The Wretched and the Damned: Gospel Music between Civil Rights and Urban Crisis

'… I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.'1 The fastest growing musical expression in Ghana is the religious music that has come to be described as 'gospel music'. Especially since the late 1980s gospel music has assumed an increasingly prominent position in Ghanaian religious and social life. Gospel music constituted about 75% of recorded musical works in Ghana in 1993;2 and in 2001 it was believed that about 90% of musicians were plying their trade in churches.3 This boom in gospel music coincided with the phenomenal spread of the charismatic movement.4 The charismatic movement affected most branches of Ghanaian Christianity and also produced a distinct group of churches that eventually came to be known as 'Charismatic Churches'. The movement indelibly left its mark on the Church. In Ghana so much of Christian expression of spirituality at the popular level has been the result of the Charismatic movement. Gospel music has become one ofthe most important expressions of popular Christianity. Perhaps no other aspect of popular Christianity embodies the aspirations, fears, the self-understanding, and the faith and hope of the ordinary Ghanaian Christian as the various strands of popular religious music, which have together been referred to as 'gospel music'. The thesis of this paper is that contemporary Ghanaian gospel music represents a high point in a long processof assimilation of the Christian message by Ghanaians. It is one of themost important and popular expressions of Christianity as understood by Ghanaian Christians. Gospel Music Gospel music in the Ghanaian context is not defined according to the beat or rhythm. It is the song-text that defines a particular piece of music as 'gospel'. It appears the whole repertoire of musical traditions available in Ghana is enlisted to the service of gospel music. The most popular form [End Page 142] is gospel highlife.5 There are others in the style of traditional music forms such as asafo,6 adzewa,7 agbadza8 and even the traditional recreational jama,9 which has been popularised in recent times by the youth. In the gospel music repertoire one can also find singing that is not accompanied by any instrument, solo and recitatives. This leads to a range of music styles that makes room for the expression of different moods. Some ofthe songs are traditional western Christian hymns that are sung to new rhythm and tempo accompanied by guitar, drums and other instruments. It is, basically, the text that determines whether a particular song is 'gospel'. It is the Christian faith sung in the common style and idiom of the ordinary people; the music of faith set in the commonplace language of the people which does not require any effort to understand. It is Ghanaian Christians singing their faith with understanding. The song-text may be one of encouragement, an admonition to believers to live up to their responsibilities, an affirmation of a doctrinal truth, or even a rebuke of believers who are not being faithful. Gospel songs may also be prayers of petition or songs of praise and thanksgiving or direct evangelistic message appealing to unbelievers to accept the Gospel of Christ. Classifying Gospel Music It is not easy to classify gospel music. As it has been mentioned above, in terms of musical types, all the available musical types are represented. Charismatic Christians themselves, especially the youth, divide gospel songs into two: praise songs and worship songs. What differentiates thetwo is the tempo. 'Worship' songs are slow and poignant and are usually accompanied by raising of hands and swaying the whole body forward and backward while 'praise' songs are faster and are usually accompanied by dancing. The same song can be either 'praise' or 'worship', depending on the beat to which it is sung. In most cases, such classifications do not take into consideration whether the text of the song is actually about worship or praise. A useful classification would...

Preface - The End of Liberalism - The Civil Rights Movement - The Vietnam War and US Foreign Policy - The Social History of the War - The Reddish Decade - The End of Culture - The Urban Crisis - Beyond the Melting Pot - The Crisis of Authority - Revenge of the Status Quo - Inde x

Seeger Lecture, Society for Ethnomusicology Virtual Meeting 2021

Over 40 years ago the historic Kerner Commission Report declared that America was undergoing an urban crisis whose effects were disproportionately felt by underclass populations. InAmerica's Urban Crisis and the Advent of Color-blind Politics, Curtis Ivery and Joshua Bassett explore the persistence of this crisis today, despite public beliefs that America has become a "post-racial" nation after the election of Barack Obama to the presidency. Ivery and Bassett combine their own experience in the fields of civil rights and education with the knowledge of more than 20 experts in the field of urban studies to provide an accessible overview of the theories of the urban underclass and how they affect America's urban crisis. This engaging look into the still-present racial politics in America's cities adds significantly to the existing scholarship on the urban underclass by discussing the role of the prison-industrial complex in sustaining the urban crisis as well as the importance of the concept of multiracial democracy to the future of American politics and society.America's Urban Crisis and the Advent of Color-blind Politicsencourages the reader not only to be aware of persisting racial inequalities, but to actively engage in efforts to respond to them.

