Ella was born enslaved on February 4, 1851, at The Hermitage, President Andrew Jackson’s plantation. Her father, who had purchased his own freedom, was unable to purchase his wife. He was allowed to purchase Ella’s freedom for $350 when her mother made it clear to her owners she’d rather her daughter die than live as a slave. Her father remarried and moved his wife, Ella, and her half-sister Rosa to Ohio, where Ella attended school in Cincinnati and took piano lessons. When he died in 1866, Ella provided financial support by playing at local functions, working as a maid, and teaching. In 1868, she moved to Nashville and enrolled in Fisk University (then the Fisk Free Colored School). Teaching enabled her to afford her classes. One of those assignments was as assistant music teacher at Fisk under Fisk’s treasurer and musician George White, making her the school’s only black staff member at the time.

White formed Ella and eight others into the Fisk Jubilee Singers. On October 6, 1871, they set off on their first tour to help their financially struggling school. At age seventeen, Ella was their primary vocal coach and eventual director. She arranged the music they sang on their tours and accompanied the singers on piano, organ, and guitar. Over seven years, they raised $150,000, which enabled the building of Fisk Hall.

At first, they sang popular and classical music but eventually added slave songs (spirituals) to their repertoire, which proved more popular. Over time she collected and transcribed over one hundred of them. Her work with the Jubilee Singers led to the recognition and appreciation of Negro spirituals worldwide.  You can read an account of her experiences in her own words here: https://digital.lib.utk.edu/collections/islandora/object/volvoices%3A9934#page/1/mode/2up

In 1878, she married George Washington Moore. They had three children: Elizabeth, born 1879; George, born 1883; and Clinton, born 1892. Moore became ordained, pastored in Washington D.C., and worked as the Superintendent for Southern Church Work for the American Missionary Association. While he ministered, Ella lectured and organized Jubilee choirs. Together, they also championed temperance and other social advancement campaigns. In 1892, they moved back to Nashville and lived near Fisk where Ella began assisting with Fisk’s choirs. She became a researcher and continued lecturing on women’s and race issues.

Like many of her counterparts in the 19^th century, Ella used her success to help others. She paid tuition for a number of Fisk students, including her half-sister. By this time, she had other family members living at her Nashville home, including her birthmother and stepmother.

After delivering a graduation speech at an AMA school in Alabama, she returned home ill. She died on June 9, 1914, and was buried in Nashville. The site of her home has an historical marker erected by the Tennessee Historical Commission.

There’s an old gospel song whose words are “Let the life I live speak for me.” Ella Sheppard Moore’s accomplishments during her lifetime certainly speak for her.

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“The $5.00 Kiss of Life” by Michal Scott
from First Response

Trapped by the small-town conventions imposed on her, a pastor’s spinster daughter finds rescue in the town bad boy’s very public kiss.

Excerpt:

Lord have mercy, when had she become such a coward? It was just a kiss, for goodness sake. And in the name of a good cause. It would be fun. Besides, she didn’t have to present him with the card. She could just as easily pick one of the official kisses she’d written for her father on the Kiss for A Cause booth’s sign.

Beverly firmed her lips, took a deep breath, and stepped up to the booth.

“Come to pucker up for a good cause, Beverly?”

The mischievous glint in Rob’s smile and equally mischievous lilt in his tone did nothing to still the throb between her legs. “

You’re a good sport to do this,” she said. “Given the way people talk about you and all.”

Rob chuckled. “Hey, if a bad reputation can’t do a good turn once in a while, what’s the point of having it?”

“You saved lives in the war. You’ve saved lives here in town. It’s time you make people acknowledge that for a change.”

“Pigs’ll sprout wings and fly before that happens.” Rob snorted. “Let them think what they want. I’ve lived with too much space around me to be hemmed in by their small minds.”

Beverly sighed. “I’ve always admired that about you, Rob. You don’t care what people say about you.”

He waved that off. “Sure, I care. I’m just very good at handling the slights.”

“No, really,” she insisted. “You don’t seek anyone’s approval. You live by what you’re for, not what you’re against.” She looked at the rates on the booth kissing chart, and then considered the card in her pocket. “I admire you.” She cast her gaze down. “I wish I were more courageous, like you.”

“No time like the present,” he teased.

Beverly looked up and saw him thumb toward the kissing rate chart.

“Do you have the courage to be seen getting a kiss before God and everybody from the town bad boy?”

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