Julia Britton Hooks
| Julia Britton Hooks | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Julia Ann Amanda Moorehead Britton May 4, 1852 Frankfort, Kentucky, United States |
| Died | March 10, 1942 (aged 89) Memphis, Tennessee |
| Resting place | Zion Christian Cemetery Memphis, Tennessee |
| Occupation | musician, educator, social worker, civil rights activist |
| Spouse(s) | Sam Wertles; Charles F. Hooks |
| Children | Robert B., Henry |
| Parent(s) | Laura Marshall and Henry Harrison Britton |
Julia Britton Hooks (May 4, 1852 – March 10, 1942), known as the "Angel of Beale Street," was a musician and educator whose work with youth, the elderly, and the indigent was highly respected in her family's home state of Kentucky and in Memphis, Tennessee, where she lived with her second husband, Charles F. Hooks. She was a charter member of the Memphis branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and her example served as an inspiration for her grandson, Benjamin Hooks, executive director of the NAACP from 1977 to 1992. Julia was also a leader for African-American women and active in the civil rights movement.
Julia Ann Amanda Moorehead Britton was born in Frankfort, Kentucky, on May 4, 1852. Her mother Laura Marshall was a gifted singer and musician, and well-educated even though she grew up as a slave in the household of a relation to her father, the Kentucky statesman Thomas F. Marshall. Laura, nearly white, was emancipated at the age of sixteen. Julia's father, Henry Harrison Britton, was a carpenter and free born. So, Julia was born in a slave state as a free person. She was raised in Lexington where she became well known as a musical prodigy at an early age, playing in parlor concerts for wealthy white families. In 1859 with her younger sister Mary E. Britton (who later became the first African-American, female physician in Kentucky), she attended a branch school in Lexington started by Mr. William H. Gibson of Louisville, Kentucky.
At the age of eighteen, Hooks attended Berea College where she was one of the very first African-American women to attend college in the state of Kentucky. Not only did she attend college as a student, but also became the first African-American on the faculty at Berea College. She was active in musical groups such as the Liszt Mullard club which performed classical music in the community during the 1880s. She taught music at the school from 1870 to 1872 (the first African-American to teach white students at Berea College), and graduated in the class of 1874.
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