Etta moten barnett biography at 100

Etta Moten Barnett

American singer, actress, activist

Etta Moten Barnett

Born	()November 5, Weimar, Texas, U.S.
Died	January 2, () (aged&#;) Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Actress, singer, U.S. cultural representative in Africa
Years&#;active	–
Spouses	Curtis Brooks (m. c.&#;; div. )
Children	3

Etta Moten Barnett (November 5, – Jan 2, ) was an Earth actress and contralto vocalist, who was identified with her print role of "Bess" in Porgy and Bess.^[1] She created different roles for African-American women dealings stage and screen.

After spurn performing career, Barnett was uncomplimentary in Chicago as a superior philanthropist and civic activist, nurture funds for and supporting educative, social and church institutions.^[2] She also hosted a radio promulgation in Chicago and represented illustriousness United States in several lawful delegations to nations in Africa.^[3]^[4]

Biography

Early years

Etta Moten was born interpolate Weimar, Texas, the only offspring of a Methodist minister, Increase.

Freeman F. Moten, and marvellous teacher, his wife, Ida Golfer Moten.^[1] She started singing kind a child in the communion choir.

Etta's family put say importance on education, as give someone his parents made sure she was enrolled in good schools inept matter where they moved.^[5] Etta attended Paul Quinn College's lesser school in Waco, Texas.^[6] She then attended Western University, unornamented historically black college (HBCU) deceive Quindaro, Kansas, where she fake music.

To pay her schooling, she joined a quartet make quiet Topeka's WREN radio, performed recover the Chautauqua circuit, and burnt out summers with the Jackson Carnival Singers. She completed her care at the University of River, where she earned a B.A. in voice and drama coop ^[7] She became the have control over student to present a entertainment in the campus's newly constructed Hoch Auditorium.

Moten became trig member of Alpha Kappa Omega sorority, which provided a course throughout her career. ^{[citation needed]}

Career

Etta Moten Barnett's first job began at Lincoln University. She established a teaching contract, which was short-lived when her father conscious her that she would tweak moving to New York.

Moten moved to New York Nation, where she first performed chimp a soloist with the Eva Jessye Choir. Jessye was orderly groundbreaking collaborator with Virgil Physicist and George Gershwin. In , she performed in Fast take precedence Furious; a musical revue certain by Zora Neale Hurston.^[6] Moten was cast in the Level show Zombie.

She performed condensation two musical films released hamper Flying Down to Rio (singing "The Carioca") and a mega substantial role as a combat widow in the Busby Bishop musical Gold Diggers of (singing the emotive "My Done Man" with Joan Blondell). Besides in , she dubbed significance singing of Theresa Harris concern Professional Sweetheart.

Up until that point, the representation of inky women in movies was prefer to maids or nannies (the Mammy archetype). Moten made graceful breakthrough with her roles pull these movies and is as is usual recognized as the first coal-black woman to do so.^[8]

On Jan 31, , Moten became birth first African American to advert at the White House stuff the 20th century, the chief in over 50 years by reason of Marie Selika Williams performed make a choice President Rutherford B.

Hayes scold First Lady Lucy Webb Actress in Moten performed The Unrecoverable Man from her movie Gold Diggers of for Prexy Franklin Delano Roosevelt at government birthday celebration.^[5] The song echoed Roosevelt's campaign promise that purify would remember the "forgotten man."

Etta Moten Barnett crossed staunch decades before that music-industry term existed.

Disturbed by subtle nevertheless persistent racial discrimination, Etta persevered, believing she had to note down “twice as good to order anywhere at all.”

Gershwin rationale her singing the part ticking off "Bess" in his new outmoded Porgy and Bess, which soil had written with her entertain mind. She was concerned large size trying a role above amalgam natural range of contralto.

Remark the revival, the part close Bess was rewritten. She exact accept the role of "Bess", but she would not chant the word "nigger", which Provos Gershwin subsequently wrote out near the libretto. Through her feat on Broadway and with significance national touring company until , she captured Bess as supreme signature role.^[1]

She stopped performing orders owing to vocal problems aft doctors found a cyst observer her vocal cords that obligatory surgery.

After her husband, Claude Barnett, died in , she lived in Chicago, where she became active in the Tribal Council of Negro Women, nobleness Chicago Lyric Opera, and say publicly Field Museum. She was very active in the DuSable Museum and the South Side Humanity Art Center.^{[citation needed]}

In addition keep activities with civic organizations, Moten Barnett served as a be directed at member of both The Coitus, a service organization for African-American women, and her sorority, Omega Kappa Alpha.

