{{short description|Singer and political activist}} {{Use American English|date=March 2026}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2026}} {{Infobox person | name = Emma Azalia Hackley | image =Emma Azalia Smith Hackley.jpg | birth_name = Emma Azalia Smith | birth_date = {{birth date|1867|06|29}} | birth_place = Murfreesboro, Tennessee, U.S. | death_date = {{death year and age|1922|1867}}<ref>{{cite news|last1=Taylor|first1=Julius F.|title=The Broad Ax|url=http://idnc.library.illinois.edu/cgi-bin/illinois?a=d&d=TBA19221230&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------|access-date=June 22, 2015|issue=December 30, 1922|archive-date=June 18, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150618031720/http://idnc.library.illinois.edu/cgi-bin/illinois?a=d&d=TBA19221230&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------|url-status=live}}</ref> | death_place = Detroit, Michigan, U.S. | spouse = Edwin Henry Hackley }}
'''Emma Azalia Hackley''', also known as '''E. Azalia Hackley''' and '''Azalia Smith Hackley''' (1867–1922), was a concert soprano, newspaper editor, teacher, and political activist. An African American, she promoted racial pride through her support and promotion of music education for African Americans. She was a choir director and organized Folk Songs Festivals in African American churches and schools. Hackley studied music for years, including in Paris under opera singer Jean de Reszke. She was a music teacher who taught Roland Hayes, Marian Anderson, R. Nathaniel Dett and Isabele Taliaferro Spiller. She founded the Vocal Normal Institute in Chicago.
Hackley co-founded both the Imperial Order of Libyans and the Colored Women's League. She was a newspaper editor for the women's section of ''The Statesman'' and an author. Hackley published ''The Colored Girl Beautiful'', a manual on becoming an accomplished and refined African American lady.
==Early life== Born Emma Azalia Smith on June 29, 1867, in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, she was the daughter of Henry B. and Corilla (Carrilla) Smith.<ref name="HC bio" /><ref name="BP bio" /><ref name="Death cert">{{citation|title=Madame E. Azalia Hackley | work=Certificate of Death | quote=June 29, 1867 date of birth }}</ref> Her mother, formerly Corilla Beard, lived in Detroit and her father was from Murfreesboro. They moved south after their marriage.<ref name="White">{{Cite news |last=White |first=Lucien H. |date=1922-12-23 |title=Mme. E. Azalia Hackley is Dead After Months of Illness |pages=6 |work=The New York Age |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/88544759/mme-e-azalia-hackley-is-dead-after/ |access-date=2021-11-08 |archive-date=2021-11-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211108034118/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/88544759/mme-e-azalia-hackley-is-dead-after/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="OxfordAASC">{{Cite web |title=Search Results: Corilla Smith |url=https://oxfordaasc.com/browse?gender=Female&t=AASC_Occupations%253A726&t_1=AASC_Occupations%253A283 |access-date=2021-11-08 |website=Oxford African American Studies Center |language=en |archive-date=2023-07-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230722192623/https://oxfordaasc.com/browse?gender=Female&t=AASC_Occupations%3A726&t_1=AASC_Occupations%3A283 |url-status=live }}</ref> The daughter of an escaped slave,<ref name="OxfordAASC" /><ref name="CBS bio">{{Cite web |title=Corilla Beard Smith – Education in Rutherford County after the Civil War, 1867–1887 |url=https://srbhl.omeka.net/exhibits/show/edu/teachers/corilla-beard-smith |access-date=2021-11-08 |website=Stones River Battlefield Historic Landscape |archive-date=2021-11-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211108185046/https://srbhl.omeka.net/exhibits/show/edu/teachers/corilla-beard-smith |url-status=live }}</ref> Corilla founded a school in Murfreesboro for former enslaved people and their children.<ref name="HC bio">{{Cite web |date=March 27, 2017 |title=Azalia Smith Hackley—Musical Prodigy and Pioneering Journalist |url=https://www.historycolorado.org/story/stuff-history/2017/03/27/azalia-smith-hackley-musical-prodigy-and-pioneering-journalist |access-date=2021-11-07 |website=History Colorado |archive-date=2021-11-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211107202447/https://www.historycolorado.org/story/stuff-history/2017/03/27/azalia-smith-hackley-musical-prodigy-and-pioneering-journalist |url-status=live }}</ref>{{efn|Corilla's father, William Beard, was a former slave who moved to Detroit Michigan, where he established a successful laundry business. Due to his success, he was able to ensure that his children had a good education.<ref name="CBS bio" />}} She gave voice lessons at night.<ref name="CBS bio" /> In 1870, the school was threatened and attacked by the Ku Klux Klan and other hostile groups during evening singing lessons.<ref name="OxfordAASC" /><ref name="CBS bio" /> Concerned for the safety of their family,<ref name="OxfordAASC" /><ref name="CBS bio" /> the Smiths moved to Detroit, Michigan, in 1870<ref name="OxfordAASC" /><ref name="CBS bio" /> or in the 1870s.