Black History Month Cape Fear Stories: Caterina Jarboro

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Born in April 1898 on Church Street in Wilmington, Catherine Yarborough always knew she wanted to sing.

Her mother was a talented musician who sang at St. Luke’s AME Zion Church.

In 1916, Yarborough moved to New York, performing in the hit all-black Broadway musicals Shuffle Along and Runnin’ Wild.

In 1924, Yarborough moved to Paris and Milan, and changed her name to “Caterina Jarboro.”

In May 1931, she made her debut in Milan in Aïda.

A year later she came back to the U.S. and performed at Thalian Hall, but not without a fight by T.C. Jervay, publisher and editor of the Wilmington Journal.

Jarboro became the first black singer to perform a leading role with an otherwise all-white American opera company with the Chicago Opera Company.

Yet Jarboro’s popular and critical success in Aïda at the Hippodrome was not enough to overcome the racial prejudice that persisted in the American opera industry, and no other companies attempted to engage her.

She remained in Europe from 1935 to 1939.

Once back in the states, in the early 1940s Jarboro performed at the White House and gave solo recitals at New York’s Carnegie Hall and Town Hall.

Caterina Jarboro had been acclaimed as America’s first black prima donna.