John Davis and the Forgotten Faces in the Story of Jazz By Gina Denham

An extraordinary connection between the American Civil War, the Jubilee Singers and the origins of jazz has emerged from an unlikely source: an undated photograph of an aging Civil War veteran and missionary, John Davis, seated alongside five smartly dressed Black Americans. Davis founded the London Branch of American Civil War Veterans, an organisation dedicated to assisting former soldiers who had fallen upon hard times. Among those pictured with him were two largely forgotten evangelical singers, Anna De Acklen (1864–1929) and Daniel Wallington Brown (1868–1923). Their remarkable stories reveal lives marked by musical achievement, hardship, separation and loss. Yet their family histories also lead towards two of jazz's greatest names: Ella Fitzgerald and Cab Calloway.

The photograph appeared in a souvenir publication associated with the London Branch around 1914. Beneath it was a declaration: "We believe all men are created equal – we are not afraid to fraternise with them." Although the wording appears condescending today, Davis's actions suggest a man committed to helping others regardless of colour. He had searched London's lodging houses and workhouses, identifying 137 forgotten Civil War veterans and assisting them in securing pensions. Among the branch's members were two Black veterans, James Henry Cleggett and William Henry Selkirk.

Davis could scarcely have imagined that his photograph would preserve an important connection between the struggle against slavery and a musical tradition that helped shape jazz.

The Jubilee Singers Cross the Atlantic

Daniel Wallington Brown was an accomplished lyric tenor who had performed with the Fisk Jubilee Singers before becoming director and manager of the American Jubilee Singers. The ensemble performed spirituals, plantation melodies and sacred music, preserving a musical inheritance rooted in the experiences of enslaved African Americans.

Among its principal vocalists was Anna De Acklen, a gifted soprano born in Marietta, Georgia, during the American Civil War. Her singing was praised for its remarkable sweetness and power. By the early twentieth century, Anna and Daniel were performing together across the United States.

Their journey to Britain began following an encounter in Pennsylvania with a Welsh enthusiast who persuaded Brown that the people of Wales would warmly embrace their music. Encouraged by his assurances, the company sailed from New York aboard the SS California, arriving in Glasgow on 10 March 1908.

What began as an anticipated three-year tour would have unforeseen and tragic consequences. The singers' arrival in Cardiff was far from promising. They encountered bitter weather, financial difficulties and unfamiliar surroundings. Their predicament worsened when their lodgings were raided by police following a misunderstanding, although the performers themselves were not accused of wrongdoing.

Fortunately, sympathetic residents and members of the YMCA arranged concerts that helped establish the company's reputation. Their performances soon attracted appreciative audiences throughout Britain and Ireland.

Between 1908 and 1915, the Jubilee Singers appeared in churches, chapels and concert halls from Wales to Scotland, England and Ireland. Contemporary newspapers praised their rich harmonies and expressive performances.

At Stonehaven, Scotland, in November 1912, Brown explained the origins of the spirituals, describing how enslaved people had created songs expressing their faith and experiences. During the concert, Anna performed "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot", a spiritual closely associated with the original Fisk Jubilee Singers.

Their music belonged to a tradition that would become one of the important foundations of jazz.

Stranded Far From Home

Despite their popularity, the singers' fortunes deteriorated. Disagreements between performers, financial losses and managerial difficulties threatened the company's survival. The outbreak of the First World War in 1914 further complicated their circumstances, leaving Anna and Daniel unable to finance their return to America.

Anna later explained her predicament to American consular officials, "I do a little sewing and singing and dancing instruction. I am only being held here by lack of funds." Her prolonged absence from America meant years of separation from her family. She had already experienced the death of one son before leaving her homeland, and during her years in Britain she learnt of her husband's death.

Daniel meanwhile settled in South London. In January 1915 he married Elizabeth Francis Brooks, and the following year their daughter Ruth was born in Brixton. On her birth registration, he described himself as an "Evangelist American Jubilee Singer".

The two singers briefly shared accommodation with Daniel's wife in Vassall Road, Brixton. Their circumstances were a far cry from the successful international tours they had once anticipated. Anna eventually secured a passport and returned to America in December 1919, more than eleven years after leaving. She was reunited with her surviving son William and his family in Chicago, including grandchildren she had never met. Her happiness was short-lived. William, himself an accomplished bass singer, died in 1922. Anna subsequently returned to Nashville, where she died on 30 July 1929.

Daniel never returned to America. He remained in South London, continuing to identify himself as a missionary and professional singer. He died at Lambeth Hospital on 7 November 1923 and was buried at Streatham Park. His obituary remembered him as one of the most respected Black musical artists of his generation.

From Spirituals to the Jazz Age

Although Anna and Daniel passed into relative obscurity, their families maintained remarkable connections with the developing world of American music.

Daniel's niece Daisy had briefly toured Britain with the Jubilee Singers in 1912. Her son, Raymond Tunia (1916–1983), became an accomplished pianist whose career included working with the Ink Spots, Eddie Durham and Ella Fitzgerald. Raymond also maintained contact with Daniel's family in London.

Anna's granddaughter Magdalene De Acklen inherited the family's musical abilities. An accomplished soprano, she performed in opera, on radio and with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. She married the noted jazz trumpeter and bandleader Reuben Reeves, who performed with Cab Calloway's orchestra. These connections reveal an extraordinary musical inheritance stretching across generations, from the spirituals of the nineteenth century to the flourishing jazz scene of the twentieth.

The Forgotten Faces of Jazz

When John Davis gathered the Jubilee Singers for their photograph, he could scarcely have imagined the history captured within its frame. Here was an aging veteran of a war fought over slavery and the Union, seated alongside Black American singers whose music preserved the spiritual inheritance of an enslaved people.

Anna De Acklen and Daniel Wallington Brown had crossed the Atlantic seeking opportunity, only to endure hardship, separation and loss. Yet their voices, heard in churches and concert halls throughout Britain, belonged to a musical tradition that helped lay the foundations of jazz. Their names may have faded into obscurity, but their musical heritage continued through succeeding generations. From the battlefields of the American Civil War to the ballrooms of the jazz age, the photograph reveals an extraordinary connection between freedom, faith and music.

John Davis preserved their faces, but history has revealed their stories. For within that fading photograph lie some of the forgotten stories that form the taproot of jazz.