WCLV's A. Grace Lee Mims
Teacher, Singer, Radio Host/Producer, Librarian

It’s a familiar sort of story: small town girl goes to college in a bigger town, some hundreds of miles from home. At the same time, big-city boy heads off in a different direction, but ends up at the same college. They meet, fall in love, and live happily for a good many years afterwards. There’s nothing terribly unusual about that scenario, but the two people involved were unusual: for their time and their place in the world. How they came to Cleveland is a story in itself, and our city is much the better for their having done so.

Tomorrow, that former ‘small-town girl’ A. Grace Lee Mims, celebrates her 32nd anniversary as on-air host of a nationally renowned weekly radio program — The Black Arts — that she conceived and still hosts and produces on WCLV 104.9-FM, Cleveland’s Fine Arts Station.

Having grown up in a super-musical family, it’s hardly to be wondered at that Ms. Mims would tune in to such a station, once she’d arrived here in Cleveland, some years after the station came into existence. But then, one day in 1976, it occurred to her that while the station certainly did play music performed (and/or written by) Black artists, there was no such program devoted to them on a more-or-less exclusive basis. (This was at a time when nearly every radio station in existence aired ethnic or religious programs as a matter of course—as part of their ‘community service’ efforts.)

So, she picked up the phone and called Robert Conrad, co-founder and president of the station, to present her idea for a program featuring the contributions of Blacks to music. He invited her to his office (then at Terminal Tower) to discuss her ideas. During a cordial meeting, she was invited to make a sample tape. She chose one of the bigger stars in the musical diadem—Jessye Norman—a choice that certainly helped cement the arrangement. Conrad informed Ms. Mims that she’d “have to be willing to do this for six months.” Her warm chuckle erupts into a firm laugh, as she adds, “and just look at what’s happened—32 years now...!”

The first The Black Arts Program — featuring Leontyne Price — aired in May of 1976. The program continues today, featuring music and musicians, and other aspects of the Black involvement in the arts. Shortly thereafter, Conrad suggested she add a “Black Arts Calendar” to inform the greater community about events featuring a multitude of performers, disciplines and venues throughout the area. Over the years, she’s done interviews with visiting artists, and featured nearly all varieties of music, including jazz, dance, plus the visual and writing arts.

She’s an astute but not intrusive interviewer, and her gracious manner quickly puts the visitor at ease, while her warm, soothing voice relaxes everyone who listens.

Grace Lee was the fifth of seven children born to a musical prodigy mother, Alberta Edwards, and father, Arnold, who’d received his degree as an electrical engineer from Tuskegee, and who also played cornet and trumpet. All seven children were musically inclined, and all graduated from college, not an easy trick for any family in the 1940s. Alberta’s father, William James Edwards, was a disciple of Booker T. Washington at Tuskegee, and, as an educator, returned to his home where he founded the Snow Hill Institute. He also took additional classes at Harvard during his summer trips north, seeking funding for the school he’d established. During these summer trips, he took his daughter with him, and consequently, she studied for several summers at New England Conservatory of Music, and after she graduated from the Snow Hill Institute, she then went on to Fisk University in Nashville.

This is where Alberta met Arnold, and they fell in love. Somewhat fearful of announcing this fact to her father, who had anticipated a career as a concert pianist for his talented daughter, the two eloped, and didn’t tell anyone for close to a year. Then, they moved next door to her parents in Snow Hill, where they raised their family.

Grace and her siblings grew up hearing Chopin and Brahms, as performed by her mother on their family piano, but also Ella, Ellington, etc., other jazz artists from her father’s side of the musical tree. She’d been so impressed by the librarian at her high school in Snow Hill, that she decided to follow that career path. Off to Hampton Institute she went, where she majored in English with a vocal minor.

Howard A. Mims was born and raised in Detroit, but went off to Hampton where he studied speech and social studies. And just coincidentally met up with Miss Lee. In the choir, of course! They became engaged while at Hampton, and after graduation, Grace came to Cleveland to study library science at Western Reserve University, while Howard returned to Wayne College in Detroit for his graduate work. They were married in Detroit, after which he was drafted into the Army. The young couple were sent to Camp Chaffee in Fort Smith Arkansas. During this time, Grace worked as a librarian at the camp. They returned to Hampton, and in just a few years, made the decision to come to Cleveland. Howard was hired by CSU in 1965, as the first person in their proposed “Speech Pathology Program.”

The Lee in Grace’s name is not her middle name, but her family’s last name. She could hardly give up that name, even when she married. She and three of her siblings formed a musical group, that was managed for a time by Howard. The Descendants of Mike and Phoebe gave concerts and made a recording A Spirit Speaks.

