Emma Azalia Hackley was born in Murfreesboro, TN where her mother, the daughter of an escaped slave, founded a school for former enslaved people and their children. When the school was attacked by the Ku Klux Klan, the family moved to Detroit around 1970, where Azalia took voice and violin lessons, and became the first African American student in Detroit public schools. After graduation form normal school, she taught in a local elementary school until her marriage to an attorney/newspaper publisher from Denver. During her years in Colorado, she became active as a writer, editor, and activist. She and her husband founded the Order of Libyans, a social organization whose goal was to fight racism and promote equality for Black Americans. Although they never divorced, Ms. Hackley moved to Philadelphia and then Chicago. She was a notable educator and trained many vocalists who became prominent performers. She termed herself a “race music missionary” and considered musical performance to be critical to advancement of the race. In addition to her teaching, she established the Denver branch of the Colored Women’s League, served as a section editor for The Statesman, founded the Chicago Vocal Normal Institute, organized folk music festivals to promote the performance of African American spirituals, and wrote The Colored Girl Beautiful (1916), one of the first and most influential etiquette manuals published specifically for African American women.

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For further information on this artist:

· Juanita Karpf: Performing Racial Uplift: E Azalia Hackley and African American Activism in the Post-Bellum to Pre-Harlem Era.

· Sylvia Kinney: “The E. Azalia Hackley Collection,” Ethnomusicology, Sept. 1961, vol.5, no. 3, pp. 202-203.

· Juanita Karpf: “The Vocal Teacher of Ten Thousand: E. Azalia Hackley as Community Music Educator, 1910-22.” Journal of Research in Music Education, Vol. 47, no 4 (Winter, 1999), pp. 319-330.

· Katherine Capshaw Smith: “Childhood, the Body, and Race Performance: Early 20th-Century Etiquette Books for Black Children.” African American Review, Winter, 2006, vo. 40, no. 4. The Curse of Caste (Winter, 2006), pp. 795-811.

· Hosted by Lady Trenette Wilson, December 3, 2016. Etiquette in Black History—E. Azalia Hackley. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuKsUzAN2Hs. Accessed 5/22/2024.

· E. Azalia Hackley Collection at the Detroit Public Library Tour (2000). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pH4mJnkp64I Accessed 5/22/2024.

· Excerpt from “The Multi-layered Legacy of Madame E. Azalia Hackley.” Original composition written and arranged by Jacqueline Hairston for the R.E.A.P. National Conference on the Spirituals, 2013. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEalH4R77d0. Accessed 5.22.2024.

· Detroit Public Library Author Series Presents: Juanitia Karpf. May 3, 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04XHyCpfiWU. Accessed 5/22/2024.