Georgia Magazine - February 2021 - 17

ROLAND HAYES MUSEUM

ROLAND HAYES MUSEUM

Roland Hayes listens to a recording in his
recording studio.

Hayes mentors a group of voice students at Fisk University in Nashville, Tenn.

long minutes, Hayes stood there, in the curve of the piano, while
the audience booed and hissed at him. Can you imagine? "
As the story goes, he recited a prayer in his mind over and
over again: " God, blot out Roland Hayes so that the people will
only see thee. " As the commotion lulled, Hayes lifted his head
and sang Franz Schubert's " Du bist die Ruh " (which translates
to " You are rest and peace " ) in perfect German dialect. His voice
was tender, elegant, soulful and rich. Angry faces softened.
People leaned forward in their seats. Tears welled in the eyes
of many.
A few seconds after his final note, the stunned audience
sat in silence. Then, suddenly, the concert hall erupted with
deafening applause and stomping.
" They say that the cheering went on for 10 minutes-the
same amount of time that they had booed him before the performance, " Frazier says.
The Germans suspended their hatred and saw the talent
within the man.
" I think that story tells you a lot about his character, " she
says. " He was a gifted vocalist, but he was also a humble, patient
person. Humility allows you to endure the worst of humanity
and rise to the occasion. Roland Hayes didn't let the hostility
directed at him make him a hard person. He kept singing and
sharing his gift with the world. "
Indeed, the African American lyric tenor became revered
internationally-the highest-paid singer in the world in the
1920s, during the time of Jim Crow laws and rampant repression
and racism in America.

Made in Georgia
Roland Wiltsie Hayes was born in 1887 in the small rural
community of Curryville that locals refer to as " the Flatwoods " in
Gordon County in Northwest Georgia. His parents were tenant
farmers on a plantation where his mother, Fannie, had once been
a slave.
His musical influence was vast. He credited his father,
William, with teaching him the basics of music; a traveling music
teacher taught him how to read music from the pages of church
hymnals; and a man known as " Uncle Nat " introduced Hayes to
dozens of African songs. Realizing Hayes' musical genius, church
elders tasked him with learning new songs and teaching them to
the congregation at Mount Zion Baptist Church, a small church
his mother helped found.
Hayes' father died when he was 11, and two years later the
family moved to Chattanooga, Tenn., where Hayes went to work
to help support the family. He studied voice in Chattanooga, then
moved to Nashville in 1905 to study music at Fisk University,
despite having only a sixth grade education.
Four years later, Hayes traveled to Boston with the Fisk
Jubilee Singers and decided to stay there and study with noted
voice teacher Arthur Hubbard, who worked with the tenor at his
home so that Hayes would not come into contact with his white
students.
In 1916, Hayes personally rented out Boston's Symphony
Hall and presented his own critically acclaimed recital. He toured
across America until 1919 before landing on the European stage
in 1920. Hayes performed throughout the world well into the
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