Hope Foye obit

Hope Foye, Trailblazing ‘People’s Artist’ and Civil Rights Pioneer, Passes Away at 103 (Sept. 2, 1921 – Jan. 6, 2025)

 

She was not on the list.

In 1998, Random Lengths ran a profile on barrier breaker and opera singer, Hope Foye. At the time, she had been a 20-year San Pedro resident in South Shores.

For herself, others for her, and she for those who would follow –Hope Foye’s life and career as a People’s Artist has been about opening doors.

Foye’s career includes performances with international star and civil rights activist Paul Robeson, the host of her radio program, and top billing on the marquee at the world’s greatest concert halls, from Zurich to Mexico and from Berlin to Tel Aviv.

Foye had grown up a foster child in the home of an African American seminarian in Harford, Connecticut, where her spectacular voice and skin color set her apart. In her early years, she received a full scholarship from the Young Hadassah Women’s Club to the prestigious Hartt School at the University of Hartford, Connecticut. “I didn’t believe I’d have a chance, being black, and I was the only black who competed… and I was the winner,” she said.

Her political education began in 1941 when the sons and daughter of her foster parents talked her into joining a pilgrimage for peace, though her own sweetheart had just enlisted to fight in World War II.

“I was the only Black woman at the time when we left Connecticut,” says Foye, “but when we got to New York, a man and a woman joined us. Everyone else was white and we had signs about the brother of men, getting rid of the poll tax… no more lynching. We started at 136th Street at the YWCA in Harlem and we walked to Washington, D.C. It took us about 14 days. I looked like an ink spot in milk by the time we got there… because it was summer.” Though they were given shelter by the Quakers and clothes along the way, the journey was not without incident.

“Well, it got scary when we got down to Maryland,” she remembers, “Where they attacked us and tore up our signs and they threatened us with broken bottles. There was only one Black guy there and me and everybody else was white. There weren’t many of us. It wasn’t like Martin Luther King’s march on Washington, but I’ll tell you what, it was the first march on Washington.”

For her activism, Foye would later be called to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in the 1950s. The HUAC, led by Senator Joseph McCarthy, was infamous for investigating alleged communist sympathies and subversive activities during the Cold War. And she was blacklisted like many others for her political beliefs.

Foye, who was politically active and a member of various progressive and civil rights organizations, was questioned about her associations and political views during a time when many artists, activists, and public figures were targeted for their involvement in left-wing causes and were pressured to provide names of others involved in what the government deemed “un-American” activities. Foye refused.

Hope Foye died on January 6, 2025, at the age of 103, surrounded by family and friends in Las Vegas.

She is survived by daughters Melody Wooly and Datri Kory and a host of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Politically liberal and involved in civil rights causes since the beginning of her career, she was blacklisted in the 1950's after appearing before the Senate's McCarran Committee. She then moved to Mexico and became the first black female musical television star there. She later moved to Europe to train to become a classical opera soprano and enjoyed some degree of success there.

Black opera singer and stage performer who debuted the popular song "Lilac Wine" in the original Broadway production of the short-lived musical Dance Me A Song in 1950. The song was covered infrequently since but has achieved new popularity since being recorded in 1993 by Jeff Buckley, with the 2012 cover by Miley Cyrus expanding the song's exposure to audiences internationally.

She was raised by a poor white couple in Middletown, CT but won a scholarship at age 14 to the Hartt School of Music in Hartford. Soon after, she was introduced to Paul Robeson, on whose career she modeled her own. They remained close friends until his death. After four years at the Hartt School, she won an audition for the Metropolitan Opera but when the scout came to the school and saw she was black, he would not even look her in the eye.