<ref name="HC bio" /><ref name="EHC">{{Cite web |title=Madame Emma Azalia Smith Hackley |url=https://elmwoodhistoriccemetery.org/biographies/madame-emma-azalia-smith-hackley/ |access-date=2021-11-07 |website=elmwoodhistoriccemetery.org |archive-date=2021-11-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211108001425/https://elmwoodhistoriccemetery.org/biographies/madame-emma-azalia-smith-hackley/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> Her father was a blacksmith.<ref name="1880 cen" /> Corilla was a teacher and supported herself and the girls after the Smiths separated.<ref name="OxfordAASC" /> Hackley had a younger sister named Marietta.<ref name="1880 cen">{{citation|title=Azalia E. Smith | work=United States Federal Census, Records of the Bureau of the Census| year=1880 | publisher=National Archives |location=Washington, D.C. }}</ref>
Hackley learned to play the piano at age three and took voice and violin lessons as a child.<ref name="BP bio" /> She was the first African American student to attend public school there. She sang and played piano at high school dances, which contributed to the Smith family's income.<ref name="HC bio" /> She completed her education at Capital High School<ref name="AAReg" /> and a normal school at the same time,<ref name="White" /> graduating with honors from the Washington Normal School in 1886.<ref name="HC bio" /><ref name="BP bio">{{cite web|last1=Peterson|first1=Heather|title=Emma Azalia Hackley|url=http://www.blackpast.org/aah/hackley-emma-azalia-1867-1922|website=Black Past|date=June 30, 2008|access-date=February 18, 2016|archive-date=March 3, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303221344/http://www.blackpast.org/aah/hackley-emma-azalia-1867-1922|url-status=live}}</ref> She received a teaching certificate in 1887 and taught at Clinton Elementary School in Detroit from that year to 1894.<ref name="AAReg">{{Cite web |title=Emma Hackley, Music Educator born Saturday, June 29, 1867 |url=https://aaregistry.org/story/emma-hackley-promoted-racial-pride-through-black-music/ |access-date=2021-11-08 |website=African American Registry |language=en |archive-date=2021-11-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211108213154/https://aaregistry.org/story/emma-hackley-promoted-racial-pride-through-black-music/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
She continued her voice and violin lessons, and she also took French lessons. She sang for the Detroit Musical Society. She paid for her lessons by giving piano lessons.<ref name="HC bio" /><ref name="BP bio" /><ref name="White" /> Hackley also gave voice recitals.<ref name="AAReg" /> Due to her very light skin color and auburn hair, many people suggested that she try to pass for white in order to further her musical career. She refused to deny her heritage and remained proud of her roots throughout her life.<ref name="BP bio" /><ref name="AAReg" />
==Marriage== She married Edwin Henry Hackley, an attorney and newspaper publisher from Denver, Colorado in 1894. After the marriage, she moved to Colorado with him. Edwin Henry Hackley, educated at the University of Michigan, was the first African American admitted to the Colorado bar. He co-founded ''The Statesman'' with Joseph D.D. Rivers.<ref name="HC bio" />
Hackley and her husband co-founded the Imperial Order of Libyans, to combat racial prejudice and foment equality.<ref name="HC bio" /><ref name="BP bio" /> At the turn of the twentieth century, Edwin sold his interest in ''The Statesman'' and published the ''Statesman-cum-Denver Star'' with his wife.<ref name="HC bio" />
Her health suffered due to the high altitude and Hackley decided to move east for her health.<ref name="White" /> In 1901<ref name="HC bio" /> or 1905, Hackley separated from her husband and left Denver for Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.<ref name="BP bio" /> Hackley lived with her husband in Philadelphia in 1910 and 1912. Her mother-in-law lived with them in 1910. At the time, Edwin worked as a letter carrier and she was a singer and a music teacher.<ref>{{citation|title=E. Azalia Hackley, Philadelphia | work=Thirteenth Census of the United States | year=1910 |publisher=National Archives | location=Washington, D.C.}}</ref><ref>{{citation|title=E. Azalia Hackley | work=Boyd's Philadelphia City Directory |publisher=C.E. Howe Company |location=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | page=817}}</ref> There is no record of the Hackleys having divorced.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Karpf |first=Juanita |title=Performing racial uplift : E. Azalia Hackley and African American activism in the postbellum to pre-Harlem era |date=2022 |isbn=978-1-4968-3672-4 |location=Jackson |oclc=1286677110 }}</ref> She was identified as a married woman on her death certificate of 1922; Edwin H. Hackley was identified as her husband.<ref name="Death cert" /> Identified as a widower and a playwright, Edwin died in 1940. Hackley was on his death certificate as his deceased wife.<ref>{{citation | title=Edwin H. Hackley | work=Certificate of Death | publisher=Commonwealth of Pennsylvania | date=July 11, 1940 }}</ref>
