Wikipedia

Naida McCullough

Naida Portia McCullough (c. 1901 – September 19, 1989) was an American educator, pianist, and composer based in Los Angeles.

Naida McCullough
Naida McCullough, from a 1928 newspaper.
Naida McCullough, from a 1928 newspaper
Born
Naida Portia McCullough

c. 1901
Colorado
DiedSeptember 19, 1989
California
NationalityAmerican
Other namesNaida McCullough Banks
Occupation(s)Pianist, activist
Years active1920s–1950s

Early life edit

Naida McCullough was born in Colorado, the younger daughter of George A. McCullough and Georgia A. McCullough. She was raised in Denver, where she began as a performer and learned to play the church organ,[1][2] and graduated from Los Angeles High School in the winter class of 1917.[3]

She and her elder sister, Yolande McCullough (1898-1964), taught music classes together as young women.[4][5] Yolande married Leonard Stovall, a doctor in World War I who worked on tuberculosis prevention after the war.[6][7]

College activities edit

McCullough was described in 1921 as "the first colored girl to graduate from the music department of the University of Southern California".[8] She was the first African American woman to receive a Pi Kappa Lambda Key (Music).[9][10] McCullough was a founding member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority chapter at USC, and she helped to found the chapter at UCLA in 1925, and was a founding member of the west coast graduate chapter, in 1927.[11][12]

She was president of the Los Angeles graduate chapter in the 1940s, succeeded by Audrey Boswell Jones in 1945.[13] She performed at the national gatherings of the sorority in Philadelphia in 1925,[14] and in 1932 in Los Angeles.[15][16]

As a student, McCullough was also active in the Junior Branch of the NAACP's Los Angeles chapter.[17] As a leader of that organization in 1925, she worked on a production of W. E. B. Du Bois's pageant, The Star of Ethiopia at the Hollywood Bowl,[18] then led a boycott of the same production, when it was taken over by more established theatre professionals.[19][20]

Career edit

McCullough played gave concerts, including her own compositions in the program of piano music. "Genius is the only fitting description of this remarkably talented young woman", according to a 1936 report, remarking especially on her own works, "Hawaiian Rain Shower" and "E Flat Sonata", and her rendition of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's "I'm Troubled in Mind".[21] She joined the Los Angeles Musicians Association in 1931.[22] She accompanied singers Florence Cole Talbert and Lillian Evanti.[23][24][25][26] In 1937 she visited Hawaii to give performances and study at the University of Hawaii.[27][28]

In 1940, she and singer Tomiko Kanazawa gave a concert together at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre, to benefit a tuberculosis rest home in Duarte, California.[29]

McCullough also taught kindergarten in Los Angeles, and worked with principal Bessie Burke at the Holmes Avenue School.[30][31] She sometimes gave lectures on Hawaii to community groups, after her studies there.[32] Because she was a member of the board of the Musicians' Congress, her name came up in a state Senate report on "un-American activities in California".[33]

Personal life edit

Naida P. McCullough eloped with realtor Fitzhugh L. Banks in January 1940;[34] they divorced a few months later.[35] Naida McCullough died in 1989, believed to be aged 88 years.[citation needed]

