Meet Wallace Cheatham, a Student Who Taught
By James Kinchen
Do you know Dr. Wallace McClain Cheatham? Heard of him? I would love for you to meet him. For all the time that I have known him, which is about all the time that I have been here in Wisconsin, I have found him to be an inspiration and a role model. There are many apt descriptors for Dr. Wallace M. Cheatham. Perhaps the best and certainly the one that he likes best is student. His curiosity and quest for continual growth, a pursuit that continues into his retirement years, motivate him to keep learning and stay sharp.
Dr. Cheatham hails from the East Tennessee town of Cleveland, which is located between Chattanooga and Knoxville. As was the case for nearly all young people in that place and time, he received his preparatory education in schools that were strictly segregated by race. The disadvantage for African American students was a distinct and decisive one. Black schools were seldom funded at the same level as white schools. Per-pupil-expenditures were different for black and white students, which was the norm and required no explanation or justification. Facilities that housed black schools were often older and almost always in poorer condition. Equipment, furnishings, and supplies were often in poorer condition, and one would not have been surprised to find hand-me-down textbooks, desks, and other things sent to the “Negro” schools from white schools, after the latter had gotten the newest, most up-to-date items.
But Dr. Cheatham was also part of a loving and nurturing African American community that highly valued competence. The schools that he attended were an important part of that community. Teachers, using what they had, taught with dedication and passion, preparing him and other students for the world to come, a world that promised to offer better opportunities and a brighter day for African Americans. The church was also integral to that community. Here he saw examples of musical excellence and competence that would become a lifelong model for him. Filled with talent and optimism, young Wallace headed to Knoxville College, a small historically black liberal arts college in Knoxville. Awaiting him there was an excellent, challenging musical experience. At this Presbyterian school, unlike his preparatory schools in Cleveland, he would study and develop his musical skills under the exacting tutelage of both black and white faculty. The racial mix of the faculty offered Wallace his first opportunity to interact in a biracial learning environment. (In later years he would earn his masters in music and education from UW-Milwaukee, and then, after doing doctoral studies at UW-Madison and Northwestern, earn his doctorate from Columbia Pacific University.)
Now many decades later, the animation in his voice betrays the excitement that he still feels when recalling the excellence of the Knoxville College faculty. Still, there are a few professors who stand out. One was the young choir director, Nathan Carter, who would later build a choral dynasty at Maryland’s Morgan State University, and whose choir would receive frequent invitations to sing at the White House. He was Carter’s accompanist all four years of college and learned much from him. He also owes a huge debt to Ernesto Peligrini, his theory professor. And his Philosophy of Education professor gave advice that made a lasting impression. Wallace and other classmates were warned to “be careful or you will find yourself with a satchel full of methods but nothing to teach.” Wallace was determined to always be deeply anchored in the discipline and art of music.
When he graduated from Knoxville College, Wallace did what most other newly minted college grads do – look for a job. Knoxville was right on the cusp of starting to remove some of the barriers of racial segregation in its schools. That was both good and bad news. The good news was that he was assigned to two local 1-8 schools, both previously all white. The bad news was that, while one of the principals was very congenial and helpful to this African American, first-year teacher, the other principal, in Dr. Cheatham’s words, “did everything she could to make my life a living hell!” Meanwhile, school districts from states farther north were also beginning to try and diversify their faculties and, hence, coming to historically black colleges and universities (of which there are over 100 and mostly in the South) in search of teachers of color. In fact, Racine Unified School District (RUSD) had tried to recruit him right out of college. But after a year of teaching in the Knoxville schools, he had had enough! He got in touch with RUSD and the rest is history. Beginning in 1968, Dr. Cheatham taught for three years, first at Janes Elementary School and then at Mitchell, which was then a 7-9 junior high school. As far as he is aware, he was the first African American music teacher in the Racine schools! During that time, he was also organist at Wayman African Methodist Episcopal Church in Racine.
