Emma Harris (1871-1937)
Emma Elizabeth Matthews was born on October 9th, 1870/1 on (or near) the John Phinizy Plantation in Richmond County, Georgia near the city of Augusta to former slaves, Sarah Green and Richard Matthews. In the summer of 1880, upon finishing 4th grade at Ware High School, Emma was sent to Norfolk, Virginia to live with her widowed Aunt Hattie to continue her studies and later attend the Negro Mission College (which opened 1883). But after a few years, her Aunt suddenly died, leaving the young Emma stranded in Virginia with no place to go.
Instead of returning home, Emma caught the next train north, enrolling herself into the Boston Musical Conservatory and finding work as a chambermaid to support herself. Early 1896, Sissieretta Jones arrived in Boston to organize her Black Patti Troubadours, a vaudeville revue featuring Negro operatic singers, dancers and blackface comedians. After opening in Pittsfield, the show traveled to New York City in October. In the winter, while performing in Brooklyn, Emma met and married local janitor, Joseph B. Harris. They rented a small apartment, and Emma brought relatives up from the South. Emma traveled with the Black Patti Troubadours across New York and the Eastern Coast frequently until 1899. In 1900 she departed to join Theodore Drury's Opera Company.
In the spring of 1901, while leading the Trinity Baptist Church choir, German Impresario, Paula Kohn-Wöllner, approached Emma (and seven other women) to organize a Negro revue Louisiana Amazon Guards. Late-April, the show arrived in Germany and rehearsed and opened in Leipzig before touring across Germany that summer. That fall, the four-act revue began it's European tour, traveling across Austria, Hungary, Switzerland, Denmark & Sweden. The show reorganized late-1902, after firing Mrs Kohn-Wollner, the revue relocated to Berlin and continued touring Germany until the winter of 1903, when Emma and Corette Alefred paired up as Koretty und Kreol (Corette & the Creole Girl) and traveled to Russia.
Upon arriving in Moscow, February 1904, Emma learned her lonely husband died back in Brooklyn. The duo opened at the Aumont Theatre (later Aquarium Gardens), run by the manipulative French director Charles Aumont. That winter, they traveled to St. Petersburg to join Georgette Harvey & her Creole Belles Quartet. January 1905, while attending a party hosted by William Caton (Popular American jockey), Emma witnessed the 'Bloody Sunday' protest outside the Czar's palace and riots across the city. The show packed up and left the city that night. Returning to Moscow, Emma gathered Corette Alefred and Fannie Smith and organized the Harris Trio, and performed at the the Aumont Theatre until the trio split at the end of February. The following month in Helsinki, now as a solo artist, Emma opened successfully at the Princess Restaurant with her singing and classical dances.
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| Vyatka (1900) |
During the spring of 1905, she began an extended Siberian concert tour. While performing in Vyatka, Emma met the handsome scientist and museum curator, Count Baranov. The two quickly became lovers, and Emma joined his Central Russian tour, as he promised to organize an American tour for her the following year. As she performed in the major cities along the Volga river, Baranov held his lectures. Trains hardly reached many parts of Russia during that period, so much of the journey was using 'troikas' and were often followed by hungry wolves. But soon Emma realized he was a charlatan. Baranov presented her as his singing African savage, manipulating and stealing her money after the show. Arriving in Kazan, Emma escaped, but Baranov reported her to the authorities as a Japanese spy. Emma was thrown in jail until an intervention from the US Consulate in Moscow. Returning to Moscow to meet the Consul Samuel Smith, he was shocked to discover she was a Negro. Realizing she couldn't count on America for further help, Emma decided to remain in Russia. That Fall, Emma joined Afro-American comedian Edgar H. Jones on one his many Russian, appearing in Latvia and Poland.
