By Anne Levin

When Dorothy Maynor was studying voice at Westminster Choir College nearly a century ago, she rented a room at a house on Green Street, not far from the birthplace of Paul Robeson, in Princeton’s Witherspoon-Jackson neighborhood. Whether or not Maynor lived off campus because of her race is something about which Lehigh University professor Monica Hershberger, who is writing a book about the soprano, is not entirely sure. But she has a feeling.

“While I’ve never found anything that says that’s why she couldn’t stay in the dorms, I’m sure that was the case,” said Hershberger, whose biography of Maynor, who lived from 1910 to 1996, is scheduled for a 2028 release.

In the meantime, Hershberger will take part in events celebrating the singer at Princeton Public Library on Thursday, September 3 — Maynor’s birthday. A family-friendly interactive presentation and birthday party, complete with birthday cake, birthday crowns, and birthday presents, is planned for 4:30 p.m., followed by a traditional book-in-progress presentation at 6:30 p.m. A display of historic photographs focused on Maynor will be on display. The events are presented in partnership with the Paul Robeson House of Princeton.

“I will try to focus on her time in Princeton,” said Hershberger in a phone interview this week. “I think it’s so cool to have this local connection and think about Princeton as a place that helped to shape her.”

Maynor was an internationally accomplished soprano who sang at the inaugural gala of President Harry S. Truman in 1949. Though she learned numerous operas, racism kept her off the opera house stage. She is perhaps best known as the founder of the Harlem School of the Arts. Considered one of the great singers of her generation, she was born in Virginia in 1910 and attended Hampton Institute, a preparatory school and college created for freed Black slaves, before switching her focus from homemaking to music. After her graduation
in 1933, she received a scholarship to Westminster.

“She studied at Westminster for two years, earning a second bachelor’s degree,” said Hershberger. “My understanding is that she met the director, John Finley Williamson, at Hampton when he came to do a summer workshop. He heard her sing and said, ‘I have a spot for you.’”

Maynor must have valued her time at Westminster, because she chose Bristol Chapel for her wedding to the Rev. Shelby Rooks, the pastor of Harlem’s St. James Presbyterian Church, in 1942. “She was on Westminster’s board of trustees well into the 1970s when she was busy doing her own work in Harlem,” said Hershberger. “I think she really absorbed the mission of Westminster, at least at its founding, to use music as a tool for spreading Christianity. But she was mostly interested in the idea of music as a tool. Her mission became music as a tool for social justice.”

Maynor moved to Harlem in 1943. “At that time, she was giving concerts throughout the world, but Harlem was home base,” said Hershberger. “In 1963, when her husband had a heart attack, she decided to retire and spend more time at home. It sounds like they decided together to found the school in the basement of the church. Then, she built it out from there into a separate building in 1979. There have been many updates and renovations since then.”

According to its website, the school has 60,000 alumni and offers everything from acting to ballet to Broadway dance, visual art, instrumental music, filmmaking, and much more.

It has served as a model for community schools of the arts across the U.S.

“I was there for a bit this summer,” said Hershberger. “I watched their summer camp. It was amazing.”

Interested in the history of opera and the work of singers in the United States, Hershberger was asked to write an entry about Maynor in 2017 for the American National Biography. “I had heard of her, but I didn’t know a whole lot about her,” she said. “As I was working on this piece, I went on YouTube and listened to a recording of an aria she sang from the opera Louise. I remember getting goosebumps. Her voice was stunning — so shimmery and beautiful.”

After considering writing another article about Maynor, Hershberger decided to pursue a book instead and retained the University of Michigan Press as publisher.

“Her story is so powerful,” she said of Maynor. “It’s about how she was shaped, and how she thought to shape others. It speaks to the power of teachers — the world that a teacher can open up for you. She was going to study home economics at Hampton, and become a homemaker or a teacher of homemaking skills. Then she met this choral conductor who heard her sing, and he said to her, ‘You can do this. You can sing.’ It is a beautiful reminder that sometimes it just takes one teacher to change your life.”

By founding the Harlem School of the Arts, “she really thought to pay that forward and make sure children had those kinds of opportunities,” said Hershberger.

On sabbatical this year to focus on the book, Hershberger has enjoyed the process. “I’m really grateful to the Witherspoon-Jackson Historical Society. The Heritage Trail was so helpful in terms of me trying to imagine what that neighborhood felt like to Maynor. I will definitely talk about that at the presentation.”

Princeton Public Library is located at 65 Witherspoon Street. Visit princetonlibrary.org for more information.