Nora Holt (ca. 1885-1974)

Nora Douglas Holt, born Lena Douglas, was an American singer, composer and music critic, who was born in Kansas and was the first African American to receive a master’s degree in the United States. She composed more than 200 works of music and was associated with the leading figures of the Harlem Renaissance and the co-founder of the National Association of Negro Musicians. She died in 1974 in Los Angeles.

Due to a theft in the 1920’s, all but two of her compositions were lost: “Negro Dance” for piano and a song, “The Sandman.”