Bipeds of Brookland: Constance Gates

Bipeds of Brookland: Constance Gates

Mrs. Gates has an ear for music. “If I can hear it, I can play it.” Born in Portland, Oregon, in 1931, her family moved down the coast to LA before crossing the country to Charlotte, NC, with her father who was a minister in the AME Zion church. “My mother was a nurse.  She could remember when John Wayne walked into Queen of Angels Hospital, and the nuns went crazy.  She had never seen sisters go crazy.”

Mrs. Gates  has lived in Brookland since 1982. “I’m a 1953 graduate of Howard University School of Music.  I was the first black teacher hired to teach music in Bethlehem, PA.” She lived in the steel town for years with her first husband who was a minister. She taught middle school music and remembers the challenge of having to engage the different musical tastes of her black and white students. She is proud to have taught Jonathon Frakes, the actor who played Commander William Riker in Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Mrs. Gates  married her second husband in DC in 1981. They bought a house down the street from his cousin. “This house was built in 1926, so it has quite a history. The original deed said they didn’t want it sold to blacks.”

She has enjoyed living in Brookland. “You can walk the streets. It’s safe, a quiet, well established neighborhood. " Mrs. Gates worked for the DC government collecting claims for patients at a facility for the disabled. She also played the organ at various churches while offering private piano instruction in her house. “Now? I’m very retired.”

Bipeds of Brookland: A bi-weekly series introducing the people who make Brookland their home, one step at a time. Article and photo by Tom Sabella.