William Levi Dawson: American Music Educator

by Mark Hugh Malone

Overview

The story of a resolute African American composer and educator who flourished during the oppressive Jim Crow Era

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781496844798
Publisher:	University Press of Mississippi
Publication date:	03/24/2023
Series:	American Made Music Series
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

Mark Hugh Malone has taught in Mississippi at Pearl River Community College, William Carey University, the University of Southern Mississippi, and other institutions during his forty-six-year career in education. As curriculum designer for the Mississippi Arts Commission, he has created numerous arts-integrated curricula focused on the Mississippi Blues Trail, Mississippi's bicentennial, and the Natchez Trace.

Editorial Reviews

William Levi Dawson: American Music Educator by Mark Hugh Malone is an impeccably well researched biography of a man who should be a household name, but somehow isn't. . . . The book makes excellent and thoughtful use of author Malone's interviews, as well as the personal memories and photographs of Dawson, his family, and peers to round out the person and the times. The biography tells an important story.--Claire Matturro "Southern Literary Review"

In William Levi Dawson: American Music Educator, Mark Hugh Malone has woven the first true narrative of Dawson's life. Relying on his hours of interviews with Dawson, Malone's meticulous research fills in the gaps to tell a complete story of one of the most iconic figures of twentieth-century American music. Here Malone lays out Dawson's early years in the segregated 1920s, his meticulous work with the Tuskegee Choir which caused him to quickly rise to national prominence, and his later years as an honored senior statesman of choral music in the United States. Malone lays out a compelling story of the difficulties Dawson faced earning an education, facing racism from critics, and persevering to serve his students and art. This book should be required reading for all Dawson devotees as well as scholars of spirituals.--Vernon Huff, director of choral activities at the State University of New York at Fredonia

From the Publisher