Roland Hayes

Hayes was a tenant farmer's son from Curryville, Georgia, who came to Chattanooga at eleven after his father died, and records of Caruso played by a pianist there turned him toward classical singing. He studied at Fisk, toured with the Jubilee Singers and settled in Boston. He sang for King George V and Queen Mary at Buckingham Palace and won the Spingarn Medal. In 1942 police in Rome, Georgia, assaulted and arrested him after a dispute in a shoe store. His farewell concert at Carnegie Hall came in 1962.

What the plaque says

Roland Hayes 1887-1977 Tenor Roland Hayes received his first musical training in the choir of Monumental Baptist Church, Chattanooga. He went on to become a principal soloist with the Fisk Jubilee Singers, and to sing classical music and spirituals in concerts throughout the world. In 1923, Hayes became the first Negro classical singer to perform at Carnegie Hall. His long and successful career paved the way for other black artists.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Bessie Smith Cultural Center — 4.7 mi
  Chattanooga's African American museum and performance hall on the old Ninth Street, named for the Empress of the Blues, who started out singing for change on that same street.
• Walnut Street Bridge — 4.9 mi
  An 1890 truss bridge now open to walkers, and the place where Alfred Blount in 1893 and Ed Johnson in 1906 were lynched, the case that led to the Supreme Court's only criminal trial.
• Tennessee Aquarium — 5.1 mi
  A river-themed aquarium that opened on May 1, 1992, on the Chattanooga bank where John Ross kept a trading post, tracing a raindrop from the Appalachians to the Gulf.
• Ross's Landing — 5.3 mi
  The Tennessee River landing where Chattanooga began and where Muscogee (Creek) and Cherokee people were put on boats and ferried out in 1837 and 1838.

More markers nearby

• Mary Walker — 1.3 mi
• The McCallie School — 2.0 mi
• Tennessee Valley Railroad and Museum — 2.5 mi
• Joe Engel — 3.6 mi