==Career and education== Hackley earned her bachelor's degree from the Denver School of Music in 1900. She was the first African American graduate of the school.<ref name="HC bio" /><ref name="BP bio" /> Trained in the bel canto vocal style, she was a concert soprano.<ref name="EHC" /> While receiving her education, she was the assistant director of a large choir in Denver and was the choir director at her church.<ref name="HC bio" />
She promoted racial pride through music.<ref name="BP bio" /> She defined herself as a "race musical missionary."<ref name="EHC" /> She wanted children to be inspired, stimulated, and trained at her concerts.<ref name="HC bio" /> The ''Denver Post'' acknowledged her efforts to draw African Americans into music and said that she was "one of the best vocalists in the city."<ref name="HC bio" /> thumb|Emma Azalia Hackley, 1922 She established the Colorado branch of the Colored Women's League and was the editor of the ''Statesman Exponent'', the woman's section of ''The Colorado Statesman''.<ref name="HC bio" /><ref name="BP bio" /> She wrote articles about African American literature and music, including the influence of music on children and home life. Other topics include civil government, current events, and the importance of compiling facts on blacks. She also wrote about household economies and hygiene.<ref name="HC bio" /> In one column she wrote of the Colored Women's League:
{{blockquote|In mapping out this program we have borne in mind the great need for thought and talk on the practical as well as cultural side of woman's life. Our first work will be toward the education and improvement of our Colored women and the promotion of their interests.<ref name="HC bio" />}}
Hackley held her first performance of a concert tour in Denver in 1901.<ref name="AAReg" /> In 1901, Hackley moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to continue her career as a choral director. She was the director of music at the Episcopal Church of the Crucifixion. In 1904, she founded and led the 100-member People's Choir, which became known as the Hackley Choral.<ref name="HC bio" /><ref name="BP bio" /><ref name="AAReg" />{{efn|Black Past states that she separated and went to Philadelphia in 1905.<ref name="BP bio" />}}
She organized Folk Songs Festivals to present African American Spirituals.<ref name="AAReg" /> She introduced Black folk music to an international audience at the World Sunday School Convention in Tokyo.<ref name="HC bio" /> She held large community concerts with programs that included classical music, operatic arias, and African American spirituals performed by her and local performers. She financed the programs and provided training sessions for local performers about ten days before the concert.<ref name="EHC" />
In Paris, she studied under Jean de Reszke, a well-known opera singer and vocal coach in 1905 and 1906.<ref name="HC bio" /><ref name="BP bio" /> She trained artists such as Roland Hayes, Marian Anderson, R. Nathaniel Dett<ref name="EHC" /> and Isabele Taliaferro Spiller.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Isabele Taliaferro Spiller |url=https://necmusic.edu/on-campus/library/archives-and-special-collections/archival-collections/isabele-taliaferro-spiller/ |access-date=2025-02-23 |website=NECMusic |language=en-US}}</ref>
Hackley wrote newspaper and magazine articles and short books. She gave lectures at churches, colleges, and schools throughout the United States and Canada. Hackley raised funds by holding benefit concerts, which was used to provide foreign scholarships for African American classical musicians.<ref name="EHC" /><ref name="BP bio" /><ref name="AAReg" />
In 1912, she formed the Vocal Normal Institute in Chicago, Illinois, which operated until 1916.<ref name="EHC" /><ref name="BP bio" /> She had intended for it to be her headquarters and a central location for the school that she could return to between her tours. Instead it put a strain on her. As a result, her health began to decline.<ref name="White" />
She gathered recommendations that she had made during her lecture tours for Black woman to succeed.<ref name="Dineen-Wimberly">{{Cite book |last=Dineen-Wimberly |first=Ingrid |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uc-nDwAAQBAJ&dq=Corilla+Beard+Smith&pg=PA188 |title=The Allure of Blackness among Mixed-Race Americans, 1862–1916 |date=2019-10-01 |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |isbn=978-1-4962-0507-0 |pages=188 |access-date=2021-12-19 |archive-date=2024-07-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240710222802/https://books.google.com/books?id=uc-nDwAAQBAJ&dq=Corilla+Beard+Smith&pg=PA188#v=onepage&q=Corilla%20Beard%20Smith&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1916, Hackley published ''The Colored Girl Beautiful'',<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/31340?msg=welcome_stranger|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190524181909/http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/31340?msg=welcome_stranger|url-status=dead|archive-date=2019-05-24|title=The Colored Girl Beautiful by E. Azalia Hackley – Free Ebook|date=2019-05-24|access-date=2019-05-24}}</ref> a "how to" on becoming a refined African American lady.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Hackley |first1=E. Azalia (Emma Azalia) |title=The Colored Girl Beautiful |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/31340/31340-h/31340-h.htm |access-date=January 1, 2019 |language=English |date=February 21, 2010 |archive-date=July 18, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180718105110/http://www.gutenberg.org/files/31340/31340-h/31340-h.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> She defined beauty, duty, and career and leadership opportunities for black women.<ref name="Dineen-Wimberly" /> She was described as one of W. E. B. Du Bois's Talented Tenth by Lois Brevard, her biographer.<ref name="Dineen-Wimberly" />
