Performing Racial Uplift: E. Azalia Hackley and African American Activism in the Postbellum to Pre-Harlem Era

In Performing Racial Uplift: E. Azalia Hackley and African American Activism in the Postbellum to Pre-Harlem Era, Juanita Karpf has made an important contribution to our awareness and understanding of this groundbreaking musician, activist, educator and early figure in Black theater, and the era in which she lived.Although Madame Emma Azalia Smith Hackley (1867-1922) has largely faded from memory and public record, it is clear that Karpf has dedicated decades of research to Mme.Hackley, resulting in a surprisingly comprehensive account that has been richly shaped through extensive historical contextualization.Hackley interwove her activism for the uplift of the race with European classical music performance, community-wide music education, New Thought ideology, and mass pageants celebrating African ancestry-all while actively resisting the terror of one of the most overtly racist periods in American history.