Over 40 years ago the historic Kerner Commission Report declared that America was undergoing an urban crisis whose effects were disproportionately felt by underclass populations. In America's Urban Crisis and the Advent of Color-blind Politics, Curtis Ivery and Joshua Bassett explore the persistence of this crisis today, despite public beliefs that America has become a "post-racial" nation after the election of Barack Obama to the presidency. Ivery and Bassett combine their own experience in the fields of civil rights and education with the knowledge of more than 20 experts in the field of urban studies to provide an accessible overview of the theories of the urban underclass and how they affect America's urban crisis. This engaging look into the still-present racial politics in America's cities adds significantly to the existing scholarship on the urban underclass by discussing the role of the prison-industrial complex in sustaining the urban crisis as well as the importance of the concept of multiracial democracy to the future of American politics and society. America's Urban Crisis and the Advent of Color-blind Politics encourages the reader not only to be aware of persisting racial inequalities, but to actively engage in efforts to respond to them.

“There Is No<i>New</i>Black Panther Party”: The Panther-Like Formations and the Black Power Resurgence of the 1990s

Black Chicago in the post–civil rights era was constantly refreshed by an influx of newcomers from the American South via the Great Migration. Chicago was a beacon, disseminating a fresh, powerful definition of Black identity primarily through music, art, and entrepreneurship and mass media. This book uses ruminations on oft-undervalued found ephemeral materials (like a fan club pamphlet or a creamy-white Curtis Mayfield record) and a variety of in-depth original and archival interviews to unearth tales of the aspiration, will, courage, and imagination born in Black Chicago. It also questions what vestiges of our past we choose to value in this digital age. These stories serve as homespun folktales of hope to counter darker popular narratives about the South and West Sides of the city. They also express the ongoing quest for identity and self-determination, a quest that fueled the earlier Black Arts Movement, and is again at the heart of the Black Arts renaissance currently blossoming in Black Chicago, from genre-spanning musicians like Chance the Rapper, Noname, the Juju Exchange, and Makaya McCraven, and from visual artists like Theaster Gates and Kerry James Marshall, and up-and-comers like Brandon Breaux. Meanwhile, many of the creative giants of previous generations are struggling (Ebony magazine and the groundbreaking DuSable Museum among them). But this text asserts that energy never dies, and creativity will live on beyond this juncture, regardless of the outcome.

A Stone of Hope: Prophetic Religion and the Death of Jim Crow. By David L. Chappell. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004. Pp. 344. Introduction, illustrations, conclusion, appendix, notes, sources, bibliographic essay, acknowledgments, index. $34.95.) In A Stone of Hope, David L. Chappell argues that religion provided many participants in the civil rights movement with the inspiration and hope necessary to initiate and sustain the struggle despite seemingly overpowering odds. Although southern whites overwhelmingly favored segregation, they divided over how best to preserve it and lacked the overriding commitment to the cause that civil rights activists showed to theirs. Many civil rights participants believed that God was working through the movement, and so, for them, religion legitimized the struggle. However, their white opponents found no religious support for Jim Crow from the leaders of the major white denominations, little from their clergymen, and only a small amount from a divided white laity. While religion had helped legitimize slavery and the Confederate cause among most white southerners during the Civil War, it did not provide a rationale or inspiration for preserving Jim Crow a century later, thereby substantially and even fatally weakening the segregationist cause. Based on extensive archival and manuscript research and oral history, Chappell's engagingly written study offers a provocative interpretation of the movement and its opponents. In the opening chapter, Chappell argues that northern white liberals, hamstrung by their commitment to education, persuasion, and gradualism, achieved little for African-American rights in the 1930s and 1940s. Mistakenly, such liberals expected that the South's economic and educational modernization would lead white southerners to abandon an irrational, obsolete segregationist tradition. Convinced of the power of reason and suasion, liberals lacked the zeal to inspire and lead an equal rights struggle. The alliance between northern liberals and the civil rights movement was essential to overturn legal discrimination in the South, but the movement derived its inspiration from an irrational faith that liberals lacked. Religion, Chappell argues, inspired many civil rights participants with the assurance to face violence and economic coercion, certain that God was on their side. The movement constituted a religious revival, the nation's Third Great Awakening, replete with participants' claims of miracles, conversion experiences, and God's presence. Like earlier Great Awakenings, the third changed society. Civil rights strategists and leaders lacked the liberals' faith in persuasion. Articulate civil rights leaders, such as Martin Luther King, Jr. …