Then Dr. Cheatham moved up the road to accept a job with Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS), where he would work until his retirement in 2003. He worked at every level and immensely enjoyed all of his work in MPS. Among his fond memories was starting an excellent swing choir at North Division High School and leading them to a coveted first place award at the state level. He is similarly proud of the two-year music theory program that he started there. He assured students that passing his program, thorough and rigorous, would position them to succeed in a theory program at any college at which they might enroll. Dr. Cheatham helped many thousands of students, especially in MPS, where he spent the bulk of his career, have strong, transformative experiences in music. But he also has fond memories of things that he did outside of Milwaukee, like the residency that he was chosen to fill at Menasha High School. He composed a work for orchestra and was invited to the Fox Valley school to lead the students in their preparation. While there, he also taught an advanced music theory class.
Soon after coming to Wisconsin, Dr. Cheatham because increasingly more engaged with composing. Composition has become a very fruitful and rewarding pursuit. His varied oeuvre includes works for choir, orchestra, piano, organ and solo voice. Several well-known houses, including Shawnee, Alfred and Oxford University Press, have published his pieces. His piano works have been included in the African Diaspora Project, alongside those of composers of African descent from both sides of the Atlantic.
He has made his impact as a scholar, having authored the definitive book, Dialogues on Opera and the African American Experience, published by Scarecrow Press, which can be found in libraries around the world. In 2003, Dr. Cheatham received Wisconsin Choral Directors Association’s distinguished Morris D. Hayes Award, in recognition of his enriching contributions to the Wisconsin choral community. He was the first African American to be so honored. (I am humbled to have followed in his footsteps as the second African American to receive the Hayes Award just this past January.) Dr. Cheatham has received the honorary doctorate from UW-Milwaukee.
Dr, Cheatham has been a career-long advocate for the works of other Black composers, pulling Milwaukee community singers together in the performances of infrequently performed music of African American composers, such as Robert Nathaniel Dett’s monumental oratorio, The Ordering of Moses. As we begin to rise out of pandemic mode all over, many devoted singers in his community-based Jubilee Singers choir are eagerly awaiting the call to return to exploring this repertoire with Dr. Cheatham. His community profile includes a long-term relationship as organist/director of music at Saint Marks African Methodist Episcopal Church in Milwaukee.
Dr. Cheatham is an active, avid member of the American Guild of Organists (a major organ piece of his was premiered at an AGO conference some years ago) and the 102-year-old National Association of Negro Musicians [sic]. In a sense, Dr. Cheatham has lived many of the experiences that are now central to the attention that is presently being given matters of diversity, inclusion, and social justice. He points out that the successful African American music educator of his time generally took for granted the need to have a music learning space that responded to the culture of his/her students and used materials and methods that honored diversity and aimed for inclusiveness. At the same time, he has experienced racism in his work and tells a sad story of having been “profiled” as a composer. Once he was completing his first work for orchestra and sought another pair of knowledgeable eyes. So, he called what he assumed to be such a person at the Wisconsin Conservatory in an attempt to make an appointment with the colleague. Perhaps surmising Dr. Cheatham’s race from the timbre of his voice on the phone, the person quickly and summarily declared, “I don’t have anything to do with jazz!” The piece was not jazz. Dr. Cheatham got the appointment, and the man was astounded by what he saw – a well-crafted, original work for orchestra written by someone who was not a novice to music. He was now interested in having Dr. Cheatham study with him, which opportunity Dr. Cheatham declined. But, well aware of the many bitter fruits of systemic racism, he is resolved that we must use our voices in our music classrooms and performing spaces to promote social justice, and is glad to witness our movement in that direction.
At the end of the proverbial day, Wallace Cheatham has been fueled and sustained through his 36-year career in music education by a deep love for music and by always seeing and positioning himself as a student. This perspective has kept him fresh and enabled him to give generously to his students, going all the way back to 1967. And it makes perfect sense. How can you effectively give what you yourself do not have? How can you dispense without yourself staying filled? His advice to music educator colleagues and music teachers-to-be is to be good students of the craft of music, not just to teaching methodology. He believes that we should be committed to recruiting our best music students to become our next generation of music teachers. He argues convincingly that our best music educators must be our strongest musicians.
Wallace Cheatham lives with his wife of nearly 50 years, the former Faye Watson, in a quiet Milwaukee neighborhood. They have two daughters, Tosca and Kim, and two adorable grandsons.
Please know, however, that we will continue to accept music that fits these categories by female, black, Asian, and other composers of diverse backgrounds throughout the year for any of our event lists.
