Anna Gardner Goodwin

Anna Gardner Goodwin
Anna Gardner Goodwin, in a 1902 publication.
Background information
BornOctober 1874 (1874-10)
Augusta, Georgia
Died1959

Anna Gardner Goodwin (October 1874 – 1959) was a Black American composer of classical music.

Early life

Anna Gardner was born in Augusta, Georgia,[1] in 1874 to Daniel and Anna Gardner. Daniel Gardner was remembered as "the March King of Augusta", a cornet player who ran a Sunday afternoon concert series for Black Augustans. "To dance and watch my father blow his cornet with such enthusiasm created within me a desire to make music," Anna Gardner Goodwin wrote.[2]

Personal life and legacy

In 1895, Anna Gardner married the Rev. George A. Goodwin, a professor of theology at Morehouse College, Atlanta, Georgia. Together they had four children: a son, George Jr., and three daughters: Janie, Anna, and Eunice. In summer 1913, Mrs. Goodwin earned a scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania to study the “method and supervision of public-school [sic] music” in the summer of 1913.[1] Sadly, Rev. Goodwin passed away in 1914. Thereafter, in 1917, she and her sister, Janie Gardner Burruss (1876-1924), also a widow, moved to Chicago, Illinois.[3]

Her granddaughter, Jane Alexander Robinson, became one of the founders of the Michigan Association of Black Psychologists.[4] Jane's grandsons, David E. Robinson III and Richard Robinson, both became professional musicians and composers.[5][6][1][7] Anna Gardner Goodwin's great-grandson, Richard Robinson, became a full member of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in 1989.[8][9] In 2010, he was a Kresge Arts Fellow.[10]

Anna Gardner Goodwin passed away in 1959 at age 85. Her papers, including a handwritten biography, are archived at the Center for Black Music Research, Columbia College Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.[1]

Career

Goodwin wrote and taught music for much of her adult life. During her married life, Goodwin assisted her husband by playing and leading music at Morehouse College and accompanying the school's glee club.[11] She also served as Faculty at Paine College in August, Georgia from 1917-1918, teaching Vocal Music.[1] In the 1930s, Goodwin worked as assistant house director of the Chicago, Ill., YWCA.[12]

Two compositions are of note, including Goodwin's last composition, "Freedom to All March", written to commemorate the 1951 race riot in Cicero, Illinois,[1] and "Cuba Libre March" (1898), which was included in Black Women Composers: A Century of Piano Music, 1893-1990 (1992).[13] "Freedom to March" was performed by the Cicero Bank in 1956.[1]

Compositions

  • I Will Follow Jesus (1906)
  • Do Not Touch the Wine Cup (1906)
  • Jesus Don’t Pass Me By (1906)
  • Praise the Lord (1906)
  • Tell the Story Everywhere (1906)
  • Willing Workers (1906)
  • Adalene (1909)
  • I’m Lonely Just for You (1934)[14]
  • We've Got to Win this War (1943)[1]
  • Freedom for All (1956)[15][16]
  • The House by the Side of the Road (undated)[1][17]
  • Rogena Verses and F-I-N-A-LE Waltz and Dance (undated, unfinished)[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Columbia College Chicago (2020-01-01). "Guide to the Anna Gardner Goodwin Collection". CBMR Collection Guides / Finding Aids. Archived from the original on 2023-02-24. Retrieved 2023-02-24.
  2. ^ Martin, Antoinette (1989-09-17). "Richard Robinson Solution (4)". Detroit Free Press. p. 144. Retrieved 2019-12-14 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ "Miss Janie B. Goodwin Weds C. A. Alexander" Archived 2017-02-07 at the Wayback Machine New York Age (May 8, 1926): 2. via Newspapers.com
  4. ^ "Professional Chapters". ABPsi. Archived from the original on 2025-04-08. Retrieved 2025-11-19.
  5. ^ David E. Robinson III Archived 2017-02-07 at the Wayback Machine, Founder and Artistic Director, Sinfo-Nia Orchestra of Metropolitan Atlanta.
  6. ^ Rick Robinson Archived 2017-03-06 at the Wayback Machine, Classical Matters website.
  7. ^ Heather (2024-02-06). "Augusta's Black Arts History - Greater Augusta Arts Council". Archived from the original on 2026-01-26. Retrieved 2025-11-19.
  8. ^ Martin, Antoinette (1989-09-17). "The Richard Robinson Solution (1)". Detroit Free Press. p. 140. Archived from the original on 2019-12-14. Retrieved 2019-12-14 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ Raspberry, William (1989-03-08). "THE HIRING OF RICHARD ROBINSON". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on 2019-12-14. Retrieved 2019-12-14.
  10. ^ "Rick Robinson". Kresge Arts in Detroit. Archived from the original on 2019-12-14. Retrieved 2019-12-14.
  11. ^ Benjamin Griffith Brawley, History of Morehouse College (Morehouse College 1917): 96.
  12. ^ Untitled brief news item Archived 2017-02-07 at the Wayback Machine, New York Age (July 19, 1930): 2. via Newspapers.com
  13. ^ Helen Walker-Hill, ed., Black Women Composers: A Century of Piano Music, 1893-1990 (Hildegard 1992).
  14. ^ Catalog of Copyright Entries, 1906 Musical Compositions (Library of Congress 1906).
  15. ^ Columbia College Chicago (2020-01-01). "Guide to the Anna Gardner Goodwin Collection". CBMR Collection Guides / Finding Aids. Archived from the original on 2023-02-24. Retrieved 2023-02-24.
  16. ^ Catalog of Copyright Entries, 1951 Musical Compositions (Library of Congress 1951).
  17. ^ Words by Sam Walter Foss.

Augusta’s Black Arts History - Greater Augusta Arts Council

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