Margaret Tynes (1919-2024)

Margaret Tynes is an African American opera, concert, and oratorio soprano and singing actress. Tynes was born on September 11, 1919 to parents Rev. and Mrs. J. W. Tynes, in Saluda, Virginia. She earned a Bachelor’s Degree from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in 1939.  While there she … Read MoreMargaret Tynes (1919-2024)

Thomas J. Bowers (1823-1885)

“Image Ownership: Public Domain” Thomas J. Bowers, businessman, pianist, and activist, was best known as an African American opera singer, who was compared favorably with the leading world tenors of the mid-nineteenth century. Bowers was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1823, one of John C. … Read MoreThomas J. Bowers (1823-1885)

Dorothy Leigh Maynor (1910-1996)

Dorothy Leigh Maynor was an international concert soprano, founder of the Harlem School of the Arts, the first African American to sing at an American president’s inauguration (Harry S. Truman’s, on January 20, 1949), the first African American artist to perform at Constitution Hall, the … Read MoreDorothy Leigh Maynor (1910-1996)