Oral history interview with Alma Blackmon, 2000 January 8, 2003

Item

Identifier: M450.05.00002

Staff Only

Abstract

Alma Blackmon relates her early introduction to music at the age of five when she taught herself to play the piano. She discusses how music played an important role in her life in spite of the fact that her formal education was in early childhood education. Blackmon describes her most important contribution, that of director of the Oakwood College Aeolians, a concert choir representing the United States as a friendship ambassador to Romania, with a program comprised of Negro spirituals. She also discusses the role of spirituals in African American culture, and the important role that spirituals should play in the heritage of African American people.

Dates

2000 January 8
Issued: 2003

Creator

Blackmon, Alma (Interviewee, Person)

Digital Repository

Oral history interview with Alma Blackmon

Biographical / Historical

Alma Blackmon was born in Washington, D.C. and learned to play the piano on her own under the direction of her father. She attended the teacher's college at Howard University, receiving her bachelor's and master's degrees in early childhood education. She began her career as a kindergarten supervisor in Washington, D.C. at the pre-school level, but later taught English at Oakwood College in Huntsville. Ala. She directed the Oakwood College Aeolians Choir, and traveled with the choir on concert tours, including a concert in Iron Curtain Romania. While never receiving any formal degrees in music, she has received two honorary doctorate degrees.