Roland Hayes
"The Famous Tenor"
Introduction to Music
Roland Hayes was born in Curryville, near Calhoun in Gordon County, on June 3, 1887, to Fanny and William Hayes, who were freed-people. When Hayes was eleven his father died, and his mother moved the family to Chattanooga, Tennessee. Hayes grew up singing African American spirituals that had been passed down for generations.
In Chattanooga, he sang in church and on the street for pennies. A music teacher was impressed by his singing ability and offered him music lessons. Hayes wanted an education, but he had to drop out of school to help support his family and worked at many jobs. Hayes then moved to Louisville, Kentucky, where he found a job singing at a silent movie theater. He had to sing offstage so that people could hear his voice but not see his skin color.
Mastering the Art
While Hayes was in Louisville, the president of Fisk University invited him to be the lead tenor for the Fisk Jubilee Singers’ tour in Boston, Massachusetts. He accepted the invitation, and the trip changed his life. He furthered his studies in Boston with Arthur Hubbard, who agreed to give him lessons only if Hayes came to his house instead of his studio. He did not want Roland to "embarrass" him by appearing at his studio with his white students. During his period studying with Hubbard, he worked as a messenger for the Hancock Life Insurance Company to support himself.
He went on to become one of the world’s great singers and composers, lauded by critics for his abilities and linguistic skills demonstrated with songs in French, German and Italian. His greatest honors would include: performances at London's Wigmore Hall, receiving a summons from England's King George V and Queen Mary to give a command performance at Buckingham Palace, and being the first African-American soloist to perform with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Resiliency
An unfortunate racial incident involving Hayes’s family occurred in Rome, Georgia, in July 1942 and made national newspaper headlines. After Hayes’s wife and daughter sat in a whites-only area of a shoe store, they were thrown out of the store. Hayes later confronted the store clerk, and he and his wife were arrested by the local police. Hayes was also beaten. About a week later, in response to the incident, Governor Eugene Talmadge warned Blacks who didn’t agree with segregation “to stay out of Georgia.” Talmadge promised, “We are going to keep the Jim Crow laws and protect them.” Although Hayes claimed that he was not bitter, he and his family left Georgia not long afterward and eventually sold their farm in 1948.
CLIENTS
A Life of Music
Roland Hayes performing at Carnegie Hall
In 1962 Hayes gave a concert at Carnegie Hall to celebrate his seventy-fifth birthday and raise funds for the American Missionary Association College Centennials Fund. He spent his later years encouraging young musicians by serving as a mentor, giving freely of his talent, time, and financial resources to help them. He also taught at Boston University and received many honorary doctoral degrees and numerous awards, including the NAACP Spingarn Medal. Hayes gave his final concert in 1973 at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He died on January 1, 1977, in Boston and is buried at Mount Hope Cemetery in Dorchester, Massachusetts.