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Early Years and Education

  • The proximity of Anniston to major rivers and railways provided it with ample trade routes.
  • Tuskegee’s Band playing at Tuskegee’s 25th Anniversary celebration in 1906.
  • In 1913, the Tuskegee campus had its own train depot.
  • Booker T. Washington.
  • In keeping with Booker T. Washington's philosophy, all Tuskegee students worked on campus as part of their education and as a contribution to the school.
  • Among his other activities, Dawson was a student cadet at Tuskegee.
  • Listen as Dawson remembers Tuskegee and Booker T. Washington (3:13 min.).
  • Booker T Washington's memorial on Tuskegee’s campus.
  • Dawson at Tuskegee in uniform with his trombone.
  • William Levi Dawson and the Tuskegee Institute Singers
  • This promotional flyer for the Redpath Chautauqua lists the Tuskegee Singers.
  • Dawson’s 1921 graduation photograph.
  • This historic map of Topeka, Kansas provides a geographical context for where Dawson lived and worked.
  • "Forever Thine" demonstrates Dawson’s early compositional skills.
  • Photograph of the orchestra from the Lincoln High School yearbook
  • This Christmas card, sent to Dawson in 1954, features Douglas’s artwork.
  • Dawson’s "Trio in A," which was performed at the Horner Institute of Fine Arts’ 1925 graduation ceremony.
  • This photograph shows the predominantly African American 18th Street area of Kansas City, MO, in the 1920s.
  • An original score of "Jump Back."
  • Weidig was a prominent teacher who also taught composer Ruth Crawford Seeger.
  • Dawson’s appointment to the 51st Precinct of the 2nd Ward, April 10, 1928.
  • William Levi Dawson and Cook’s Orchestra.
  • A receipt for the trombone Dawson rented while playing with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago.
  • Newspaper clipping about Cornelle Derrick Lampton Dawson
  • Program for the Semi-Finals Century of Progress (World's Fair) Band Concerts (Soldier's Field, Chicago, Illinois), 1 September 1929
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Program for the Redpath Chautauqua (Lyndonville, Vermont), 22-27 August 1921

This promotional flyer for the Redpath Chautauqua lists the Tuskegee Singers.

In 1921 the Tuskegee group was asked to join the Redpath Chautauqua traveling circuit in the northeast, which included parts of Canada. Ironically, when the southeastern branch of the same circuit had passed through Anniston in Dawson’s youth, racial discrimination prohibited his attendance. Now, about a decade later, he was on stage and was often the group’s featured soloist on trombone (Spady, M1). Between classes and performances, Dawson began to write his first compositions, one of which he submitted to publisher H.T. Burleigh. Burleigh wrote to Dawson in March of 1921, admiring the “effective points” of the song while also letting him know ways to improve his work, which at that early time showed that it was composed by "the hand of an amateur" (Archival documents).