His parents moved to rural Ohio from Burlington, VT to be farmers, but when they learned that, although they had made regular financial contributions to Hiram College, their son would not be allowed to enter their preparatory program, they promptly removed their children from the local school and enrolled them in school in Ravenna, Ohio.

[2] Loudin continued to show promise as a strong student and in his late teens began apprenticing for a printer.

When asked to take over the literary department of the abolitionist newspaper for which he worked, Loudin elected to remain a compositor since he did not fully share the views of the paper's editor.

Music played a large part in Loudin's life: teaching, learning the organ and leading a choir.

Loudin, the oldest member of the Jubilee Singers, forged a strong relationship with George White over the next few years while touring Europe.

A bitter rival of Ella Sheppard, he also fell out with Erastus Milo Cravath, Fisk’s president, over the Jubilees’ rights to rest and remuneration.

As sole director of the choir, Loudin became particularly careful about selecting his singers, investigating their backgrounds to ensure they had committed no misdeeds and that they came from cultured families.

As a group now purely composed of and run by African Americans, it was important to Loudin that no character flaws could be pointed to as proof of their inferiority.

Loudin led his choir to England, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, India, Singapore, China, Japan, and finally across the American West.

After returning to his hometown of Ravenna, Ohio and building his family a house, Loudin continued to tour with his troupe for the next twelve years.

[4] In addition to meeting the demands required by his career as a singer and choir director, Loudin somehow found time for political and business pursuits.

He joined anti-lynching journalist Ida B. Wells-Barnett and Frederick Douglass in advocating for the representation of African Americans at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

During this time Loudin’s Fisk Jubilee Singers were on tour under the direction of their choir director cum businessman.

Frederick Loudin was at the height of his creative abilities, as exemplified by the two inventions for fasteners which he patented during this period of time.

[5][6] Loudin had a heart attack while on tour in Scotland during the fall of 1902, almost thirty years after he had first joined the Jubilee Singers.

For children Lynn Abbott & Doug Serott, Out of sight: The rise of African American popular music, 1889–1895, Univ.