In 1871, Fisk University was facing extreme financial hardships, so in an attempt to overcome that, the treasurer and music director of the university, George White, a white missionary who was committed to music and proving that African Americans were not below whites, gathered a student chorus, consisting of four African American men (Isaac Dickerson, Ben Holmes, Thomas Rutling, Greene Evans) and five African American women (Ella Sheppard, Maggie Porter, Minnie Tate, Jennie Jackson, Eliza Walker) to go on tour to make money for the school.