Amelia Tiligman

Amelia Louise Tilghman (surname also spelled Tiligman; September 6, 1856 – December 12, 1931) (pronounced "TILL man") was an American pianist, teacher, journalist, and activist, She founded the first African-American journal devoted to music, The Musical Messenger, published from 1886 to 1891. Unfortunately, there is little available information surrounding her early years of music development.

Tilghman enrolled in the Normal School of Howard University and graduated in 1870. Tilghman relocated to Montgomery, Alabama, where she took a job in the public schools. When she arrived, reflected a journalist, looking back from 1893, "there were no colored pianists in Montgomery, and in no house where colored people lived did one hear in passing the artistic rendition of music as is now heard in almost every two or three squares." During her first year in town, Amelia organized a recital of her students in a local Congregational Church.