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By Jason Mellard from the Center for Texas Music History at Texas State University.
On May 6, 1948, vocalist and choir director Elizabeth Coleman performed the gospel standard “Climbing Jacob’s Ladder” for an audience with Mary McLeod Bethune, the leading Florida educator and civil rights activist who founded Bethune-Cookman College.
As a young woman, Elizabeth Coleman had worked as a nurse in Muscle Shoals and Galveston and sang in the church. In 1935, she took on leadership of the choir at Galveston’s Avenue L Baptist Church, one of the oldest Black congregations in Texas. Under Coleman, the choir flourished and performed throughout the country, often appearing at the annual National Baptist Convention. One of her most noted performances was that for Mary McLeod Bethune in 1948 and notably featured “Climbing Jacob’s Ladder,” a song later recorded by The Famous Ward Singers, Bernice Johnson Reagon, and The Staple Singers. This was a poignant intersection of two careers in the early postwar era, as Southern schools and churches—and the gospel artists they fostered—were laying the groundwork for a new era in civil rights.
As a young woman, Elizabeth Coleman had worked as a nurse in Muscle Shoals and Galveston and sang in the church. In 1935, she took on leadership of the choir at Galveston’s Avenue L Baptist Church, one of the oldest Black congregations in Texas. Under Coleman, the choir flourished and performed throughout the country, often appearing at the annual National Baptist Convention. One of her most noted performances was that for Mary McLeod Bethune in 1948 and notably featured “Climbing Jacob’s Ladder,” a song later recorded by The Famous Ward Singers, Bernice Johnson Reagon, and The Staple Singers. This was a poignant intersection of two careers in the early postwar era, as Southern schools and churches—and the gospel artists they fostered—were laying the groundwork for a new era in civil rights.
By 1948, Mary McLeod Bethune had worked tirelessly to establish opportunities for the education of Black women in the Jim Crow-era South. She became the first African American woman to serve as a college president, and was a confidant and ally of Eleanor Roosevelt in encouraging politicians to take up civil rights issues.
For her part, Elizabeth Coleman’s performance for Bethune marks a significant highlight in the singer’s storied career, one that saw her grace the stage of Carnegie Hall, lead weekly choral broadcasts in Galveston, and become a stalwart fixture of Texas gospel music.
Sources:
“Avenue L Baptist Church,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed March 24, 2025,
Laurie E. Jasinski in Laurie E. Jasinski, Gary Hartman, Casey Monahan, and Ann T. Smith, eds. The Handbook of Texas Music. Second Edition. Denton, TX: Texas State Historical Association, 2012.
“Mary McLeod Bethune,” National Park Service–Mary McLeod Bethune Council House, accessed March 21, 2025,
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