She was driven by a philosophy to uplift people, which she did by delivering lectures inspired by the 19th-century New Thought spiritual movement. She also enjoyed giving music lessons to large audiences. Juanita Karpf wrote the book ''Performing Racial Uplift: E. Azalia Hackley and African American Activism in the Post-Bellum to Pre-Harlem Era''.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Performing Racial Uplift |url=https://www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/P/Performing-Racial-Uplift |access-date=2021-11-08 |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |archive-date=2021-11-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211108210348/https://www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/P/Performing-Racial-Uplift |url-status=live }}</ref>
==Death== Hackley collapsed on stage while performing in San Diego in 1921 and was brought back to Detroit.<ref name="BP bio" /> She died on December 13, 1922, at the home of her sister, Mrs. Marieta Johnson, in Detroit, Michigan.<ref name="obit - passing">{{Cite news |date=1922-12-16 |title=The Passing of Mme. Azalia Hackley |pages=5 |work=California Eagle |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/74777630/the-passing-of-mme-azalia-hackley/ |access-date=2021-11-07 |archive-date=2021-11-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211107232949/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/74777630/the-passing-of-mme-azalia-hackley/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Bowen|first1=Susan W.|title=African-American Woman Was A Pioneer In The American Classical Music Tradition|url=http://www.schillerinstitute.org/educ/hist/hackley.html|website=Schiller Institute|access-date=June 22, 2015|archive-date=April 17, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150417082943/http://www.schillerinstitute.org/educ/hist/hackley.html|url-status=live}}</ref> She is buried at the Elmwood Cemetery in Detroit.<ref name="EHC" />
A special collection, the E. Azalia Hackley Collection of African Americans in the Performing Arts, was founded in her name at the Detroit Public Library in 1943.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Emma Azalia Smith Hackley |url=http://www.detroit.lib.mi.us/featuredcollection/e-azalia-hackley-collection |access-date=2021-11-07 |website=digitalcollections.detroitpubliclibrary.org |archive-date=2013-09-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130903070617/http://www.detroit.lib.mi.us/featuredcollection/e-azalia-hackley-collection |url-status=dead }}</ref>
== In popular culture== [[File:Elizabeth Carter Brooks, educator and activist, with singer-activist Emma Azelia Smith Hackley.jpg|thumb| Emma Hackley (in spectacles) with Elizabeth Brooks]] A portrait of Hackley, painted by Detroit artist Telitha Cumi Bowens, was included in the 1988/89 exhibit ''Ain't I A Woman'' at the Museum of African American History, Detroit. The exhibit featured a dozen prominent Black women from the state of Michigan, including the Honorable Cora M. Brown, Ethelene Jones Crockett, M.D., and teacher Fannie M. Richards.<ref>{{cite book |title=Ain't I A Woman, an exhibition catalogue |date=1989 |publisher=Museum of African American History |location=Detroit, MI |pages=19–21}}</ref>
==See also== * List of African American pioneers of Colorado
==Notes== {{Notelist}}
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== {{Commons category|Emma Azalia Hackley}} * {{find a Grave|51656496}}
{{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Hackley, Emma Azalia}} Category:1867 births Category:1922 deaths Category:People from Murfreesboro, Tennessee Category:Singers from Tennessee Category:African-American musicians Category:Musicians from Detroit Category:Musicians from Denver Category:19th-century American women singers Category:19th-century American newspaper editors Category:19th-century African-American educators Category:19th-century American educators Category:20th-century African-American women singers Category:20th-century American women singers Category:20th-century American singers Category:American music educators Category:19th-century African-American women writers Category:19th-century American writers Category:19th-century American women writers Category:19th-century African-American writers Category:Burials at Elmwood Cemetery (Detroit) Category:Colorado pioneers Category:19th-century African-American women singers Category:American lecturers