Etta Motten Barnett was born in Weimar, Texas on November 5, 1901. She first enrolled at Western University, a historically black college in Quindaro, Kansas. In 1918, she married Lieutenant Curtis Brooks, a former teacher. They moved to Oklahoma and had three daughters. The couple divorced in 1924 and she returned home to Kansas where her parents helped raise her daughters.
She enrolled at the University of Kansas. In 1931, she earned a Bachelor’s in voice and drama. While in Kansas, she became a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. She left her daughters in Kansas and headed to New York City where she joined the Eva Jessye Choir.
In 1933, she was in two big screen musicals. In Flying Down to Rio, she sang “The Carioca.” She was also in the Busby Berkeley musical Gold Diggers of 1933.
She married Claude Albert Barnett, the founder and director of the Associated Negro Press, in 1934. It is said she sang at the White House for one of President Roosevelt’s birthday celebration. (However, I could find no definite date – they ranged from 1934 until 1944. If anyone has primary source information, please let me know and I will edit this.)
In the 1942 revival of Porgy and Bess, Barnett had the title roll and performed on Broadway and with the national touring company until 1945.
Barnett received a Citation of Merit from her Alma Mater, the University of Kansas, in 1943.
She retired from performing in 1952. She hosted a Chicago based radio show, I Remember When. The recordings still exist including one of her interview with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Her husband died in 1967 an she became a philanthropist in the Chicago community. Barnett was active in the National Council of Negro Women, the Field Museum, the Chicago Lyric Opera, the DuSable Museum, and the South Side Community Art Center. She served on the Board of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. Five honorary degrees were awarded to her.
In 2001 Barnett was inducted into the Kansas University Emily Taylor Center for Women and Gender Equity. She died in 2004, at the age of 102.