References edit

  1. ^ "City News" Denver Star (April 26, 1913): p. 8. via NewspaperArchive.com
  2. ^ "Denver Personals" Denver Statesman (March 9, 1912): p. 4. via NewspaperArchive.com
  3. ^ "Denver Girl Wins Exceptional Praise at Los Angeles" Denver Star (February 24, 1917): p. 2. via NewspaperArchive.com
  4. ^ "Young Society Matron Entertains" California Eagle (August 17, 1923): p. 7. via Internet Archive 
  5. ^ "Pupils Delightfully Entertained" California Eagle (December 1923): p. 6. via Internet Archive 
  6. ^ W. Douglas Fisher, Joann H. Buckley, African American Doctors of World War I: The Lives of 104 Volunteers (McFarland 2015): p. 205;ISBN 9781476623177
  7. ^ Barbara Mounts, "City Mourns Mrs. Yolande Stovall" California Eagle (July 23, 1964): p. 2. via Internet Archive 
  8. ^ Untitled brief item, New York Age (July 16, 1921): p. 5. via Newspapers.com
  9. ^ "Naida P. McCullough", Alpha Kappa Alpha's Pioneering Sorors Open Doors (online exhibit).
  10. ^ Delilah L. Beasley, "Activities Among Negroes" Oakland Tribune (August 16, 1925): p. 20. via Newspapers.com
  11. ^ Far Western Regional Directors, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc.
  12. ^ "AKA Graduate Chapter Elects Officers" California Eagle (December 18, 1941): p. 9. via Internet Archive 
  13. ^ "About Us". AKA AGO Website. Retrieved 2024-02-13.
  14. ^ "Alpha Kappa Alpha Boule in Philadelphia was Notable Occasion" New York Age (January 10, 1925): p. 9. via Newspapers.com
  15. ^ "Half Hour Music at Greek Theater" San Francisco Examiner (August 21, 1932): p. 2. via Newspapers.com
  16. ^ "A. K. A. in 5-Day Session in Los Angeles" Baltimore Afro-American (August 13, 1932): p. 23. via NewspaperArchive.com
  17. ^ "Junior N. A. A. C. P. Meets Sunday" California Eagle (August 18, 1924): p. 6. via Internet Archive 
  18. ^ "Who's Who in the Production of the Pageant: Miss Naida McCullough" California Eagle (April 10, 1925): p. 4. via Internet Archive 
  19. ^ Douglas Flamming, Bound for Freedom: Black Los Angeles in Jim Crow America (University of California Press 2006): pp. 267-268; ISBN 9780520249905
  20. ^ Douglas Flamming, "The Star of Ethiopia and the NAACP: Pageantry, Politics, and the Los Angeles African American Community" in Tom Sitton, William Francis Deverell, eds., Metropolis in the Making: Los Angeles in the 1920s (University of California Press 2001): pp. 146-153; ISBN 9780520226272
  21. ^ "Alpha Wives Prepare for Mates' Confab" Pittsburgh Courier (June 6, 1936): p. 8. via Newspapers.com
  22. ^ "L. A. M. A." California Eagle (April 3 1931): p. 5. via Internet Archive 
  23. ^ George Marion McClellan, "National Association Presents Madame Florence Cole-Talbert in Recital" California Eagle (October 21, 1932): p. 1. via Internet Archive 
  24. ^ "Diva Evanti Feted in Hollywood by Celebs" Pittsburgh Courier (April 20, 1935): 11. via Newspapers.com
  25. ^ "School of Missions Musical Program", Holly Leaves (November 17, 1922): p. 13.
  26. ^ "Madame Florence Cole-Talbert at Pasadena Rose Bowl" California Eagle (July 13, 1928): p. 1. via Internet Archive 
  27. ^ "Pianist to Give KGU Recital" Honolulu Advertiser (August 28, 1937): p. 7. via Newspapers.com
  28. ^ "Pianist to be Heard Sunday" Honolulu Star-Bulletin (August 28, 1937): p. 38. via Newspapers.com
  29. ^ "Benefit Concert for Duarte Home" Los Angeles Times (January 21, 1940): p. 47. via Newspapers.com
  30. ^ "Holmes Ave. School Teachers Send Greetings" California Eagle (December 23, 1927): p. 1. via Internet Archive 
  31. ^ "Teachers Honor Mrs. Bessie Burke" Chicago Defender (January 9, 1937): p. 7. via ProQuest
  32. ^ "Educational Films Seen at Independent" California Eagle (January 6, 1937): p. 4A. via Internet Archive 
  33. ^ Report of the Senate Fact-Finding Committee on Un-American Activities, 1948 : Communist Front Organizations (1948): p. 317. via Internet Archive  
  34. ^ "Pianist Naida McCullough Weds Realtor" California Eagle (February 1, 1940): p. 4A, via Internet Archive  
  35. ^ "Naida McCullough Banks", California Eagle (July 25, 1940): 4A.
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