history month : Camilla williams

Camilla Williams died at 92; opera singer broke racial barriers ,Camilla Williams' 1946 debut with the New York City Opera was thought to make her the first black woman to appear with a major U.S. opera company. Williams died at her home in Bloomington, Indiana. She died of complications from cancer.
A graduate of Virginia State College, she was teaching third grade and music in Danville schools in 1942 when she was offered a scholarship from the Philadelphia Alumni Association of her alma mater for vocal training in Philadelphia, where she studied under Marion Szekely-Freschl and worked as an usher in a theater.
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