Eileen Southern papers

Biographical note

Eileen Jackson Southern was born February 19, 1920 in Minneapolis, Minnesota to Walter Wade and Lilla (Gibson) Jackson. Southern gave her first piano recital at the age of 12 and made her debut in Chicago’s Orchestra Hall at age 19, playing a Mozart concerto with the Chicago Musical College Symphony Orchestra. Although she studied the traditional white classical genius of Bach and Beethoven, her music teachers, most of whom were white, also felt it important that she learn about black musicians such as R. Nathanial Dett. She attended and received degrees in musicology from the University of Chicago [BA, 1940, and MA, 1941) and taught at a variety of schools while pursuing a career as a concert pianist. According to her husband, the life of a concert pianist didn’t appeal to Southern, who turned her focus to scholarship, particularly the origins and development of black music. Southern received her PhD from New York University in 1961. Continuing her career in education she served as associate professor (1969–1971) and professor (1972–1974) of York College, City University of New York. In 1974 Southern began her tenure at Harvard University serving as lecturer in music and in 1976 she received full professorship and a dual appointment in Afro-American studies and music. With her new dual post Southern became Harvard’s first black female tenured professor and was appointed chair of the Afro-American Studies Department, serving from 1975–1979; she retired from teaching in 1987. Southern also authored, co-authored, or contributed to many works on musical history and black American music. From 1973 to 1990, Southern and her husband produced and served as editor sfor the well respected biannual journal The Black Perspective in Music. Eileen Southern died October 17, 2002 after living with Alzheimer’s for several years.