By The Howard University Newsroom Staff
Howard University is celebrating the life of one of its most profoundly impactful alumna, the legendary songstress, composer, performer, and artistic icon Roberta Flack (B.M.E. ’58, D.Mus. ’75). Over the course of an incredible career, she inspired countless performers through her talent, showmanship, professionalism, and sheer charisma. She also founded the Roberta Flack Foundation in 2010 to promote animal welfare and music education.
Flack passed away Feb. 24, 2025. The music world is paying tribute to a true icon celebrated internationally for her vocal artistry and soulful mastery of the timeless, deeply emotional terrain of love and romance.
Born in Black Mountain, North Carolina, she was raised in Richmond and later Arlington, Virginia. A classically trained pianist, Flack earned a full music scholarship at age 15 to attend Howard, studying voice and piano. While at Howard, she was a member of the School of Music’s Student Council and became a member of Alpha Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc., serving as the sorority’s business manager. Even as a student, she was already garnering acclaim by performing on campus, singing in student talent shows, and directing opera. In 1954, The Hilltop wrote about her “easy flowing vocals” as she sang songs like “Polka Dots and Moonbeams.” She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in music education in 1958. Among many return trips, she came back to perform in Homecoming concerts, and in 1975, she would return to campus to receive an honorary doctorate alongside Dorothy Height.
Flack was the first artist ever to win the Grammy Award for Record of the Year during two consecutive years, a feat that was not replicated for almost three decades. Her first win, for “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” came in 1973 after the song spent six weeks atop the Billboard Top 100 charts, making it Billboard’s top song of the year. It was also the major track on the soundtrack for Clint Eastwood’s directorial debut, “Play Misty for Me,” which followed the obsessed fan of a disc jockey.
She followed up with another seminal classic, “Killing Me Softly with His Song,” in 1974. Like the year before, Flack spent more weeks at number one on the Billboard charts in 1974 than any other artist, topping the charts for five weeks. The Fugees featuring Lauren Hill released a version in the 1990s which also became a hit, but Flack’s version is included on both Rolling Stone’s and Billboard’s listings of the greatest songs of all time. In all, she was awarded five Grammys. In addition to Record of the Year, she won for Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo, Group, or Chorus in 1973 and Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female, in 1974. The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences presented her with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2020.
At Howard, Flack began collaborating with another prolific singer and Howard student, Donny Hathaway, a Cook Hall resident. Her first album included a song written by Hathaway, called, “Our Ages or Our Hearts.” Together, they recorded, “Where is the Love,” and the “The Closer I Get to You,” songs that continue to find their place across media today. After Hathaway’s death in 1979, Flack donated all of the profits from the song to his family. In the 1980s, Flack continued to punctuate the Billboard charts. The 1983 hit, “Tonight, I Celebrate My Love,” a duet with Peabo Bryson, peaked at No. 16 in the Top 100. She continued to record throughout her life, including the song “Running,” which she recorded in 2018 at age 80. As late as 2021, her version of Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” was released.
For part of her life, she lived near the university on Euclid Street. Before she came into the international spotlight, she was a local legend, performing at nighttime spots. Flack, sometime around 1967, began performing at Mr. Henry’s Capitol Hill Club in Washington. Her extraordinary talent was recognized when jazz musician Les McCann discovered her singing at Mr. Henry’s and immediately signed her to Atlantic Records.
Flack was active within the Howard community, leading master classes and providing inspiration to upcoming artists. Described by Rev. Jesse Jackson as “socially relevant and politically unafraid,” Flack continued to impact the world even after retiring from touring in 2018. Beyond the stage, Flack was a dedicated humanitarian and mentor. She founded the Roberta Flack School of Music at the Hyde Leadership Charter School in the Bronx, offering a free, innovative music education program to underprivileged students. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she helped raise awareness and funds for FeedTheChildren.org, underscoring her enduring commitment to making a difference.
Fellow Howard alumna Kamala Harris (B.A. ’86) summed up the Bison love for Flack through her social media accounts.
Even before she met Flack, Howard alumna Valerie “Kehembe” Eichelberger (B.Mus. ’71, M.M. ’97) was inspired by Flack’s ability to express the mood and sentiment of the times. In fact, one of her favorite Flack tracks is “Trying Times.” She still plays Flack’s vinyl albums on her stereo at home. Today, Eichelberger is an associate professor at Howard specializing in classical and jazz voice and serves as the music business coordinator. She is an accomplished musician in her own right, having performed live across the world and on nationally televised programs such as PBS’s “History Detectives.”
“We are talking about trying times now, the same way she wrote about it and sang about it in the ’60s,” Eichelberger said.
Flack and Eichelberger got to know each other while both were private students of famous voice coach Frederick “Wilkie” Wilkerson. Their connection grew when Flack formed a small ensemble to do a tribute for spiritual icon Hall Johnson and led a performance at the Kennedy Center featuring students from Wilkerson’s studio, including Eichelberger.
She was a noted Washington, D.C.-based performer in her own right but would make a point to go see Flack whenever she could.
“I would be running from my gigs and go running to Mr. Henry’s to try to catch her before she had her last set,” Eichelberger said. “She made it famous. Folks started bringing bigger acts to Mr. Henry’s.” Later, Eichelberger was performing at Mr. Henry’s herself, and was thrilled to look up and see Flack in the audience.
Though Eichelberger graduated a few years after Flack, she was a classmate of Donny Hathaway and was doubly inspired by the artistry Flack and Hathaway made together.
“Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway doing a major recording and just singing together again brought that Howard spin to the world,” she said.
