(1928–1994)
Betty Jackson King was a composer, a music educator, and a leader who was dedicated to serving others. She was born in Chicago, Illinois, on February 17, 1928. Her mother, Gertrude Smith Jackson, was a music teacher and she started teaching King piano when she was three years old. King also studied piano in school, and toured the US as part of a musical trio with her mother and her sister Catherine. In 1950, she continued her musical training by earning a bachelor of music in piano performance from Roosevelt University in Chicago. King also earned a master of music in composition from this school in 1952. Her master’s thesis was a sacred opera titled Saul of Tarsus with a libretto by her father, Frederick Jackson, who was a minister. The Chicago Musical Association premiered Smith’s work in 1952, and its positive reception facilitated future performances.
After graduation, King began her teaching career. She worked at a number of schools, including the University of Chicago Laboratory School, Dillard University in New Orleans, and several high schools in Wildwood, New Jersey, where she served as a choir director. King also toured as a lecturer and choral clinician. In addition to teaching, she maintained an active composing career. The famous soprano Kathleen Battle was particularly fond of performing and recording King’s spiritual arrangements.
King not only worked as an educator and musician, but she was also a community leader. She directed several church choirs in both Chicago and New Jersey. From 1979 to 1985, King served as president of the National Association of Negro Musicians (NANM), an organization dedicated to supporting Black classical musicians. In this role, King was particularly concerned with addressing the lack of books that included Black musicians in educational environments. She even founded a publishing company, Jacksonian Press, to address issues of discrimination against Black female composers. King spent her life striving to create a better environment for her community. As a result, the positive impact of her efforts has continued long after her death on June 1, 1994.
Elizabeth Durrant
Elizabeth Durrant recently received an M.A. in Musicology from the University of North Texas. She also earned a B.A. in English Literature (St. Mary’s College of Maryland) and a B.S. in Voice (Towson University)—as a result she is dedicated to exploring intersections between these disciplines. Her master’s thesis is titled “Chicago Renaissance Women: Black Feminism in the Careers and Songs of Florence Price and Margaret Bonds.” Elizabeth plans to pursue her PhD in musicology and continue exploring her interests in Black and female composers, twentieth-century neoromantic music, and American art song.
Sources
Blevins, Pamela. “Betty Jackson King (1928–1994).” Liner notes for Violin Lullabies. Rachel
Barton Pine and Matthew Hagle. Cedille Records CDR3006, 2018, compact disc.
“The Composer: Betty’s History” Jacksonian Press, Inc.
https://www.bettyjacksonking.com/African-American-composer-chicago-il.html.
Joyner, David. “Waller, Fats” In Harlem Renaissance Lives from the African
American National Biography, edited by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Evelyn Brooks
Higginbotham, 505-507. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.
Snyder, Jean. “Betty Jackson King (1928–1994).” Liner notes for Amen!: African American
Composers of the Twentieth Century. Oral Moses and George Bailey. Albany Records
TROY459, 2001, compact disc
Southern, Eileen. “King, Betty Jackson (1928–1994).” In Encyclopedia of African American
Music, edited by Emmett G. Price III, Tammy L. Kernodle, and Horace J. Maxile, Jr., 535-536. Santa Barbara, California: Greenwood, 2010.
———. Biographical Dictionary of Afro-American and African Musicians. Westport,
Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1982.
Walker-Hill, Helen. From Spirituals to Symphonies: African-American Women Composers
and Their Music. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2002.
