Utica Institute Jubilee Singers

Mississippi's vocational Utica Normal & Industrial Institute for the Training of Colored Young Men and Women was founded in 1903 by Dr. William Henry Holtzclaw, the son of emancipated slaves. Following the example of Fisk University, Utica's own Jubilee-styled vocal group was sent on a tour of Northern cities to raise funds for the institute. The first commercially distributed recordings of a Utica Jubilee group were cut nearly a quarter century later by a unit that had been together for about a year. Managed by European-American faculty member C.W. Hynes, they operated under ...