborate plot, the rebel
army’s dramatic march on the city and its shocking
conclusion. No North American slave revolt—not Gabriel
Prosser, not Denmark Vesey, not Nat Turner—has rivaled
the scale of this rebellion either in terms of the
number of the slaves involved or in terms of the number
who were killed. Over 100 slaves were slaughtered by
federal troops and French planters, who then sought to
write the event out of history and prevent the spread of
the slaves’ revolutionary philosophy. With the Haitian
Revolution a recent memory and the War of 1812 looming
on the horizon, the revolt had epic consequences for
America. Through groundbreaking original research,
Daniel Rasmussen offers a window into the young
expansionist country, illuminating the early history of
New Orleans and providing new insight into the path to
the Civil War, and the slave revolutionaries who fought
and died while standing up against injustice. This book
represents a significant contribution to African
American history and the struggle for civil rights in
this country.
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Southern Journey
A Return to the Civil Rights Movement
By
Tom Dent
A black
youth reared in segregated New Orleans, Dent
went to Mississippi for the civil rights
movement, and that experience stuck with
him. So in 1991, he decided to work his way
south from Greensboro, N.C., to Mississippi,
skirting both large cities and important
officials, to talk to (mostly) black folk
and to assess the movement's legacy. At
times, Dent's meandering approach lacks
depth and is unwieldy, but his personal
connection to his inquiry informs his story
with commitment. In Greensboro, the
unresolved gap between blacks and whites,
exemplified in an anniversary celebration of
the city's historic sit-ins, remind Dent "of
the strained interracial meetings of the
1950s." |
In Orangeburg, S.C., a black academic
tells him ruefully that many social-work students go
into "criminal justice" lacking the broader awareness of
the politics behind the new programs. In Albany, Ga.,
Dent discerns signs of material progress but deep
divisions not only between the races but also within the
black community. In Mississippi, where he sees black
political victories as having had a relatively small
payoff, he becomes convinced that a new black
organization is needed to supplant the NAACP to address
national political issues of special concern to blacks
(education, unemployment) and to monitor cases of police
and official abuse and discrimination. Though not quite
a complete plan, it's a constructive response to Dent's
conclusion that the civil rights movement opened up
doors, but "once inside, well, there was hardly anything
there."—Publishers
Weekly
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Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in
America
By Melissa V.
Harris-Perry
According to the
author, this society has historically exerted
considerable pressure on black females to fit into one
of a handful of stereotypes, primarily, the Mammy, the
Matriarch or the Jezebel. The selfless
Mammy’s behavior is marked by a slavish devotion to
white folks’ domestic concerns, often at the expense of
those of her own family’s needs. By contrast, the
relatively-hedonistic Jezebel is a sexually-insatiable
temptress. And the Matriarch is generally thought of as
an emasculating figure who denigrates black men, ala the
characters Sapphire and Aunt Esther on the television
shows Amos and Andy and Sanford and Son, respectively.
Professor Perry
points out how the propagation of these harmful myths
have served the mainstream culture well. For instance,
the Mammy suggests that it is almost second nature for
black females to feel a maternal instinct towards
Caucasian babies.
As for the source
of the Jezebel, black women had no control over their
own bodies during slavery given that they were being
auctioned off and bred to maximize profits. Nonetheless,
it was in the interest of plantation owners to propagate
the lie that sisters were sluts inclined to mate
indiscriminately.
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Weep Not, Child
By
Ngugi wa Thiong'o
This is
a powerful, moving story that details the
effects of the infamous Mau Mau war, the
African nationalist revolt against colonial
oppression in Kenya, on the lives of
ordinary men and women, and on one family in
particular. Two brothers, Njoroge and Kamau,
stand on a rubbish heap and look into their
futures. Njoroge is excited; his family has
decided that he will attend school, while
Kamau will train to be a carpenter. Together
they will serve their country—the
teacher and the craftsman. But this is Kenya
and the times are against them. In the
forests, the Mau Mau is waging war against
the white government, and the two brothers
and their family need to decide where their
loyalties lie. For the practical Kamau the
choice is simple, but for Njoroge the
scholar, the dream of progress through
learning is a hard one to give up.—Penguin
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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Negro Digest /
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Enjoy!
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
/
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
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Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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updated 9 April 2008
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