She was a choir director and organized Folk Songs Festivals in African American churches and schools.

Hackley studied music for years, including in Paris under opera singer Jean de Reszke.

Hackley published The Colored Girl Beautiful, a manual on becoming an accomplished and refined African American lady.

[5][6] The daughter of an escaped slave,[6][7] Corilla founded a school in Murfreesboro for former enslaved people and their children.

[7] In 1870, the school was threatened and attacked by the Ku Klux Klan and other hostile groups during evening singing lessons.

She sang and played piano at high school dances, which contributed to the Smith family's income.

[10] Due to her very light skin color and auburn hair, many people suggested that she try to pass for white in order to further her musical career.

Edwin Henry Hackley, educated at the University of Michigan, was the first African American admitted to the Colorado bar.

[2] Hackley and her husband co-founded the Imperial Order of Libyans, to combat racial prejudice and foment equality.

[2][3] At the turn of the twentieth century, Edwin sold his interest in The Statesman and published the Statesman-cum-Denver Star with his wife.

Other topics include civil government, current events, and the importance of compiling facts on blacks.

[2] In one column she wrote of the Colored Women's League: In mapping out this program we have borne in mind the great need for thought and talk on the practical as well as cultural side of woman's life.

[10] She introduced Black folk music to an international audience at the World Sunday School Convention in Tokyo.

She financed the programs and provided training sessions for local performers about ten days before the concert.

[8] In Paris, she studied under Jean de Reszke, a well-known opera singer and vocal coach in 1905 and 1906.

Hackley raised funds by holding benefit concerts, which was used to provide foreign scholarships for African American classical musicians.

Juanita Karpf wrote the book Performing Racial Uplift: E. Azalia Hackley and African American Activism in the Post-Bellum to Pre-Harlem Era.

The exhibit featured a dozen prominent Black women from the state of Michigan, including the Honorable Cora M. Brown, Ethelene Jones Crockett, M.D., and teacher Fannie M.