Julia Britton Hooks
Kentucky artist and activist during the early years of the Civil Rights Era
Julia Britton Hooks (May 4, 1852 – March 9, 1942), known as the "Angel of Beale Street," was a musician and educator whose work with youth, the elderly, and the indigent was highly respected in her family's home state of Kentucky and in Memphis, Tennessee, where she lived with her second husband, Charles F. Hooks. She was a charter member of the Memphis branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and her example served as an inspiration for her grandson, Benjamin Hooks, executive director of the NAACP from 1977 to 1992. Julia was also a leader for African-American women and active in the civil rights movement.
Background and early life
Julia Ann Amanda Moorehead Britton was born in Frankfort, Kentucky, on May 4, 1852. Her mother Laura Marshall was a gifted singer and musician, and well-educated even though she grew up as a slave in the household of a relation to her father, the Kentucky statesman Thomas F. Marshall. Laura, nearly white, was emancipated at the age of sixteen. Julia's father, Henry Harrison Britton, was a carpenter and free born. So, Julia was born in a slave state as a free person. She was raised in Lexington where she became well known as a musical prodigy at an early age, playing in parlor concerts for wealthy white families. In 1859 with her younger sister Mary E. Britton (who later became the first African-American, female physician in Kentucky), she attended a branch school in Lexington started by Mr.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Julia Britton Hooks” as kentucky artist and activist during the early years of the Civil Rights Era. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6306234. VIAF identifies the subject as 58042904. The Library of Congress control number is n85076066. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1852, 1942, 1977 and 1992.
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This entry incorporates text from “Julia Britton Hooks” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.