In 1932, Anna Bobbitt Gardner (1901-97) became the first African American women to be awarded a bachelor’s degree from the New England Conservatory of Music. She operated at least five studios in Boston under the same name for more than sixty years. She first opened the Academy in 1924 in the basement of her home. She managed Colored American Nights, featuring African American musicians at Symphony Hall, and produced local radio and television programs for an African American audience. In 1945, Gov. Maurice J. Tobin appointed her state director of Negro History Week programs to accompany fine arts exhibits at selected historic buildings. Succeeding governors reappointed her to the position. Since 1997, the New England Conservatory has granted a musician the Anna Bobbitt Gardner Lifetime Achievement Award.
