John Powell (September 6, 1882 in Richmond, Virginia – August 15, 1963),[1] an American composer and white supremacist, was an honorary member of the Virginia Glee Club.[2]
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.[3] His students included Ernest Mead.[4]
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 the Racial Integrity Act of 1924, Virginia state legislation making intermarriage between whites and those with a "single drop of Negro blood."[5] The Racial Integrity Act was used to charge Richard and Mildred Loving with miscegenation; the subsequent Loving v. Virginia lawsuit established once and for all that anti-miscegenation laws were unconstitutional, thereby legalizing mixed race marriage in the 15 states where it had been outlawed.[6]
References[]
- ↑ "John Powell". MusicSack. http://musicsack.com/PersonFMTDetail.cfm?PersonPK=100012689. Retrieved 2014-01-10.
- ↑ "Radio Items". College Topics: p. 2. 1940-02-26. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=6AstAAAAIBAJ&sjid=JWkEAAAAIBAJ&dq=virginia%20glee-club%20john-powell&pg=2689%2C3530748.
- ↑ Dabney, Virginius (1981). Mr. Jefferson's University: A History. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press. p. 188. ISBN 081390904X. http://repo.lib.virginia.edu:18080/fedora/get/uva-lib:178665/uva-lib-bdef:100/getFullView.
- ↑ Dabney, 363.
- ↑ Dabney, 66.
- ↑ Riley, Steven (2012-06-12). "Don't Pass on Context". Mixed Race Studies. http://www.mixedracestudies.org/wordpress/?p=14196. Retrieved 2014-01-10.