Eliza McCabe was born in Boyce, Louisiana March 5, 1886, the granddaughter of a former slave.  She graduated class salutatorian in 1910 from Wiley College.  McCabe was instrumental in implementing classroom music instruction in the all black schools in Beaumont, Texas in the 1920s.  At that time, such music instruction was only taught in all white schools.  After coming to the northwest in 1933, she taught music lessons from her home to black and white students for over 40 years. 

McCabe received the Washington State Music Teacher Association Citation in 1975.  Some of her other outstanding accomplishments include:

• 1979 Distinguished Citizen Award from the Tacoma Municipal League;
• Eliza McCabe Day in Tacoma, declared March 30, 1980 for contributions to senior citizen programs and to the City Association of Colored Women’s Clubs, a national organization of African American women. 
• Inclusion of the Reminiscences of Eliza Champ McCabe in the Black Women Oral History Project, conducted by Radcliffe College and available at that school’s Schlesinger Library.  Transcripts may also be available via Columbia University Libraries: Oral History Research Office.

The permanent scholarship in the name of such an esteemed African American woman will present valuable ethnic heritage education for the recipients and their families for generations to come.