Richard Allen and the Sacred Music of Black Americans, 1740–1850

This chapter’s central claim is that the notion of freedom, in the context of theology, music, and modernity (1740–1850), is incomplete if it does not address the sacred music of the enslaved people of North America during this period—a population for whom theology, music, and freedom were of enormous personal and social consequence. The central figure in this regard is Richard Allen (1760–1831), who in 1816 founded the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, the first independent black religious denomination in the United States. Allen was born enslaved, in Philadelphia or Delaware, but was able to purchase his freedom in 1783. He had already had a conversion experience in 1777, and once he gained his freedom, he became an itinerant preacher, ultimately settling in Philadelphia, where he preached at St George’s Methodist Church and a variety of venues in the city. In 1794 he led a walkout of black members at St George’s, in protest of racism; and over the course of a number of years he founded Mother Bethel, which would become the original church of the AME. This chapter situates Allen in the development of black sacred music in the US: first, as the publisher of hymnals for his church (two in 1801, and another in 1818); and second, as an important arbitrator between the traditions and performance styles of Protestant hymnody as inherited in the British colonies, and an evolving oral tradition and performance style of black sacred music.

Lord Let Me Be an Instrument

This chapter examines the artistic legacy of Reverend James Cleveland, an internationally renowned musician whose sonic innovations and institution building efforts contributed to gospel music's dramatic growth in the post–civil rights era. Significant attention is given to his role as founding president of the Gospel Music Workshop of America. Created in 1967, the GMWA provided an institutional space for gospel musicians seeking to advance both their careers and black sacred music. By exploring Cleveland’s work for the GMWA, particularly his proposed gospel college in Soul City, North Carolina, along with his groundbreaking records on Savoy, this chapter underscores how black Christians' struggle for self-determination extended into the music world.

Wade in the Water

In January 1994, Wade in the Water: African American Sacred Music, a first-time radio series collaboration between the Smithsonian Institution and National Public Radio, began airing on hundreds of NPR affiliate stations throughout America. An ambitious and influential series of 26 hour-long documentary programs, Wade explored 200 years of black sacred music, including spirituals, ring shouts, lined hymns, jazz, and gospel. The series also featured the insights of music creators, performers, listeners, and historians who could place African American sacred music traditions within the social, political, and cultural context of their times. Wade eventually won a Peabody Award and other awards of distinction. Conceived and hosted by Smithsonian Institution curator, artist, and MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Fellow Bernice Johnson Reagon, Wade required an intensive, five-year-long fundraising, research, and production journey of commitment. As the series’ associate producer, this article’s author worked with a host of dedicated radio producers, researchers, engineers, scholars, and music collectors who helped to make Wade a reality. Therefore, this article describes the series’ production journey from the vantage point of an insider, and it serves as a personal reflection on the making of a series that would set the standard for future long-form, NPR-based music documentary productions.

Got On My Traveling Shoes

This chapter examines the role played by the Great Migration in the development of black sacred music in Chicago. Starting around 1916, thousands of black men, women, and children landed on Chicago's shores as part of the Great Migration, also known as the Great Northern Drive. Regardless of the way migrants traveled, Chicago was the destination of choice, the Promised Land. This chapter first discusses the sources of the new African American migrants' disillusionments in Chicago, including unemployment and substandard housing, before turning to early congregational singing in sanctified services and in storefront churches. It then considers the rise of African American Protestant churches as well as the migrants' creation of their own “islands of southern culture.” It also compares northern and southern worship practices among African American churches and concludes with an overview of the proliferation of storefront and sanctified churches in Chicago, along with sanctified worship in Spiritual churches and their influence on gospel music.

Sweeping through the City

This chapter examines the contributions of Thomas A. Dorsey and the gospel nexus to the development of gospel music in Chicago during the years 1932–1933. Pilgrim Baptist Church is often cited as the birthplace of gospel music because Dorsey served as its music director. However, it was actually Ebenezer Baptist Church that provided the creative spark that propelled gospel to the forefront of black sacred music. This chapter first discusses the political infighting endured by Ebenezer over two turbulent years before turning to its gospel programs, along with the establishment of the Ebenezer Gospel Chorus and the Pilgrim Gospel Chorus. It then considers the roles played by Dorsey, Theodore R. Frye, and Magnolia Lewis Butts in the advancement of the gospel chorus movement in Chicago; how gospel choruses became a means for African American churches to attract new members and more revenue; and Dorsey's composition of the gospel song “Take My Hand, Precious Lord.” The chapter concludes with a look at the Martin and Frye Quartette, renamed the Roberta Martin Singers.