First African American to perform at the White House

Washington Post article [November 13, 1878]

Madame Selika at the White House ---- Last evening, by appointment, Madame Selika, the wonderful colored prima donna, called at the White House, accompanied by Frederick Douglass, and a few friends, and was introduced to Mr. and Mrs. Hayes. After a few moments conversation and rest, the Madame sang "Staccato Polka," from Richard Mullard; Verdi's "Ernami, Involami," Thomas Moore's "The Last Rose of Summer and "Ave Maria" by Harrison Millard. Mr. Williams, baritone, by request sang "Far Away" by Bliss. The several pieces showed to great advantage the remarkable power, sweetness and versatility of madame's voice and accomplishments, the Staccato Polka especially proving her worthy of her title as “Queen of Staccato.” Each piece was heartily applauded. The singers were afterwards warmly congratulated by Mr. and Mrs. Hayes.

Marie Williams (1849 - 1937), was born in Natchez, Mississippi. Shortly after her birth, Selika’s family moved to Cincinnati, Ohio where, as a child, Selika began to study music, thanks to the patronage of a wealthy local benefactor. While still in her early twenties, Selika moved to San Francisco, California to study with Signora G. Bianchi under whose tutelage she made her debut as a concert soprano in 1876. Sometime before 1878 Selika met and married a fellow operatic artist, bass-baritone singer Sampson Williams, whose stage name was Signor Velosko, the Hawaiian tenor.

On November 18, 1878, just two years after her concert debut, she became the first African American to perform at the White House. In the Green Room of the White House for an audience that included President Rutherford Hayes and Mrs. Hayes. Her performance included Verdi’s “Ernani, involami,” Thomas Moore’s “The Last Rose of Summer,” Harrison Millard’s “Ave Maria,” and Richard Mulder’s “Staccato Polka.” Her husband, Sampson Williams, also sang, by popular request, the well-known ballad “Far Away” by Bliss.

In the years following her performance at the White House, Williams continued to tour nationally performing for all black audiences. She interspersed her national performances with two tours of Europe, one from 1882-1885, where she gave a command performance in October of 1883 at St. James Hall for Queen Victoria, and another from 1887-1892. She also toured the West Indies. Despite Williams’s successful career and her status as the leading black prima donna of her time, she frequently struggled to obtain good professional management, even managing her own concerts on occasion. The prevalent racism of the era prevented black artists from being easily accepted in anything other than Minstrel shows, and blacks would not be welcomed to the American operatic stage until the 1930s.

As Williams approached mid-life in the 1890s, she continued to tour but began to spend more and more time at her home in Cleveland, Ohio where she opened a music studio. After her husband’s death in 1911, Williams retired from the stage, and in 1916, at age 67, she accepted a teaching position at New York’s Martin-Smith School of Music. She died in 1937 in New York at the age of 87.

Photo: Photographer unknown
Article: Black Past, Deborah McNally