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The Heartland: Alabama’s Gospel Roots

November 1, 2019 By Terry a. ONeal

Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, AL, 1900s. Images from Encyclopedia of Alabama

Gospel music has been the primary ingredient that has bound Black life together as a surviving people fighting to overcome racial and systemic inequality.

From generation to generation, gospel music has undergone dramatic transformations, traveling a long way from its humble beginnings of quartet music that was birthed from cotton fields and back wood churches back in the early 20thcentury. 

Although the origin of gospel music is not well-documented, Black gospel is rooted in the oral method of interaction through songs and chants called call-and-response. It was from this practice that African-American spirituals were born. 

“Negro Spirituals” published by Belmont Music Co. in 1937. Image Retrieved online from Black Music Scholar.

Heartland of Gospel Quartet Music

In the 1800s, Jefferson county was no different than any other slave state in America. With its deep roots in Alabama soil, it is known as the heartland of gospel quartet music, given rise to notable, award-winning gospel quartet groups from as early as the 1920s. 

Birmingham and other neighboring towns birthed countless gospel quartet ensembles that would later become recognized in the 2012 documentary, “The Jefferson County Sound”.

Some notable southern gospel groups including the Sterling Jubilee Singers (1929), The Four Eagle Gospel Singers (1938), the Fairfield Four (1921), the Blind Boys of Alabama (1939), and other pioneering gospel groups from the yellowhammer state, have been instrumental in shaping gospel music throughout the ages, and still remain influential today. 

Voices were the instruments. 

Gracefully, the breathtaking isolated vocals created a music all its own. The melodic acapella sound that emerged from the steel mills and coal mines of Birmingham led to its recognition of being named birthplace of acapella gospel singing.

Songs of Struggle and Spirit

Gospel hymns were born in a period of deep economic depression and racial segregation in America. In a time when hope was dying, praise songs ministered to the hearts of the people. Songs, such as “We Shall Overcome” and “We Shall Not Be Moved”, played an integral role in the civil rights movement. These freedom songs became the soundtrack to the largest mass movements in America.  

Before long, gospel music began to gain popularity in Birmingham in the 1920s. In the course of time, songs from local artists received national exposure. Classic tunes, like “Don’t Let Nobody Turn You Around” and “In the Upper Room/I’ll Tell the World”, by The Fairfield Four, won national awards, and appeared on several movie soundtracks. 

Thomas Andrew Dorsey, the “Father of Gospel Music”. Image retrieved online from the Georgia Encyclopedia.

Influential Figures

Known as the father of black gospel music, Thomas Dorsey, is an influential figure in the world of gospel. He established the first black music publishing company in the early 20th century. Dorsey began his music career as a jazz and blues singer in the late 1920s. Years later, after undergoing several personal hardships, he transitioned from blues to the church circuit.

Dorsey was the first to write and publish gospel songs in 1926. His amazing skill and composing talent would forever change the gospel sound. Dorsey sophisticated the call-and-response in his music, while cleverly introducing jazz rhythms into gospel expressions. He composed numerous gospel classics, such as “Peace in the Valley”, “On the Battlefield”, and “Take My Hand Precious Lord”, laying the foundation for gospel composers to come. 

Mahalia Jackson, the “Queen of Gospel”

Deeply loved and revered, Mahalia Jackson, was known worldwide as the “Queen of Gospel”, taking worship music to the next level. Discovered by Dorsey, Jackson traveled the world with him, becoming the voice to his lyrics. It was the jubilant grace and soul in her contralto voice that would catapult traditional gospel music to the wider world. 

Over the years, there has been a cross-pollination between gospel, blues, and jazz. Today, it has expanded to include hip-hop, rap, and rock-and-roll. 

The five-time Grammy award-winning gospel band, Blind Boys of Alabama, is one legendary group that have created timeless classics over the 70 years of the band’s existence. Reigning from Birmingham, one of the gospel quartet group’s founding members, Mr. Jimmy Carter says that gospel has definitely evolved over time.  

Blind Boys of Alabama, 2017

Jimmy Carter of Blind Boys

“Times have changed. Gospel has changed. But the feeling hasn’t changed—not for me,” he says. “When the Blind Boys first started out, they started with nothing but an old hollow-box guitar. That was the music. To remain impactful, you have to change with times.” 

Over decades, The Blind Boys witnessed their fair share of troubles of the world. They sang their way through the world war, Jim Crow, the civil rights movement, the death of John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., and other pivotal moments in history. 

“In the beginning, we couldn’t sing to anyone but Blacks. For us, it was a means of togetherness. We could all come together and be on one accord. It was a great feeling,” he recalls. “As time progressed, doors at White establishments were opened to us…We were determined no matter what they cost that we were not going to turn around.”

Today, gospel music has become more global, reaching deeper into the secular world. Unlike the traditional way, it’s taking secular beats and creating gospel songs. 

Some say that nothing can replace the gospel greats of yesteryears. These artists created music that was purely original, from the heart and soul—a missing ingredient from the gospel music of today. 

For the Blind Boys, their greatest rewards have been achieved through sharing their gift and uplifting others. 

