Frederick Douglass Hall, an organist, choral director, composer, music educator and historian, was born on Dec. 14, 1898, in Atlanta. He developed choruses in Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama.

Hall received a B.A. from Morehouse College in 1921 and a bachelor's degree from the Chicago Musical College in 1924. He obtained a M.A. in 1929 and a doctoral degree in Music Education in 1952 from Columbia University Teachers College. He also studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London (1933-1935).

Hall taught at Jackson State College, Clark College, Alabama State Teachers College, and Dillard University. While at Dillard, he led the Frederick Hall Quartet, which later became famous as the Delta Rhythm Boys.

He became a well-known composer of choral music and spiritual arrangements. His compositions and arrangements, such as "Dry Bones," "The Crucifixion," "Every Time I Feel the Spirit," and the oratorio "Deliverance," were widely performed.

Hall died in 1982.