John Rosamond Johnson

JOHNSON, John Rosamond. b. Jacksonville, Florida, 11 August 1873; d. New York City, 11 November 1954. Prominent singer, producer, entertainer, and composer, Johnson began piano lessons at four years old. He graduated from Stanton Public school in 1891, and studied piano, organ and composition at the New England Conservatory of Music, Boston, Massachusetts, until ca. 1886. He then moved to London, UK, to study composition with Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912). He toured in vaudeville, and apparently made his acting debut in John W. Isham’s (b. 1866) Oriental America (1896), significant as the first African-American Broadway show and for departing from the racist, minstrel tradition. John...