“Our goal, our aim, is to touch people’s lives. And let them know that there is a God,” says Mr. Carter. “If we just touched one life, it was worth what we all had to go through.” 

Filed Under: Entertainment, Inspiration, Life, Music, Southern History Tagged With: Alabama History, Blind Boys of Alabama, Gospel, Gospel music, Southern Roots, Thomas Dorsey

Walk in footsteps of the Civil Rights Movement with new tourism website

January 20, 2018 By Kara Kennedy

Visitors to the South can now literally walk the sacred ground of the Civil Rights movement with new U.S. Civil Rights Trail website launched on Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday.  Tourists will have the opportunity to tour areas pertinent to the Civil Rights Movement from the schools in Topeka, Kansas that were part of the 1954 desegregation case decided in Brown vs. Board of Education to the Lincoln Memorial, where the march for equality took place in 1963.

Civil Rights Trail Inspired Southerner
Civil Rights Memorial, Montgomery, AL photo courtesy of CivilRightsTrail.com

The trail allows visitors to experience places where blacks died at the hands of opponents to desegregation and which are scattered across the Deep South. The courthouse in Sumner, Mississippi, where in 1955, two white men accused of murdering 14-year-old Emmett Till walked free. This courthouse has been restored, as has the Jackson, Mississippi home where voting-rights activist Medgar Evers was assassinated in 1963, just hours after President John Kennedy proposed major civil rights legislation. [Read more…] about Walk in footsteps of the Civil Rights Movement with new tourism website

Filed Under: Southern History Tagged With: Civil Rights, Civil Rights Trail, South, Southern, Tourism, Travel

Artist, Sonya Clemmons, tells inspiring southern stories through her artwork

November 19, 2017 By Kara Kennedy

Inspired Southerner, Sonya Clemmons
Photo courtesy of Sonya Clemmons

If you’re looking for Christmas gifts that show your Alabama state pride, look no further than at artist Sony Clemmons’s folk art.  Her whimsical Alabama folk art ornaments, prints and textiles can be found in stores throughout North Alabama. Each piece of art is drawn- by- hand and tells a story about the people and places of the South. She also has gives back to her community through her artwork.

[Read more…] about Artist, Sonya Clemmons, tells inspiring southern stories through her artwork

Filed Under: Art, Inspiration, Life, Southern Cities, Southern History Tagged With: art, artists, Sonya Clemmons, Southern, southern artist, southern artwork

Birmingham: A True Southern City That Has Embraced a Heartbreaking Past So It Can Thrive in the Future

January 18, 2016 By Kara Kennedy

Birmingham BenchThis fall will be exactly 10 years since I moved home to Birmingham from Washington, D.C.  I spent most of the early 2000’s living there including 9/11.   I don’t regret the decision of moving home for the most part, but I would not be telling the truth, if I didn’t say I miss living in D.C. sometimes.  The main reason for the move home was to be closer to my parents, and especially my mom who was faced with and now managing an illness.

My life in Birmingham before moving was a lot like my life now, I volunteered for several community organizations.  Operation New Birmingham was one organization that worked I with on a regular basis.  The mission of Operation New Birmingham was to promote commercial activity in Birmingham’s city center and interracial cooperation in public affairs. The organization also had a master plan for the revitalization of downtown Birmingham.  I recall sitting in a number of meetings that discussed the plan for transforming downtown.  Something that I believed was desperately needed if we were going to be a competitive Southern city.  This plan in my view was just a lot of discussion and no real action at the time.  Admittedly I was just a volunteer and not in the inner circle of those who would ultimately make this plan a reality.   I felt like many people probably felt at the time that these were just dreams that would never come true.

To my surprise since I have moved back I see Birmingham is undergoing a Renaissance.  Some of the things we discussed in our meetings at ONB are now becoming a reality.   I have always been a cheerleader of Birmingham.  Always.  Growing up here, you know that the images of the dogs and water hoses that are constantly portrayed in the national news media are not what this city is all about in today’s world.  In my opinion, we are a true Southern city with a past that is making a remarkable transformation into a city of the future. Everyone is working together for the most part to make this city a great place.

Just this last week, we saw the reopening of the Lyric Theatre, a landmark that was almost lost to decay and threatened at one time to be destroyed.  We have a number of businesses opening in the north area of downtown.  We have the beautiful Railroad Park to the south of town that with along the recent announcement of the movement forward of the 750 Mile Trail around Birmingham will make us one of the cities with the most parks and greenspace in the southeast.  Regions Field has sparked a wealth of development also in that area of downtown. The Avondale neighborhood’s economic development plan has placed the city on the map for new and hip restaurants, coffee shops and music venues that have been written up in national publications and blogs.  And then there will be opportunity for Birmingham to shine on the world stage in 2021 when we host the World Games.

From what I see we are a city that has learned to embrace our heartbreaking past so we can thrive in the future.   I’d say we are thriving in big way and I am happy to say that it is much more than I thought we ever would when I volunteered all of those years ago.

 

 

Filed Under: Life, Southern Cities, Southern History, Travel Tagged With: Alabama, Birmingham, Economic Development

We tell real stories about the south. ~Kara Kennedy, Publisher

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