PBA Galleries

1885-1899 John Brown Grave and Frederick Douglass Monument

Rare 1886 defense of Black Freemasons

A mystery surrounds the virtually unknown career of Leroy Nicholas Darlington Pickett, one of the few “serious” African-American composers of the late 19th century. As noted in the 1882 listing above, Pickett was Director of “Donovin’s Original Tennesseans” a popular Black Minstrel troupe, before composing three songs: Copies at the Library of Congress of his Forest Roamer (1883) and Among the Lilies (1884) show the drawing of a theatrically-handsome Black man. The sheet music of this 1887 Waltz, possibly his last composition, written while working with the younger DeLany at Wilberforce, omitted Pickett’s picture and gave no hint that the composer was Black. That same year, according to British press reports, a man calling himself L.N.D. Pickett came to England as organist and singer of a Black troupe of Jubilee singers. In 1891, this man was arrested for sending “libelous, menacing letters” to a white woman, a well-known London singer whom he had never met, threatening, “I will either marry you or kill you.” When brought to trial, the defendant entered a plea of insanity and listed his given name as Charles. The outcome of the sensational trial was not reported, but Pickett supposedly returned to America that year, never to be heard from again, entirely forgotten by history – not even mentioned in Monroe Trotter’s 1878 book on Black musicians. Like all of Pickett’s published compositions, this sheet music, of special interest because of the association with Delany and Wilberforce, is very rare.

1891 Confederate General’s “Faithful Slaves

Black Singing Troupe, San Francisco

1897 Black British Minister records “horror” of Negroes in America

1899 Most respected African-American civil servant in Washington

1900 Annotated photo of ex-slave who became a wealthy Ohio Black leader

1900 Black Indiana Poet Praises Black Musician

(1905 Advertisement for rare ‘Voice of Negro’ literary magazine