Beatrice Coleman music book collection

Collection — Container: Box 1, Box: 1

Identifier: MS 025.004

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

A collection of four books of music owned by Beatrice Elizabeth Coleman: Jubilee and Plantation Songs (1887), Who Knows? (1911), The Crucifixion [He never said a mumbelin' word] (1926), and Goin' Home (1922). Also included is a binder of photocopies of these four music books.

Dates

Creation: 1887-1981

Conditions Governing Access

RIBHS staff may determine use restrictions dependent on the physical condition of manuscript materials.

Conditions Governing Use

RIBHS staff may determine use restrictions dependent on the physical condition of manuscript materials. The materials from our collections are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study, pursuant to the U.S. Copyright Law. The user must assume full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials. Any materials used for academic research or otherwise should be fully credited with the source.

Biographical / Historical

Beatrice Elizabeth Coleman was born April 20, 1904, in Providence and graduated from Brown University in 1925 with a degree in Latin. At Brown, she joined the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. Unable to get a job as a teacher in Providence due to discriminatory hiring practices, she would begin her teaching career in North Carolina and Pennsylvania. After Black lawyers in Providence threatened to take the city to the Supreme Court over these hiring practices, Coleman was able to begin working as a teacher in Providence in the 1930s. She retired as a teacher at the Emma P. Bradley Hospital’s school department in 1969.

Beatrice Coleman served as secretary for the NAACP New England Conference, president of the African American Women's Club and various other organizations throughout Rhode Island. She was Episcopalian and had also been an active member of her church's collective playing the piano. She died April 3, 2014, at the age of 109.