Part 1 Introduction 3 Chapter 2 Defining characteristics of the Great Society. The tax cut. The Johnson task forces. The 1964 election. Part 3 FROM CIVIL RIGHTS TO RACE 23 Chapter 4 The 1964 Civil Rights Act. The Voting Rights Act of 1965. The Moynihan Report. Affirmative action and urban riots. Civil rights moves north. The Civil Rights Act of 1968. Part 5 THE WAR ON POVERTY 56 Chapter 6 Social scientists and poverty. Johnson's alternative paths to combat poverty. The debate over legislation. The Economic Opportunity Act of 1964. Problems that undermined the war. Head Start. The continuing debate over assessments of the war. Part 7 HEALTH AND EDUCATION 95 Chapter 8 Debates over medical care for the aged. Legislation and problems. A rising tide of criticism. Federal aid to education. Failures in the Kennedy administration. Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. The interaction of education and race. Part 9 MODEL CITIES 131 Chapter 10 Urban renewal in the 1950s. The Housing and Urban Development Act of 1965. The New Haven experience. Urban riots and Model Cities. The problems of urban revival and the 1967 Detroit riot. The Kerner Commission and the urban crisis in 1968. The Housing Act Part 11 QUALITY OF LIFE 163 Chapter 12 Consumer issues and Ralph Nader. Consumer protection legislation. The business reaction. Beautification and the environment lead to environmental protection efforts. The promotion of national cutlural life. Combating crime. The fading dream of a postscarc Part 13 ASSESSING THE GREAT SOCIETY 183 Chapter 14 The Great Society as a liberal interlude. Changes since the 1960s. The influence of Great Society programs. Challenges to critics. Part 15 A Note on Sources 200 Part 16 Index 208

INTRODUCTION In the United States, all communities do not receive the same benefits from transportation advancements and investments. (1) Despite the heroic efforts and the monumental social and economic gains made over the decades, transportation remains a civil rights issue. (2) Transportation touches every aspect of where we live, work, play, and go to school, as well as the physical and natural world. Transportation also plays a pivotal role in shaping human interaction, economic mobility, and sustainability. (3) Transportation provides access to opportunity and serves as a key component in addressing poverty, unemployment, and opportunity goals while ensuring access to education, health care, and other public services. (4) Transportation equity is consistent with the goals of the larger civil rights movement and the environmental justice movement. (5) For millions, transportation is defined as a basic right. (6) Transportation is basic to many other quality of life indicators such as health, education, employment, economic development, access to municipal services, mobility, and environmental quality. (7) The continued segregation of people of color away from suburban job centers (where public transit is inadequate or nonexistent) may signal a new urban crisis and a new form of residential apartheid. (8) Transportation investments, enhancements, and financial resources have provided advantages for some communities, while at the same time, other communities have been disadvantaged by transportation decision making. (9) I. OLD WARS, NEW BATTLES In 1896, the United States Supreme Court wrestled with this question of the different treatment accorded blacks and whites. (10) In Plessy v. Ferguson, the Supreme Court examined the constitutionality of Louisiana laws that provided for the segregation of railroad car seating by race. (11) The court upheld the section and colored section Jim Crow seating law, contending that segregation did not violate any rights guaranteed by the Constitution. (12) In 1953, nearly four decades after the Plessy decision relegated blacks to the back of the bus, African Americans in Baton Rouge, the capital of Louisiana, staged the nation's first successful bus boycott. (13) African Americans accounted for the overwhelming majority of Baton Rouge bus riders and two-thirds of the bus company's revenue. (14) Their economic boycott effectively disrupted the financial stability of the bus company, costing it over $1600 a (15) The successful Baton Rouge bus boycott occurred two years before the famous 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education declared separate but equal unconstitutional. (16) On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks ignited the modern civil rights movement. (17) Mrs. Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white man in defiance of local Jim Crow laws. (18) Her action sparked new leadership around transportation and civil rights. (19) Mrs. Parks summarized her feelings about resisting Jim Crow in an interview with sociologist Aldon Morris in 1981: My resistance to being mistreated on the buses and anywhere else was just a regular thing with me and not just that day. (20) Transportation was a central theme in the Riders' campaign in the early 1960s. (21) John Lewis and the young Freedom Riders exercised their constitutional right of interstate travel at the risk of death. (22) Greyhound buses were attacked and some burned in 1961. (23) Nevertheless, the Freedom Riders continued their quest for social justice on the nation's roads, highways, and urban streets. (24) While some progress has been made since Just Transportation: Dismantling Race and Class Barriers to Mobility in 1997, (25) much remains the same. Discrimination still places an extra tax on poor people and people of color who need safe, affordable, and accessible public transportation. …

