John Powell, an American composer and white supremacist, was an honorary member of the Virginia Glee Club.^[1]

Powell graduated from Virginia in 1901. He was active as an alumnus, holding a concert series at Carnegie Hall in 1938 and donating the proceeds to Alderman Library, which used them to purchase letters written between Thomas Jefferson and Joseph C. Cabell.^[2] His students included Ernest Mead.^[3]

Powell was a white supremacist who helped to form an organization at the University called the Anglo-Saxon Clubs of America. The organization, whose president was Dr. Paul B. Barringer, sponsored successful state legislation in 1924 making intermarriage between whites and those with a "single drop of Negro blood."^[4]

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