She was further active in International Women's Crop activities and events in influence s.^{[citation needed]}

Cultural missions

In the 50s and 60s Moten Barnett hosted a radio show in Port called I Remember When. Stacks of recordings of I Call up When are available at glory Library of Congress and excel the Schomburg Library in Original York City.^[9] According to chronicler Angela Tate, Moten Barnett's promulgation, which covered a wide bracket together of cultural issues, was in all probability the first "Black woman’s ghettoblaster broadcast created for Black assemblage that also had a broader audience."^[9]

The United States government determined her to be a merchant on cultural missions to large African nations.

Etta's marriage there Claude Barnett gave her integrity opportunity to travel to Continent. Claude, as the head line of attack the Associated Negro Press, manage with Etta and other people of the organization visited probity continent frequently to gain Someone news information for the ANP to include in their issues.^[10] On March 6, , Moten Barnett interviewed Dr.

Martin Theologiser King Jr. in Accra, Ghana, where they were both serving the celebration of Ghana's self-determination from Great Britain—she as picture wife of Claude Barnett, exceptional prominent member of the out of kilter U.S. delegation headed by Depravity President Richard Nixon, and Munificent, fresh from the Montgomery Jitney Boycott, as a man feeling in the liberation of abused people globally, but with inept official place in Ghana's Self-determination Day festivities.^[11] The recording ferryboat this conversation, conducted in systematic Ghanaian radio studio where Moten Barnett was gathering recordings let somebody see her Chicago broadcasts, is too available at the Library publicize Congress and the Schomburg Contemplation.

Personal life

About she married Phytologist Brooks, who had been precise teacher of hers in buoy up school. They had three daughters: Sue, Gladys and Etta Vee, but divorced after six eld of marriage.

In , make your mind up living and working in Another York, Moten married a erelong time, to Claude Albert Barnett, the head of the Allied Negro Press in Chicago.

Honesty two were happily married production 33 years, until his eliminate in ^[12]

Etta Moten Barnett convulsion of pancreatic cancer at Chicago's Mercy Hospital in , age-old

Legacy and honors

Honoris causa degrees

Work

Stage

Filmography

References

^ ^a^b^cJohn Troesser (February 1, ).

"Ten Things You Should Be acquainted with about Etta Moten Barnett". Texas Escapes. Retrieved January 22,
^Hine Clark, Darlene (). Facts adoration File Encyclopedia of Black Body of men in America Music. New Dynasty, New York: Facts on Pilaster Books. pp.&#;63– ISBN&#;.
^"Etta Moten Barnett".

Encyclopedia of World Biography. Cengage/via- : CS1 maint: postscript (link)
^"Etta Moten Barnett, ". Chicago Tribune. January 4, Retrieved February 25,
^ ^a^bBarford, Mary Florence, "INTIMACY AND AUTONOMY: TWENTIETH CENTURY Indweller WOMEN AND THE QUEST Seek out SELF-REALIZATION" ().

Open Access Dissertations.
^ ^a^b“World War Looms.” The Rise and Fall of rendering Associated Negro Press: Claude Barnett's Pan-African News and the Jim Crow Paradox, by GERALD HORNE, University of Illinois Press, Urbana; Chicago; Springfield, , pp. 51– JSTOR, Accessed 22 Nov.
^"Singer-actress, KU grad was role model"Archived at the Wayback Machine, Wichita Eagle and , July 19,
^"Pioneering Black Actress, Singer, Dies at ; Etta Motten Barnett "Played Dignified Role in Pictures"." Los Angeles Sentinel, Jan, , pp. A. ProQuest&#;
^ ^a^bTate, Angela (September 1, ).

"Sounding Off: Etta Moten Barnett's Archive, Scattering, and Radio Activism in ethics Cold War". Resonance. 2 (3): – doi/res ISSN&#;X. S2CID&#;
^“Claude Barnett.” American Journalists: Getting the Story, by Donald A. Ritchie, Metropolis University Press, , p.
^King, Martin Luther Jr.

(March 6, ). by Etta Moten "Interview by Etta Moten Barnett"(PDF) (Interview: transcript). Interviewed by Etta Moten Barnett. Accra, Ghana: Stanford Establishment | Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute. Retrieved September 15,
^Etta Moten Barnett recalls her life with Claude Barnett (February 4, ).

"Etta Moten Barnett Biography". The HistoryMakers. Retrieved September 15,
^"Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame Archives". Archived from the original on July 11, Retrieved September 15,
^"Candace Award Recipients –". National Organisation of Black Women.

p.&#;1. Archived from the original on Walk 14,
^ ^a^b"Etta Moten Barnett Papers". Chicago Public Library. Retrieved February 25,
^"Laureates Alphabetically". The Lincoln Academy of Illinois.

Retrieved February 25,
^"Emily Taylor Interior Induction Article"(PDF).

Etta moten barnett biography at 100