Emma Richardovna Harris-Mizinkina (Russian: Ðмма Ð
ичардовна Ð¥Ð°Ñ€Ñ€Ð¸Ñ -Мизинкина; October 9, 1871 in
Augusta â€" after 1940 in New York City; born Emma Elizabeth Matthews)
was an American-born Russian actress, singer, dancer, cabaret artist,
and writer.Harris was born to a poor Negro family in the southern city
of Augusta, along Georgia's Savannah River, on October 7, 1871. At the
end of the American Civil War in 1865, her parents, Sarah Green and
Richard Matthews, left the Phinizy plantation to seek a better life
and opportunities in the city. Green worked as a washerwoman,
scrubbing clothes for the local white families, while Matthews labored
daily in one of the city's numerous cotton processing mills. After
Harris was born, two more children followed (Thomas, in 1873, and
Josephine, in 1880). They served as her playmates and helped her with
the household chores.By 1880, the family had settled in an old brick
tenement on 319 Houston Street. Soon after, Harris began attending
Edmund Asa Ware High School, the first public high school for Negroes
in Georgia. That summer, Harris was sent to Norfolk, Virginia to live
with her widowed Aunt Hattie Matthews to continue her studies and
later attend the Negro Mission College, which opened in 1883. But a
few years later, her aunt died, leaving the young Harris stranded in
Virginia with no place to go. Instead of returning home, Harris caught
the next train north, enrolling in the Boston Musical Conservatory and
finding work as a chambermaid to support herself. Around 1892, she
made her way to New York City. On December 23, 1896, Harris met and
married local janitor Joseph B. Harris. The couple settled into a
small apartment in Brooklyn, where they hoped to start a family. She
also assisted in bringing several of her relatives up from the South.
After the sudden death of their only child, Harris began focusing on
her singing career. Due to her staunchly religious parents'
disapproval of her career as an entertainer, Harris began singing in
the Trinity Baptist Church Choir and working as a domestic for nearly
five years.
ичардовна Ð¥Ð°Ñ€Ñ€Ð¸Ñ -Мизинкина; October 9, 1871 in
Augusta â€" after 1940 in New York City; born Emma Elizabeth Matthews)
was an American-born Russian actress, singer, dancer, cabaret artist,
and writer.Harris was born to a poor Negro family in the southern city
of Augusta, along Georgia's Savannah River, on October 7, 1871. At the
end of the American Civil War in 1865, her parents, Sarah Green and
Richard Matthews, left the Phinizy plantation to seek a better life
and opportunities in the city. Green worked as a washerwoman,
scrubbing clothes for the local white families, while Matthews labored
daily in one of the city's numerous cotton processing mills. After
Harris was born, two more children followed (Thomas, in 1873, and
Josephine, in 1880). They served as her playmates and helped her with
the household chores.By 1880, the family had settled in an old brick
tenement on 319 Houston Street. Soon after, Harris began attending
Edmund Asa Ware High School, the first public high school for Negroes
in Georgia. That summer, Harris was sent to Norfolk, Virginia to live
with her widowed Aunt Hattie Matthews to continue her studies and
later attend the Negro Mission College, which opened in 1883. But a
few years later, her aunt died, leaving the young Harris stranded in
Virginia with no place to go. Instead of returning home, Harris caught
the next train north, enrolling in the Boston Musical Conservatory and
finding work as a chambermaid to support herself. Around 1892, she
made her way to New York City. On December 23, 1896, Harris met and
married local janitor Joseph B. Harris. The couple settled into a
small apartment in Brooklyn, where they hoped to start a family. She
also assisted in bringing several of her relatives up from the South.
After the sudden death of their only child, Harris began focusing on
her singing career. Due to her staunchly religious parents'
disapproval of her career as an entertainer, Harris began singing in
the Trinity Baptist Church Choir and working as a domestic for nearly
five years.
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