John Thomas Douglass

Later in life he led a teaching studio, and among his students was David Mannes who became the concertmaster of the New York Symphony Orchestra.

Nearly 30 years after Douglass's death at age 38–39, Mannes founded the Colored Music Settlement School in the memory of his teacher.

[3] His three-act opera Virginia's Ball premiered in New York, at the Stuyvesant Institute on Broadway; the music is now lost.

[3] The work was registered with the United States Copyright Office in 1868, and musicologist Eileen Southern presumes that it had been performed the same year.

[7][8] Mannes was later a violinist and then concertmaster of the New York Symphony Orchestra, founding the Colored Music Settlement School in 1916 in the memory of Douglass.

[9][10] He supposedly wrote numerous other works, based on Trotter's assertion that "He has also composed many fine pieces for orchestras and for piano.

[15][16] However, Southern notes that Harry Lawrence Freeman may be considered the first significant Black composer of opera, as he wrote 14 and had five performed from 1893 to 1947 during his lifetime.

[16] Douglass's The Pilgrim: Grand Overture for piano was published by the Lee & Shepard firm in 1878 for Trotter's study.