Naida McCullough

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Naida McCullough
Naida McCullough, from a 1928 newspaper.
Naida McCullough, from a 1928 newspaper
Born
Naida Portia McCullough

c. 1901
Colorado
DiedSeptember 19, 1989
California
NationalityAmerican
Other namesNaida McCullough Banks
Occupation(s)Pianist, activist
Years active1920s–1950s

Naida Portia McCullough (c. 1901 – September 19, 1989) was an American educator, pianist, and composer based in Los Angeles.

Early life[edit]

Naida McCullough was born in Colorado, the younger daughter of George A. McCullough and Georgia A. McCullough. She was raised in Denver, where she began as a performer and learned to play the church organ,[1][2] and graduated from Los Angeles High School in the winter class of 1917.[3]

She and her elder sister, Yolande McCullough (1898-1964), taught music classes together as young women.[4][5] Yolande married Leonard Stovall, a doctor in World War I who worked on tuberculosis prevention after the war.[6][7]

College activities[edit]

McCullough was described in 1921 as "the first colored girl to graduate from the music department of the University of Southern California".[8] She was the first African American woman to receive a Pi Kappa Lambda Key (Music).[9][10] McCullough was a founding member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority chapter at USC, and she helped to found the chapter at UCLA in 1925, and was a founding member of the west coast graduate chapter, in 1927.[11][12]

She was president of the Los Angeles graduate chapter in the 1940s, succeeded by Audrey Boswell Jones in 1945.[13] She performed at the national gatherings of the sorority in Philadelphia in 1925,[14] and in 1932 in Los Angeles.[15][16]

As a student, McCullough was also active in the Junior Branch of the NAACP's Los Angeles chapter.[17] As a leader of that organization in 1925, she worked on a production of W. E. B. Du Bois's pageant, The Star of Ethiopia at the Hollywood Bowl,[18] then led a boycott of the same production, when it was taken over by more established theatre professionals.[19][20]

Career[edit]

McCullough played gave concerts, including her own compositions in the program of piano music. "Genius is the only fitting description of this remarkably talented young woman", according to a 1936 report, remarking especially on her own works, "Hawaiian Rain Shower" and "E Flat Sonata", and her rendition of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's "I'm Troubled in Mind".[21] She joined the Los Angeles Musicians Association in 1931.[22] She accompanied singers Florence Cole Talbert and Lillian Evanti.[23][24][25][26] In 1937 she visited Hawaii to give performances and study at the University of Hawaii.[27][28]

In 1940, she and singer Tomiko Kanazawa gave a concert together at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre, to benefit a tuberculosis rest home in Duarte, California.[29]

McCullough also taught kindergarten in Los Angeles, and worked with principal Bessie Burke at the Holmes Avenue School.[30][31] She sometimes gave lectures on Hawaii to community groups, after her studies there.[32] Because she was a member of the board of the Musicians' Congress, her name came up in a state Senate report on "un-American activities in California".[33]

Personal life[edit]

