Celebrating African American Women

Annabelle Bernard (1935-2005) was a New Orleans-born opera singer who spent four decades with the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Her love of music started at an early age; she began performing publicly at New Orleans’ Fisk Elementary School and at the Fourth Baptist Church as a child. She studied music education with a concentration in voice at Xavier University of Louisiana from 1952 to 1956.

While performing in Xavier University productions, Annabelle Bernard attracted the attention of Edith Rosenwald Stern, philanthropist and daughter of wealthy businessman Julius Rosenwald. After graduating from Xavier, and with support from Stern, Bernard continued her studies at the New England Conservatory of Music, the Mozarteum University in Salzburg and the Stuttgart (Germany) Conservatory of Music.

In 1962, Bernard debuted with the Deutsche Oper Berlin (Berlin Opera), performing the title role in Aida. For nearly forty years, she performed with the Deutsche Oper Berlin in countless operas. One critic said in 1965, “her tiny appearance stands in stark contrast to her near impossible ability to develop and impassion resounding vocal strength.”

Bernard retired from the Deutsche Oper Berlin in 1998 and returned to New Orleans to teach at Xavier, her alma mater. She wanted to return to her roots “where I received an abundance of support—mentally, vocally, financially, and spiritually; with the hope of being able to instill in the students that the classic music industry for singers is a God-sent profession which is to be taken seriously with love, dedication, and self-discipline.”

Born in Harlem in 1948, Alexis De Veaux received a bachelor of arts degree from the State University of New York Empire State College. She continued her education in creative writing at the University of Buffalo, where she attained a master of arts and doctor of philosophy degrees. De Veaux is the former chair of the women's studies department at State University of New York at Buffalo.

As an artist and lecturer, Alexis De Veaux has traveled extensively. She was a freelance writer and contributing editor for Essence magazine (1979-1991); during her time there Essence sent her to South Africa in 1990. De Veaux was the first North American to interview Nelson Mandela after his release from prison. This collection of ephemera from her papers at the Amistad Research Center reflects some of the movements, issues and conferences in which she was involved.

De Veaux’s writing reflects the experiences of black female characters. Her published work includes books (Na-Ni; Spirits in the Street; Don’t Explain: A Song of Billie Holiday; Blue Heat: Poems and Drawings; An Enchanted Hair Tale; The Woolu Hat; Warrior Poet: A Biography of Audre Lorde; and Yabo); plays; short fiction; articles and essays. Awards include the Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Award, two Lambda Literary Awards and the Hurston/Wright Foundation Legacy Award, Nonfiction.

Alexis De Veaux’s papers are rich in manuscript drafts and notebooks of poetry, novels and biographies, as well as correspondence documenting her speaking engagements, publishing and her academic career. This 1996 letter to fellow biographer Evelyn C. White explores her writing process; De Veaux was writing Warrior Poet: A Biography of Audre Lorde at the time, and White was writing Alice Walker: A Life.

Ernestine Jessie Covington Dent (1904-2001) was a concert pianist, educator and community leader. Born in Houston, Texas, she showed signs of musical talent at age 2 and began piano and violin lessons at 5. Her first music teacher was Madame Corilla Rochon; she also studied violin with Willie Nickerson, brother of the famed musician Camille Nickerson. Jessie graduated with a bachelor’s degree in music from the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music in 1924.

She also supported the effort to increase the number of minority classical musicians in major symphony orchestras and teaching positions. In 1998, the Jessie Covington Dent Music Festival was created at Dillard University in her honor.

Historian Antoinette Harrell compiled more than twenty years of research on illegal peonage (debt slavery) in sixteen states in the South. Although peonage was outlawed in 1867, some African Americans were still enslaved well into the 1960s. Harrell’s research also uncovered child labor and peonage at the Arthur G. Dozier School for boys in Marianna, Florida, revealing horrific abuse suffered by African American boys there.

Harrell examines the lives of African American families and provides perspective on their collective past while disclosing the untold stories deeply embedded in the shadows of history. She is a producer of the television program Nurturing Our Roots, and her books include Department of Justice: Slavery, Involuntary Servitude and Peonage (2014), Images of America: African Americans in Tangipahoa and St. Helena Parishes (2019) and Nurturing My Family Tree: Genealogy for Children (2010).

Born in New Orleans in 1932, Sybil Haydel earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education from Boston University; she taught in Massachussetts, Maryland and Louisiana. In 1954 she married attorney Ernest “Dutch” Morial, who would become the first African American mayor of New Orleans in 1977. As First Lady, Sybil Morial focused on fighting illiteracy, infant mortality and equal rights for women; she also worked tirelessly for women’s professional advocacy, education and civic engagement.

Sybil Morial founded the Louisiana League of Good Government (LLOGG) in 1963 when she couldn’t join the League of Women Voters due to Jim Crow laws enforcing racial segregation. The LLOGG was a nonprofit created to help African Americans overcome deterrents to voting such as literacy tests. After the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the LLOGG continued its efforts to promote good government “through an informed and participating citizenry,” and to encourage voting.

A community activist, Morial has worked with many organizations, such as the International Women’s Forum Leadership Foundation and the affiliated Louisiana Women’s Forum; The Links, Inc.; Advocates for Science and Mathematics Foundation; and the Southern Institute for Education and Research, among others. Morial also served as president and chair of the I’ve Known Rivers Afro-American Pavilion at the Louisiana World Exposition (1982-1985).

Following World War II, Springer Kemp’s activism turned towards the international arena, particularly in the new labor unions emerging in Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Ghana, Uganda, and other African nations. She served as the International Representative for Africa for the AFL-CIO and continued her work as a general organizer for the ILGWU, then as a consultant with the African American Labor Center and the Asian-American Free Labor Institute.

Dorothy Mae (Delavallade) Taylor (1928-2000) was a political activist in New Orleans. Her career in public service began as a member of her children's school's Parent Teacher Association. One of her first initiatives was fighting for equal supplies for African American children in the local public schools. Taylor also fought for desegregation of the New Orleans Recreation Department and pushed for a recreation budget that allowed residents to fund their own programs.

Taylor's historic election to the state congress in 1971 marked the first time an African American woman held a seat in the Louisiana House of Representatives and was symbolic of changing attitudes in local politics. She left office after nine years to serve as an administrator for the New Orleans Sickle Cell Anemia Foundation and the Central City Neighborhood Health Center. She remained active in local politics and, in 1986, became the first woman elected to New Orleans City Council.

Dorothy Mae Taylor is remembered most for introducing a city ordinance desegregating the city's Mardi Gras krewes. She stood strong in her belief that if public funds were to be used to subsidize or support a public project, parade, or program, then no one should be barred from participation through discrimination.