Dent, Jessie Covington (Ernestine Jessie), 1904-2001
Dates
- Existence: 1904 - 2001
Biographical Note
Classical concert pianist, educator and devoted community leader, Ernestine Jessie Covington Dent worked tirelessly to assist others throughout her career. She graduated from Oberlin Conservatory of Music; was a fellow of the Juilliard Musical Foundation of New York; wife of Albert Walter Dent, president of Dillard University; mother of three sons, Thomas Covington, Benjamin Albert and Walter Jesse Dent; active in many civic and community organizations; and recipient of numerous awards, honors and citations.
Ernestine Jessie Covington Dent was born on May 19, 1904 to Benjamin Jesse and Jennie Belle (Murphy) Covington of Houston, Texas. At the age of two, Jessie Covington showed signs of musical talent, and at the age of five began piano and violin lesions. She received her first musical training under the tutorship of Madame Corilla Rochon, Houston’s most popular music teacher, and violin lessons under Willie Nickerson, brother of the famed Camille Nickerson. At the age of eleven, Covington played the violin in an all-women’s orchestra. She also played piano for the Sunday school at Bethel Baptist Church for two dollars a month.
Jessie Covington graduated from Houston Elementary School in 1916 at the age of twelve. She received her diploma from Washington High School in 1920 and graduated valedictorian of her class. That same year, Jessie Covington entered the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music and received a bachelor of music degree in 1924. During her time at Oberlin, Jessie Covington distinguished herself by becoming a charter member of the Oberlin Chapter of Pi Kappa Lambda, an honorary musical fraternity, and by appearing with the Oberlin Conservatory Orchestra for her senior recital.
Praised for her musicianship, Jessie Covington received many fellowships, awards and other accomplishments for her work. From 1924 to 1928, Covington was awarded four consecutive fellowships from the Juilliard Musical Foundation, New York. She was told about a newly formed music school for graduate students in New York City called the Juilliard Musical Foundation, which awarded fellowships of $1,000 each to students through competition. Jessie Covington auditioned for one of the fellowships and won for four consecutive years. She studied with eminent artist-teachers Olga Samaroff Stokowski and James Frisken. Ernestine Jessie Covington was the first African American and the first woman to attend Juilliard.
During her stint in New York, Jessie Covington organized the first Black choir to sing at the Southern Baptist Convention in 1926. The same year, she became a charter member of the Theta Chapter of Pi Kappa Lambda Society, an honorary fraternity of musicians at Oberlin College. She was also engaged in private teaching, radio performances and concertizing.
In 1928, Jessie Covington returned home to Houston and opened a private studio teaching piano. A year later, she traveled as accompanist and piano soloist with Madame Florence Cole Talbert, who composed the music for the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority National Hymn. She served as head of the piano department at Bishop College in Marshall, Texas, for two years. During this time, she was a member of the faculty of the Summer School of Music under the auspices of the Texas Association of Negro Musicians. Additionally, Jessie Covington served as a charter member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., New Orleans chapter.
Ernestine Jessie Covington married Albert Walter Dent in 1931, and a year later moved to New Orleans when her husband became superintendent of Flint-Goodridge Hospital. The next year, she had her first son, Thomas Covington Dent. In 1933, she returned to Oberlin on a Rosenwald grant to continue her studies, and received a master of music degree, for which she presented a recital accompanied by the Conservatory Orchestra and wrote her thesis on Franz Liszt. She later had two other sons: Benjamin Albert Dent (1937) and Walter Jesse Dent (1939).
From 1935 to the mid to late seventies was a pivotal moment in Jessie Dent’s contribution to civic and community organizations. Spanning four decades of community engagement, Jessie Dent assisted in establishing undergraduate sorority chapters of Delta Beta Gamma at Dillard University and Gamma Alpha at Xavier University; served as a charter member of Alpha Sigma Theta chapter; was inducted into Who’s Who in Colored America; founded the Ebony Fashion Fair in support of Flint-Goodridge Hospital; and served as a charter member of Dillard Women’s Club. In 1968 the club hosted a testimonial in her honor; and from 1971 to 1976, Jessie served as a board member of the New Orleans Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra. Jessie was instrumental in desegregating orchestra concerts in New Orleans.
Throughout her adult life, Jessie Covington Dent supported the effort of minority classical musicians to increase their number in major symphony orchestras and in teaching positions. In 1985, she was the first recipient of the Amistad Research Center Fine Arts Award in recognition of her contributions to education, culture and community service. In 1998 Dillard University created the Jessie Covington Dent Music Festival in her honor.
Ernestine Jessie Covington Dent died on March 10, 2001 in New Orleans, Louisiana.