Chicago and the Riddle of Race Amy Absher Rashad Shabazz, Spatializing Blackness: Architecture of Confinement and Black Masculinity in Chicago. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2015. 184 pp. $85, cloth. $25, paper. Christopher Robert Reed, The Rise of Chicago’s Black Metropolis, 1920–1929. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2015. 288 pp. $95, cloth. $32, paper. Christopher Robert Reed, Knock at the Door of Opportunity: Black Migration to Chicago, 1900–1919. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2014. 390 pp. $52. Lionel Kimble Jr., A New Deal for Bronzeville: Housing, Employment and Civil Rights in Black Chicago, 1935–1955. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2015. 200 pp. $35. Robert E. Weems Jr. and Jason P. Chambers, ed., Building the Black Metropolis: African American Entrepreneurship in Chicago. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2017. 276 pp. $95, cloth. $30, paper. Joseph Gustaitis, Chicago Transformed: World War I and the Windy City. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2016. 368 pp. $25.89, paper. Mary Lou Finley, ed., The Chicago Freedom Movement: Martin Luther King Jr. and Civil Rights Activism in the North. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2015. 495 pp. $45. Natalie Y. Moore, The South Side: A Portrait of Chicago and American Segregation. New York: St. Martin’s, 2016. 272 pp. $28.99, cloth. $17, paper. The recent publications concerning the history of Chicago’s South Side all begin in much the same way. They note that Chicago is a city of neighborhoods; therefore, segregation became the defining historical [End Page 135] experience for the city’s inhabitants. Though segregation is not unique to Chicago, Chicago’s segregation is emblematic of the larger American history with race and urbanization. Why? Because segregation in Chicago has always been about more than housing. It haunts joblessness rates, shortened life spans, violence, policing, education, and gender. Segregation in Chicago did not end with the housing voucher programs or the election of Harold Washington. Likewise, segregation did not end in the nation at large with the integration of public schools or the election of President Obama. Currently, at the center of recent publications on Chicago history, is Christopher Robert Reed who demands we ask better questions. He wants readers and scholars to think carefully about segregation and how we book-end history. In The Rise of Chicago’s Black Metropolis: 1920–1929, Reed begins by challenging Drake and Cayton’s seminal work, Black Metropolis. What if, Reed asks, this foundational text had focused on the 1920s rather than beginning in the 1930s? Questioning the canon and origin myths of Chicago history is essential to Reed’s work. Indeed, in Knock at the Door of Opportunity: Black Migration to Chicago, 1900–1919, Reed challenges the work of Allan H. Spear and Rayford W. Logan by suggesting that “voluntary clustering” was the first step toward segregation and that Black Chicago’s history is not the history of urban blight. His approach is purposeful. Reed must dislodge the established segregation narrative so he might free the history from its stultifying focus on resistance movements. Ultimately, Reed wants readers to go beyond understanding history as statistics and conflict so as to move toward appreciating the community’s humanity. Reed intends his recent work to be a synthesis and an introspective reinterpretation of the canonical sources. A comparison of Reed’s style of synthesis with Joseph Gustaitis’s Chicago Transformed: World War I and the Windy City demonstrates just how varied the historical synthesis can be. With Reed there is a focus on argument. With Gustaitis there is a focus on details. Reed is able to remake and deepen our understanding of a well-traveled history. Gustaitis teaches his readers, but doesn’t challenge them to interpret. Furthermore, many new histories of Chicago are either imitating or inspired by the work of Christopher Reed. For instance, Robert E. Weems Jr. and Jason P. Chambers, editors of Building the Black Metropolis: African American Entrepreneurship in Chicago, focus on upending E. Franklin Frazier’s 1957 book Black Bourgeoisie, which refused to acknowledge the impact of slavery, Jim Crow segregation as well as mocked Black business [End Page 136] as a “myth,” and blamed business failure on the owners’ lack of acumen. By doing so...

