John Powell (musician)

Early life and education

Powell was born and grew up in Richmond, Virginia. He graduated from the University of Virginia in 1901, and studied piano with Theodor Leschetizky and composition in Vienna with composer Karel Navratil. He made his debut as a concert pianist in 1908 in Berlin.

Music career

Powell became a world-renowned composer. He had a racialist approach to music, which he expressed in his writings. He was interested in Appalachian folk music and championed its performance and preservation. He was one of the founders of the White Top Folk Festival, held in Grayson County, Virginia annually from 1931-1939.

Political activism

Powell's ideology—and musicology—were strongly racialist and anti-black, a topic which served as the subject for many of his essays. In the fall of 1922 together with Earnest Sevier Cox (a self-proclaimed ethnologist and explorer) and Dr. Walter Plecker, Powell founded the Anglo-Saxon Clubs of America in Richmond, Virginia. They worked closely with Walter Ashby Plecker to promote state legislation to classify people simply as "white" or "negro", and to end "amalgamation" of the races by intermarriage. The activities of the club split the elite in Virginia, which had tried to take pride in its "genteel paternalism" in controlling racial relations. The clubs attracted more racists.

Within a year, more than 400 white men had joined as members and the club had 31 "posts" in Virginia, including two in Charlottesville, one for the town and one at the University of Virginia. Powell worked with Dr. Plecker, the state's registrar of statistics, to draft the Racial Integrity Act of 1924. The club members were successful in lobbying the legislature to gain passage of the act, which classified as black any person with any African ancestry, although the previous law recognized persons with one-sixteenth or less black ancestry as white.

Selected compositions

Daniel Gregory Mason wrote a string quartet on a theme by Powell.

Death and legacy

Powell died in Albemarle County, Virginia near Charlottesville, and was buried at Hollywood cemetery in Richmond.

Radford University named its arts and music hall after Powell, honoring his championing of Appalachian music. However, in 2010, the university's board of visitors discovered his role in white supremacy and voted to remove his name from the building.