John Powell (musician)
| John Powell | |
|---|---|
Powell at piano in 1916
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| Born | September 6, 1882 Richmond, Virginia |
| Died |
August 15, 1963 (aged 80) Richmond, Virginia |
| Education | University of Virginia |
| Occupation | Pianist, composer |
John Powell (September 6, 1882 – August 15, 1963) was an American pianist, ethnomusicologist and composer. He helped found the White Top Folk Festival, which promoted music of the people in the Appalachian Mountains.
A firm believer in segregation and white supremacy, Powell also helped found the Anglo-Saxon Clubs of America, which soon had numerous posts in Virginia. He contributed to the drafting and passage of the Racial Integrity Act of 1924, which institutionalized the one-drop rule by classifying as black (colored) anyone with African ancestry.
Powell was born and grew up in Richmond, Virginia. He graduated from the University of Virginia in 1901, and studied piano with Theodor Leschetizky and composition in Vienna with composer Karel Navrátil. He made his debut as a concert pianist in 1908 in Berlin.
Powell became a world-renowned composer. He had a racialist approach to music, which he expressed in his writings. He was interested in Appalachian folk music and championed its performance and preservation. He was one of the founders of the White Top Folk Festival, held in Grayson County, Virginia annually from 1931-1939.
Powell's ideology—and musicology—were strongly racialist and anti-black, a topic which served as the subject for many of his essays. In the fall of 1922 together with Earnest Sevier Cox (a self-proclaimed ethnologist and explorer) and Dr. Walter Plecker, Powell founded the Anglo-Saxon Clubs of America in Richmond, Virginia. They worked closely with Walter Ashby Plecker to promote state legislation to classify people simply as "white" or "negro", and to end "amalgamation" of the races by intermarriage. The activities of the club split the elite in Virginia, which had tried to take pride in its "genteel paternalism" in controlling racial relations. The clubs attracted more racists.
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