Melva Wilson Costen

COSTEN, Melva (née Wilson). b. Due West, South Carolina, 29 May 1933; d. Atlanta, Georgia, 8 September 2023. Civil rights activist and authority on music and worship, Melva Wilson studied education and music at Johnson C. Smith University, Charlotte, North Carolina (BA, education, 1953), serving as student accompanist for the University choir; music education at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (MATM, 1964); and curriculum and instruction at Georgia State University, Atlanta (PhD, 1978, dissertation ‘A Comparative Description of Curricular Offerings in Church Music Degree Programs at Accredited Protestant Theological Seminaries in the United States’).  From 1952-1973, Wilson...