Progress and Achievements of the Colored People / Containing the Story of the Wonderful Advancement of the Colored Americans—the Most Marvelous in the History of Nations—Their Past Accomplishments, Together With Their Present-day Opportunities and a Glimpse Into the Future for Further Developments—the Dawn of a Triumphant Era. A Handbook for Self-improvement Which Leads to Greater Success

by Kelly Miller; Joseph R. Gay

Remember the Black Swan, that wonderful prima donna whose voice had a range of three octaves and was frequently compared with Jenny Lind at the height of her fame.

Madam Marie Selika, of Chicago, achieved enormous success in Europe, a marvelous singer whose voice “trilled like a feathered songster,” and whose “Echo Song” has not yet been surpassed.

You have heard the “Black Patti” (Madame Sisseretta Jones) who was a success in Europe, and has her own company of which she is the head, “The Black Patti Troubadours.”

There is Mrs. E. Azalia Hackley, of Detroit. This lady has been a prominent singer for years. She studied in Europe, and is the author of “Guide to Voice Culture.”

PAINTERS

William Edward Scott, of Chicago, should be noted for his extraordinary works in America and Europe. Born in Indianapolis in 1884, he graduated from the high school in 1903. From 1904, when he entered the Chicago Art Institute, until the present time, he has been prolific in paintings, three of which were accepted at the Salon des Beaux Arts at Toquet, and others elsewhere. His work may be seen in three mural paintings which decorate the Felsenthal School in Chicago.

This field is rich in artists of the colored people:

E. M. Bannister, the first Negro in America to achieve distinction as a painter. One of his pictures was awarded a medal at the Centennial Exposition of 1876 (Philadelphia).

Henry O. Tanner, the son of Benjamin T. Tanner, Bishop of the A. M. E. Church, is one of the most distinguished artists of the present day. He resides in Paris but is a native born American. During the past three years his paintings have been on exhibition in the leading art galleries of the United States.

A rising young artist is to be found in Richard Lonsdale Brown, a native of Indiana, but who spent many years of his life among the hills of West Virginia. Not yet twenty years of age, he is on the road to fame and has received the encomiums of artists as a young artist of rare qualities with the precious gift of vision which indicates artistic instinct.