Towards the end of the year, Emma ran into an old friend, Baltimore businessman, Harry Leans who was visiting Europe. He offered to fund her first solo tour across Europe. From late-1905-1914, Emma (as the Black Nightingale) toured the Russian Empire, Turkey, Greece, Egypt, and the Balkans. She spoke and sang in Russian, German & French. In 1911, while touring through the Caucasus mountains, she ran into Russian theater director, Alexander Ivanovich Mizikin. Sometime in 1913, couple married and established a residence in Kharkiv (becoming Emma Richardsovna Mizikina). Alex opened a string of cinemas across the Ukraine (such as the Zerkalo Zhizni Theatre) which featured Russian and American films. Meanwhile, Emma continued touring throughout the Russian Empire.
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| Moscow (1917) |
During the summer of 1914, upon the outbreak of WWI, the couple relocated to Moscow and purchased a 15-room mansion in the central part of the city taken care of by six servants. Their home also doubled as an exclusive brothel, which served wealthy and aristocratic clientele. In the spring of 1915, as Alex fought on the front lines, Emma shifted from dancing & singing to acting. At the G.I. Libken Studios in Yaroslavl. Emma appeared onscreen in an interesting attempt on Russian soil an American adventure film *Satan's Woman*, about life within the circus and musichall; co-starring alsongside Nikolai Saltykov (as 'Tolsky'). Directed by Sigismund Veselovsky and produced through the 'Alians' Film Office {F. Parkhomenko}, the film was unfortunately lost (or censured) after the Bolshevik Revolution. The film however made Emma the first major black actress in Russian cinema. In 1917, after a failed attempt to flee the country, Emma joined the Soviet Red Cross, working as a nurse on armored train no. 1045 aiding the new Bolshevik conquerors. The following year, Emma turned her home into an boarding house for visiting American journalists and diplomats, whom she threw large dinners and was kindly referred to by as the 'Mammy of Moscow'. Sometime in March, during a massive rally, Emma was pushed to the front and introduced to Vladimir Lenin, who believed blacks represented the "ideal Communist". Shortly afterwards, she was given a government position in the Commissariat of the People's Education, teaching English to government officials in the city of Simbirsk near the Russian front lines.
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| International Red Aid (MOPR) |
In September 1919, the Cheka raided her home, and arrested Emma under suspicion of hiding White Army soldiers. After a few days in Lubyanka Prison, she was released as the government refused to execute a Negro woman. Emma quickly returned to acting, working with her husband and the Soyuze Film Trust company. She wrote and appeared in several Soviet films which were well received by the Russian populace (although recalled that they were quite terrible). As the Great Famine ravaged Ukraine in 1921, Emma joined Col. William Haskell's American Relief Association aiding the starving population. In 1922, Emma joined as one of the lead speakers for the International Red Aid (MOPR), she traveled Russia giving fiery speeches and singing Spirituals. She also wrote poems for Soviet newspapers. After divorcing Alex in 1929, Emma retired from the stage, working as an interpreter for Proletarsky Trud Silk Mill (until 1932). In June of 1932, Emma was among those who welcomed 21 African Americans (including Langston Hughes) who had come to organize and appear in the political anti-racism film *Black & White* with the Meschrabpom Film company. Emma was also asked to be apart of the film, due to her acting experience in Russian cinema. During the productions, she gave several powerful speeches at the Park of Rest & Culture in fluent Russian protesting the Scottsboro trials in the American South. However the film never materialized and Emma a given a job with the Moscow Torgsin Store.
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| Moscow (1933) |
Early 1933, she became chief correspondent for the Stankoimport State Trust. That August, after an interview mentioning a wish to visit the US, took a trip to Latvia to receive an American passport then caught the caught the next ship in Hamburg, Germany back to New York. Emma spoke across the US speaking of her success and experiences in Russia throughout the up until 1937. By then she was no longer interested in remaining in the United States and disappeared shortly after writing up the transcript of her biography, many sources claiming she soon died. However, American Communist leader, Homer Smith mentioned that she returned to Russia only to receive permission from the Soviet government in 1943, to return to the US only to die not long after arriving. Emma may have returned to Russia in 1937, but was definitely back in the New York by early 1940 living with her nephew (a few of her relatives moved to New York just before her arrival in Europe). There Emma remained, hoping to return to Russia after the war, instead passing away in Brooklyn sometime after 1945.
