Philippa Duke Schuyler (1931–1967)

Philippa Duke Schuyler was born in New York City, the only child of Black journalist George Schuyler and Josephine Cogdell Schuyler, a white Texan and former actress hopeful. Philippa became famous as a child in the 1930s as a result of her precocious musical talent, intellect, and mixed race parentage. Her mother was a stage mother who entered Philippa into music competitions, public recitals, and radio broadcasts by the age of four. She performed two piano recitals at the New York World's Fair at the age of eight. She studied with pianists Paul Wittgenstein and Josef Hofmann and composer Dean Dixon. At age eleven, she became the youngest member of the National Association of American Composers and Conductors. She toured constantly throughout the USA and the world. In addition to English, she spoke French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and German. In adulthood, her concert schedule declined, and she followed her father into journalism. She went on assignment as a war correspondent to South Vietnam in 1967 and was killed there in the crash of a U.S. Army helicopter at age 35. Philippa was the author of five books based on her worldwide travels, including Adventures in Black and White (1960) and Kingdom of Dreams (1966). A major biography of her, Composition in Black and White by Kathryn Talalay, appeared in 1996.