BLACK HISTORY MONTH SPOTLIGHT: Under One Roof
Under One Roof: The African American Experience in Music Hall by TYLER M. SECOR
F
or many years, Friends of Music Hall (FOMH) Board Member Thea Tjepkema has been digging through newspapers, program books, archives, historical documents and account ledgers, and talking with historians and Cincinnatians to reconstruct the various histories of Music Hall. Her curiosity and diligent research of all things Music Hall prompted the FOMH to name her Archivist and Historian this fall. One of the untold narratives Tjepkema continues to uncover is the African American history of Music Hall. Tjepkema says the catalyst for this project was (her husband) John Morris Russell’s quest for
Fountain Lewis, The Cincinnati Enquirer, April 11, 1897, Sissieretta Jones, 1899, Metropolitan Printing Co., Library of Congress
information as he was working to program the CSO’s first Classical Roots concert following the Music Hall renovation. “John wanted to understand the African American performers, athletes and public figures who appeared at and had an impact on the Hall’s history. As I researched, I started uncovering the inspiring—and often painful—nearly 150 years of undocumented history of the African American experience in Music Hall, which opened a new dialogue about what this building means to Cincinnati.” This story, however, doesn’t begin with the bright lights on the Music Hall stage; instead, it starts with a donor list and a haircut.
22 | FANFARE CINCINNATI | cincinnatisymphony.org
In 1875 Reuben Springer gave the initial $125,000 donation to kick-start the fund to build Music Hall with the stipulation that the same amount would be donated by the community. At the grand opening of Music Hall on May 14, 1878, Julius Dexter, chairman of the building committee, spoke to the 6,000-person crowd squeezed into the 4,428-seat auditorium about the gift that Springer made, saying, “It is not the amount of the gift which especially entitles him to our gratitude. Other persons may have given as much, possibly, in proportion to their means more. Who may say that the contribution of the colored barber, or the hard-working mechanic of a rolling mill, is not the equal in liberality with any thousand dollars, or even with the largest sum given?” Tjepkema scoured the papers and the Cincinnati Music Hall Association’s 1877 annual report of donors looking for the name of this African American barber. Ultimately, she found not only his name, but a remarkable story of altruism and dedication to family, community, and church in Fountain Lewis. An entrepreneur for over 50 years, Lewis established his shop on Fourth Street, where he was the barber for prominent Cincinnati men. In an 1897 Cincinnati Enquirer story, Lewis was quoted as saying, “Grand and magnificent men were customers of mine at that same old shop. There was Reuben R. Springer— and he got me to be one of the subscribers in the fund to build the Music Hall, and you can depend on it I’m mighty proud of the fact now.”
Mamie Smith and her Jazz Hounds in Music Hall, Ad, The Union, April 16, 1921
