A Capitol Soprano - Mrs. Maggie Porter Cole of the Fisk Jubilee Singers

This February millions of Americans will watch Henry Louis Gates Jr.’s new series Gospel: Where Song and Sermon Meet. If I had to guess, sometime during the four hours of the documentary there will be at least one mention of the Fisk Jubilee Singers, an African American choir that took America and Europe by storm with their gorgeous music in the 1870s. Proceeds from the Jubilee Singers tours supported Fisk University, a historically Black college incorporated in Nashville in 1867.

            The Fisk Jubilee Singers performed in churches across Michigan for many years, stopping for concerts in Kalamazoo, Saginaw, Owosso, Jackson, Lansing, and Detroit. In March of 1892 the Jubilee Singers performed at the old First Presbyterian Church in Lansing. Though the concert was very well received, many expressed regrets that soprano Maggie Porter Cole was not among the singers present.

            Lansing people felt a particular affinity for Mrs. Cole, one of the original members of the Jubilee Singers, because she reportedly lived in the capital city in the late 1880s or early 1890s, between longer periods of residency in Detroit. During her Lansing stay, she accepted multiple invitations to sing in the Michigan State Capitol. She performed one solo (“Last Rose of Summer”) and a duet (“Gently Sighs the Breeze”), with Mrs. L.S. Roper at the June 1888 Michigan Pioneer Society annual meeting in the House Chamber. A few months later, she returned to sing two solos, “Remember Me No More” and “Laddie,” at Governor Luce’s Biennial Reception on March 19, 1889.

            So, as you enjoy Gospel: Where Song and Sermon Meet this month, remember that the rich history of Black music has many important ties with Michigan, and with our beloved Capitol building.

Valerie Marvin

Capitol Historian & Curator