Jubilee Day
The Fisk University Jubilee Singers
For 135 years, Fisk University’s Jubilee Singers have served as one of America’s foremost a cappella ensembles and as the premier carriers of the Negro spiritual.
The celebration of Jubilee Day occurs annually at Fisk on October 6. On that day, the university commemorates the original group of nine students and their music professor, George L. White, who organized as The Fisk Jubilee Singers and toured internationally in hopes of raising money to save the university from closing. Through sacrifice and perseverance, proceeds from the Singers’ initial tours paid for the purchase of the 42-acre Nashville campus.
Though a custom unique to this historically black college, Fisk opens its ritual to select members of the Case Western Reserve University community through the Case-Fisk Partnership.
Kathryn Karipides
"It is a wonderfully spiritual tradition for all who attend Fisk," said Kathryn Karipides, former associate provost at Case Western Reserve and coordinator of the Case-Fisk Partnership, who has been honored to take part in Jubilee Day.
During their first tours, the Jubilee Singers also contributed tour earnings to The Great Chicago Fire victims in 1871 and were invited to perform at The White House by President Ulysses Grant in 1872.
In 1873, the group grew to eleven members and performed for the crowned heads of Europe. The group’s earnings paid for the construction of Jubilee Hall, the first permanent building in America erected for the education of African Americans.