{"id":3571,"date":"2024-02-01T22:18:16","date_gmt":"2024-02-01T22:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/libraryarchives.web.illinois.edu\/sousa\/?p=3571"},"modified":"2024-02-20T23:24:48","modified_gmt":"2024-02-20T23:24:48","slug":"new-exhibit-opens-today-celebrating-black-history-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/sousa\/2024\/02\/01\/new-exhibit-opens-today-celebrating-black-history-month\/","title":{"rendered":"New Exhibit Opens Today Celebrating Black History Month"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/libraryarchives.web.illinois.edu\/sousa\/files\/2024\/02\/2022-152420-001-scaled.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-3572\" src=\"https:\/\/libraryarchives.web.illinois.edu\/sousa\/files\/2024\/02\/2022-152420-001-819x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"733\" height=\"915\" \/><\/a>The Sousa Archives exhibit, &#8220;Willie Summerville: A Life of Music, Faith, and Service&#8221; opens today at the School of Music lobby.\u00a0 In Kathya Alexander\u2019s 2017 memorial essay to William \u201cWillie\u201d Thomas Summerville (1944-2017), she describes him as Urbana-Champaign-University of Illinois\u2019 unique musical and spiritual force who brought people together through song and service to the community.\u00a0 She wrote,<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;text-align: left\">Mr. Summerville graduated from the University of Illinois in 1967 with a Master\u2019s degree in music education. He played tuba with the Marching Illini. \u00a0His first job was with Champaign Public Schools until 1970 when he became the Choral Music Director of the Middle School 8<sup>th<\/sup> Grade Chorus in Urbana Unified Schools.\u00a0 He was also the Director of the Urbana High School Concert Choir. \u00a0He took that choir to Rome to sing at St. Peter\u2019s Basilica at the Vatican in 1999.\u00a0\u00a0 In 2002, he took the Urbana High School Choir to NYC where they sang at Riverside Church and Carnegie Hall.\u00a0 He was a founding member of Canaan Missionary Baptist Church and a charter member of the Deacon Board and treasurer of the Canaan Development Foundation\u2026Mr. Summerville was born in Sunshine, Arkansas on August 17, 1944.\u00a0 He was the son of Moses and Lenora, the middle child of four sisters. He was married to his wife, Valerian Alexander Summerville for 48 years.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Thanks to the generosity of the Summerville family the Willie T. Summerville and Summerville Family Papers are preserved at the Sousa Archives and Center for American Music.\u00a0 This collection and our new exhibit documents Willie\u2019s career as music educator for the Urbana public school system and deacon, treasurer and music minister for the Canaan Baptist Church, and highlights his extraordinary service to our local community through music.\u00a0 For further information about this new exhibit honoring Black History Month call 217-333-4577 or email <a href=\"mailto:schwrtzs@illinois.edu\">schwrtzs@illinois.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Sousa Archives exhibit, &#8220;Willie Summerville: A Life of Music, Faith, and Service&#8221; opens today at the School of Music lobby.\u00a0 In Kathya Alexander\u2019s 2017 memorial essay to William \u201cWillie\u201d Thomas Summerville (1944-2017), she describes him as Urbana-Champaign-University of Illinois\u2019 unique musical and spiritual force who brought people together through song and service to the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":511,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-the-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/sousa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/sousa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/sousa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/sousa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/511"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/sousa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3571"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/sousa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3571\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3615,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/sousa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3571\/revisions\/3615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/sousa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/sousa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/sousa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}