Naida P. McCullough eloped with realtor Fitzhugh L. Banks in January 1940;[34] they divorced a few months later.[35] Naida McCullough died in 1989, believed to be aged 88 years.[citation needed]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "City News" Denver Star (April 26, 1913): p. 8. via NewspaperArchive.com
  2. ^ "Denver Personals" Denver Statesman (March 9, 1912): p. 4. via NewspaperArchive.com
  3. ^ "Denver Girl Wins Exceptional Praise at Los Angeles" Denver Star (February 24, 1917): p. 2. via NewspaperArchive.com
  4. ^ "Young Society Matron Entertains" California Eagle (August 17, 1923): p. 7. via Internet ArchiveOpen access icon
  5. ^ "Pupils Delightfully Entertained" California Eagle (December 1923): p. 6. via Internet ArchiveOpen access icon
  6. ^ W. Douglas Fisher, Joann H. Buckley, African American Doctors of World War I: The Lives of 104 Volunteers (McFarland 2015): p. 205;ISBN 9781476623177
  7. ^ Barbara Mounts, "City Mourns Mrs. Yolande Stovall" California Eagle (July 23, 1964): p. 2. via Internet ArchiveOpen access icon
  8. ^ Untitled brief item, New York Age (July 16, 1921): p. 5. via Newspapers.com
  9. ^ "Naida P. McCullough", Alpha Kappa Alpha's Pioneering Sorors Open Doors (online exhibit).
  10. ^ Delilah L. Beasley, "Activities Among Negroes" Oakland Tribune (August 16, 1925): p. 20. via Newspapers.com
  11. ^ Far Western Regional Directors, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc.
  12. ^ "AKA Graduate Chapter Elects Officers" California Eagle (December 18, 1941): p. 9. via Internet ArchiveOpen access icon
  13. ^ "About Us". AKA AGO Website. Retrieved 2024-02-13.
  14. ^ "Alpha Kappa Alpha Boule in Philadelphia was Notable Occasion" New York Age (January 10, 1925): p. 9. via Newspapers.com
  15. ^ "Half Hour Music at Greek Theater" San Francisco Examiner (August 21, 1932): p. 2. via Newspapers.com
  16. ^ "A. K. A. in 5-Day Session in Los Angeles" Baltimore Afro-American (August 13, 1932): p. 23. via NewspaperArchive.com
  17. ^ "Junior N. A. A. C. P. Meets Sunday" California Eagle (August 18, 1924): p. 6. via Internet ArchiveOpen access icon
  18. ^ "Who's Who in the Production of the Pageant: Miss Naida McCullough" California Eagle (April 10, 1925): p. 4. via Internet ArchiveOpen access icon
  19. ^ Douglas Flamming, Bound for Freedom: Black Los Angeles in Jim Crow America (University of California Press 2006): pp. 267-268; ISBN 9780520249905
  20. ^ Douglas Flamming, "The Star of Ethiopia and the NAACP: Pageantry, Politics, and the Los Angeles African American Community" in Tom Sitton, William Francis Deverell, eds., Metropolis in the Making: Los Angeles in the 1920s (University of California Press 2001): pp. 146-153; ISBN 9780520226272
  21. ^ "Alpha Wives Prepare for Mates' Confab" Pittsburgh Courier (June 6, 1936): p. 8. via Newspapers.com
  22. ^ "L. A. M. A." California Eagle (April 3 1931): p. 5. via Internet ArchiveOpen access icon
  23. ^ George Marion McClellan, "National Association Presents Madame Florence Cole-Talbert in Recital" California Eagle (October 21, 1932): p. 1. via Internet ArchiveOpen access icon
  24. ^ "Diva Evanti Feted in Hollywood by Celebs" Pittsburgh Courier (April 20, 1935): 11. via Newspapers.com
  25. ^ "School of Missions Musical Program", Holly Leaves (November 17, 1922): p. 13.
  26. ^ "Madame Florence Cole-Talbert at Pasadena Rose Bowl" California Eagle (July 13, 1928): p. 1. via Internet ArchiveOpen access icon
  27. ^ "Pianist to Give KGU Recital" Honolulu Advertiser (August 28, 1937): p. 7. via Newspapers.com
  28. ^ "Pianist to be Heard Sunday" Honolulu Star-Bulletin (August 28, 1937): p. 38. via Newspapers.com
  29. ^ "Benefit Concert for Duarte Home" Los Angeles Times (January 21, 1940): p. 47. via Newspapers.com
  30. ^ "Holmes Ave. School Teachers Send Greetings" California Eagle (December 23, 1927): p. 1. via Internet ArchiveOpen access icon
  31. ^ "Teachers Honor Mrs. Bessie Burke" Chicago Defender (January 9, 1937): p. 7. via ProQuest
  32. ^ "Educational Films Seen at Independent" California Eagle (January 6, 1937): p. 4A. via Internet ArchiveOpen access icon
  33. ^ Report of the Senate Fact-Finding Committee on Un-American Activities, 1948 : Communist Front Organizations (1948): p. 317. via Internet Archive Open access icon
  34. ^ "Pianist Naida McCullough Weds Realtor" California Eagle (February 1, 1940): p. 4A, via Internet Archive Open access icon
  35. ^ "Naida McCullough Banks", California Eagle (July 25, 1940): 4A.
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