Margaret Valiant

American folklorist, ethnomusicologist, musician, and civil rights activist (22 February 1901, Como, Mississippi — 11 April 1982, Memphis, Tennessee). Margaret Valiant grew up in her cousin's family, as Margaret's mother died when she was two, and the father couldn't care for a child due to mental illness. In 1914, after her cousin passed away, Valiant moved to Memphis. She began playing piano and graduated from Cincinnati Conservatory in 1922. In the next decade, Margaret Valiant split her time between the US and Europe, where she studied acting, singing and languages. In 1935, Valiant returned to New York City, soon hired by the Resettlement Administration. She worked with Charles Seeger, coordinating music festivals and arts programs in planned communities. While working at the planned community in Cherry Lake Farms, Florida, Margaret kept a field journal, subsequently published as Journal of a Field Representative. In 1939, she joined the National Youth Administration in Washington, DC, as a music program organizer. During her tenure, Valiant began advocating for women's rights and established a friendship and correspondence with Eleanor Roosevelt. Margaret returned to Memphis in the 1950s. Valiant's archival papers are in the Mississippi State University's collection, and her field recordings are at The Library Of Congress.