Opera Singer’s Recital Represents circle completed

Opera singer Andrew Frierson of New York City sang from his heart in Columbia, Tennessee last October for a special hometown audience of Black and White people, many of whom shared a connection to his last name from the days of slavery. The 83 year old music teacher and longtime performer with the New York Civic Opera is the grandson of a Tennessee slave.

In those days, Andrew Frierson’s ancestors worshiped from the vantage of the balcony while the master and his family sat on benches below. On this day the positions were intentionally reversed. This was the idea of Elizabeth Queener, a White Nashville resident and one of the event’s organizers. Many of the White members of the audience in the balcony at the 200-year-old Zion Presbyterian Church were descended from the man who owned Frierson’s grandfather and great-grandfather. Ms. Queener was one of them. As Frierson and Queener worked to unravel the singer’s family history, they discovered that her great-great-grandfather, Thomas J. Frierson, owned the Maury County farm where Frierson’s great-grandfather and grandfather, George and Gardner Frierson, were born into slavery. During the slave era, it was common for slaves to use the surname of their owner. “It’s sort of like a circle completed,” Queener said. “We share a common past from two different perspectives.

The recital of toe-tapping spirituals and shake-the-stained-glass arias was the kick-off for Maury County’s bicentennial. Mr. Frierson, who was born in this part of Tennessee, about 40 miles south of Nashville, said he realized as he approached the age of 80 how little he knew of his grandparents and great-grandparents. He left Maury County when he was less than a year old. “Slavery is a part of all our history,” Frierson said. “We must understand and acknowledge where we came from in order to move forward.”

Well said Mister Frierson. This country has come a long ways, but we still have a long way to go; just listen to the racial tone that has gone on recently in this election year.