REMEMBERING ES MU ROLAND HAY Roland Hayes SE U M Legendary tenor grew up in Northwest Georgia By Amber Lanier Nagle R deep breath and marched to the center of the stage, joining his black piano accompanist. " By that time, he had packed concert halls and sold out venues in Boston, New York and London and had delivered a command performance at Buckingham Palace for King George V and Queen Mary, but that success and acceptance did not translate to Germany, " says Georgetta Frazier, an active member of the Roland Hayes Museum Committee in Calhoun. " For 10 AMBER LANIER NAGLE AMBER LANIER NAGLE oland Hayes often pointed to his performance at a Berlin concert hall in 1924 as one of his " greatest triumphs over hatred. " He had anticipated jeers from the audience made up mostly of Germany's recently formed National Socialist German Workers' Party, more commonly known as the Nazi Party, a group known to despise Africans and brown-skinned people. Even still, the world-renowned African American tenor drew a Roland Hayes Museum Committee member Georgetta Frazier of Calhoun stands next to a piano that Hayes used for practice. The piano is the centerpiece of the Roland Hayes Museum at the Harris Arts Center in downtown Calhoun. 16 Georgia Magazine February 2021 Harris Arts Center board member Mark Ford holds up a conceptual design for a Roland Hayes commemorative postage stamp.