By 1868, Holmes was attending Fisk University. He would pay for his tuition by teaching 68 students in Davidson County for $30 a month. He would even teach in a more dangerous area of town, where a shot was fired during a class session. Holmes would work hard at Fisk, be named the chapel’s deacon and become an original member of the Fisk Jubilee Singers. Although he often bumped heads with the Jubilee’s director, he would eventually arrange his own farewell concert in London.
Benjamin Holmes died at age 28 of tuberculosis in Nashville in 1875. His life would be told in a children’s book called “Ben and the Emancipation Proclamation” by Pat Sherman and Floyd Cooper.
Little Known Black History Fact: The Life of Benjamin Holmes was originally published on blackamericaweb.com
