Author, Wyoming historian, and sixth generation Laramie native Kim Viner wrote a wonderful article in WyoHistory.org about Carrie Burton Overton, the University of Wyoming’s first African American female student. In this post I’d like to spotlight information that Kim discovered. I encourage you to read Kim’s article for a more complete account of this most interesting woman.

Carrie Burton (1888-1975) prospered despite the odds stacked against her as a young African American woman growing up in Laramie, Wyoming. Her mother, Katie, was born into slavery in Missouri. Katie married three times and had two children, Benny and Carrie. Misfortune marked her first two marriages with the death of her first husband and imprisonment for burglary and attempted rape of her second. Her third marriage to Thomas Price was more long lasting and provided Carrie with a father figure and a mentor as she developed into a piano prodigy. Her talent was remarkable – by age 20, she was performing sophisticated public recitals at the University of Wyoming auditorium, tackling challenging works by Liszt, Mendelssohn, and Gounod-Leybach. The local paper praised her as “the talented young musician,” recognition that was particularly meaningful given the racial barriers of the time.

Painful experiences marked Carrie’s early life, including molestation, Benny’s accidental drowning, and an impulsive runaway attempt. Then there were her experiences with racism. In a 1969 oral history interview Carrie remembered being taunted by other children. “They just called me ‘black.’ They’d call me ‘n—–’—some of those kids—and I’d call them any name that I could find to call them and we’d be friends.” Carrie also recalled that after playing piano for Laramie leader Jane Ivinson, the housekeeper would wipe off the keys.

At age 15, Carrie entered UW Preparatory School where she became a certified stenographer and honed her piano skills. After graduation, President Aven Nelson was among those at UW who encouraged her to apply to Howard University in Washington, DC. Their glowing recommendations and Carrie’s own acumen gained her acceptance to Howard. Jane Ivinson and others sponsored a 1908 fundraising concert to help pay her college expenses. In the 1969 oral history, Carrie recalled, “I have found there is no place like Laramie for good people. Everybody helped. Everybody in town felt we were family.” (Emphasis in original transcript.)

Life in Washington was initially challenging for Carrie. Her letter (below) to the Laramie Boomerang mentions illness and hard work in her new environment. “I … worried myself sick and was under the doctor’s care for three weeks,” she wrote.

Carrie eventually found happiness. After receiving a music diploma from Howard in 1913 – where she made history as one of just two graduates in the first commencement of Howard University’s Conservatory of Music – she married George Overton, principal of the “colored schools” in Cumberland, Maryland. They moved to New York City in the early 1920s, where Carrie built both her musical and professional life. She made her debut at the prestigious Steinway Hall and studied with Frederick W. Riesberg, who himself was a pupil of Liszt, Reinicke and Scharwenka. While pursuing her musical career, she balanced her artistic pursuits with stenography work and became increasingly active in civil rights causes.

Her name appeared regularly in the New York Age, a prominent Black publication, and she served on the Committee of One Hundred, working alongside notable civil rights leaders. In January 1928, she helped organize an NAACP meeting at Mother A.M.E. Zion Church where Congressman George H. Tinkham of Massachusetts and W.E.B. DuBois spoke against voter disenfranchisement in the South. Throughout her life in New York, she remained committed to community service, regularly performing at benefit concerts. She played for organizations like the Citizens’ Christmas Cheer Committee, which provided food baskets for Harlem’s needy, using her musical talents to support social causes. Her work brought her into contact with major civil rights figures, including A. Philip Randolph, with whom she shared stages at events combining cultural performances with discussions of labor rights and social justice.

Throughout this period, her education continued. She attended the prestigious Juilliard School of Music from 1932 to 1941 and continued her academic studies at Columbia University where she earned both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree. At Juilliard in 1940, her original work—unfortunately, now lost—based on African folk songs was performed to acclaim. She also established herself as a music scholar, giving lectures on music history throughout her career. In one notable program for the Treble Clef Club of Washington D.C., she discussed Russian music, particularly highlighting Alexander Pushkin’s African heritage and his contributions to Russian culture. While pursuing these musical and academic achievements, she balanced her artistic pursuits with professional work, serving as private secretary to Dr. John Haynes Holmes at the Community Church.

Even as she built her life and career in New York, Carrie never forgot her Laramie roots. She returned in 1921 and again in 1960 for that year’s homecoming festivities. In 1972, she assisted in fundraising efforts to turn the Ivinson Mansion into a Laramie museum by writing an account of her association with the Ivinsons. Her story, published in the Laramie Boomerang, fondly referred to Jane Ivinson as the “Lady in the Mansion” and recalled her employment as a stenographer and musician. An effort by UW Professor Robert Burns to secure an honorary degree for Carrie, although met with polite answers from the UW President and Board of Trustees, was never acted upon.

Carrie Burton Overton died in New York City in December 1975 after a long illness. She persevered in the face of early poverty and discrimination. She tied her accomplishments to her upbringing in Laramie. In a 1942 letter to the Laramie paper, she put it this way, “In all these things I have tried to repay the good people of Laramie for the faith they had in me.”

A personal thanks to Kim for allowing me to post from his article, and for all the well-researched and informative historical information he has provided to us through the years. I am also grateful to Phil White for sharing additional research about Carrie’s civil rights activism in New York City.

Post contributed by the AHC’s Simpson Archivist Leslie Waggener.

#alwaysarchiving