The original Mike and Phoebe were slaves who settled in Snow Hill, after Mike was able to buy his freedom in 1817. The others in the family musical group were pianist Consuela (who also taught music at Hampton Institute), and brothers Bill, composer and string bass player and Cliff who, like his dad, played trumpet. Grace was soprano soloist. Bill wrote operas and arranged existing songs from the Black musical literature for the jazz/folk quartet. In addition, he founded the Bass Violin Choir, (featuring seven double bass instruments, and his two sisters) and both groups performed widely on college campuses, in the early 70s. The Bass Violin Choir also appeared at the Newport Jazz Festival.

After classical, (or maybe tied with it) Grace’s favorite type of music is jazz. “I’m not an improviser,” she says with a chuckle. “But I love it, anyway.” A fellow devotée, Howard was instrumental in the founding of the Jazz Heritage Orchestra which has been in residence in CSU’s Black Studies Program since its founding in 1998. He also managed this group for its first few years, along with The Descendants of Mike and Phoebe, booking appearances, and coordinating recordings: Steppin’ Out by the Jazz Heritage Orchestra, and Spirituals, featuring Grace, accompanied by William Appling.

There is now a scholarship in his name at CSU, honoring him as one of the founders of the Black Studies Program. The Howard A. Mims African-American Cultural Center is named in his honor. Howard died in late October 2002, at the age of 71.

Along with her programs on WCLV (she’d started a second nightly 5-minute show called Artslog, which was discontinued at the beginning of this year, after a tenure of some 29 years) she’s taught voice at the Cleveland Music School Settlement since 1980. Her teacher there, the revered Pauline Thesmacher, needed someone to replace a departing instructor and suggested the position to Ms. Mims, who originally hesitated. “But Pauline recruited Howard to her side, and the two of them talked me into it. She told me ‘You’re a good singer, you love people, you know what good singing sounds like—you’ll be a good teacher’ and she must have been right. It’s been 28 years and I’m still there.”

She pauses briefly, then looks off into the distance. “It was hard when Howard passed. The radio station, WCLV, and my students provided the balm for my soul to keep going.”

She’s not slowed down a bit, either, just changed direction a few times. She and Howard ran the Cleveland Hampton Institute Alumni Scholarship program for over thirty years, raising over $250,000. to help more than 100 Cleveland students attend the famed university. Now, while she’s no longer involved with that effort, she still supervises the Howard A. and A. Grace Lee Mims Scholarship, established in 1991. Each year since then, a $1000 scholarship has been awarded to a Cleveland area student attending Hampton Institute. Grace still maintains her place on the board of the Cleveland Institute of Music; the Advisory Committee of Rainey Institute; the Cleveland Arts Prize Committee, and the Cleveland Museum of Art’s African-American Advisory Committee.

As a librarian, Grace worked at several branches of the Cleveland Public Library—Sterling and Quincy—before becoming an assistant librarian at the Mt. Pleasant Branch. From there she went back to school—by becoming head librarian at Glenville High School. All told, she was at Glenville for ten years, where she coordinated the Black Arts Festival, established the most extensive collection of books on Black History and Culture in the state of Ohio, and helped found the first AfroCentric lecture course in the Cleveland Public Schools.

But, she adds with her brilliant smile, “I was always singing on the side. I was pleased to be accepted into the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus, under the direction of Robert Shaw. I was coached privately by Rosa Lobe, in addition to ongoing studies with Polly. I did some things at Karamu with Benno Frank. And Dialogues of the Carmelites for Lake Erie Opera Theater. Then, there was an opening for soprano soloist at Fairmount Presbyterian Church, and I stayed there for twenty years. Oh, and of course, the William Appling Singers.”

In May of 1999, for her various efforts as singer, music teacher, arts advocate and originator of The Black Arts Program on WCLV, she was awarded an honorary Doctorate in Music from Cleveland State University. In March, 2007, she was the honoree of the Greater Cleveland Chapter of The National Coalition of the 100 Black Women, Inc. and received commendations from the Honorable Stephanie Tubbs Jones and the City of East Cleveland. “The Black Arts Program is the longest-running show of its kind on a commercial station, anywhere in the world,” she adds with a big smile, and a twinkle in her eye.

And, oh yes. Grace also delights in the accomplishments of her nephew, Spike Lee, son of brother Bill.

The Black Arts is heard Wednesday evenings at 10PM on WCLV 104.9-FM or online at http://www.wclv.com.

From Cool Cleveland contributor Kelly Ferjutz artswriterATroadrunner.com
Comments? Letters@CoolCleveland.com

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