Elvis Presley’s Grammy Awards, all three of which were won in the Gospel category, highlight a lesser-known facet of his musical legacy. His unwavering commitment to gospel music led to his posthumous induction into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame. This study explores the impact of gospel music on Presley’s musical career and the significance it held for him. Presley grew up in the Southern United States, where gospel music culture was not significantly differentiated from secular music, allowing for a seamless integration of various gospel music styles. Even after achieving rock and roll stardom, he continued releasing gospel records and incorporated gospel songs in movies and various other shows. He used gospel music as a key element in shaping his musical style, structuring his backup vocals around gospel quartets throughout his career. By infusing traditional gospel music with contemporary sounds, he crafted his own musical identity, presenting it with unwavering confidence to the general public and the music industry. Gospel music was indeed an integral part of his artistic persona. He introduced gospel music to the world of rock and roll, reserving a prominent place for it on his stage. This approach underscored the significance of gospel music in the broader music scene. Elvis Presley’s gospel music can be re-evaluated as having emerged as a pioneering force during the formative phase of contemporary Christian music.

Book Review| October 01 2022 Review: The Congressional Black Caucus: Fifty Years of Fighting for Equality, by Sherice Janaye Nelson The Congressional Black Caucus: Fifty Years of Fighting for Equality, by Sherice Janaye Nelson. Archway Publishing, 2021. 258 pages. $17.99 (paper). ISBN: 9781665714273 Karra McCray Karra McCray Brown University Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar National Review of Black Politics (2022) 3 (3-4): 156–158. https://doi.org/10.1525/nrbp.2022.3.3-4.156 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Karra McCray; Review: The Congressional Black Caucus: Fifty Years of Fighting for Equality, by Sherice Janaye Nelson. National Review of Black Politics 1 October 2022; 3 (3-4): 156–158. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/nrbp.2022.3.3-4.156 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentNational Review of Black Politics Search To commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), Sherice Nelson’s The Congressional Black Caucus: Fifty Years of Fighting for Equality is a historical analysis of the legislative success, challenges, and effectiveness of the largest race-based Caucus in the US House of Representatives. Grounded in a deep undertaking of archival research that features communication between caucus members, legislative activity, media coverage, and legislative effectiveness scores, Nelson presents an interesting argument about the role of Black congressional members and their impact on full citizenship and freedom for Black citizens within a racialized political environment. In the first two chapters, Nelson guides the reader through the hardships Blacks endured since the country’s founding due to the denial of their citizenship. The exploration of history and the tracing of the ratification of the US Constitution, Equal Rights Amendment, Civil Rights Act of 1964, and Brown v. Board of... You do not currently have access to this content.

American Religion 1, no. 1 (Fall 2019), pp. 137–149 Copyright © 2019, The Trustees of Indiana University • doi: 10.2979/amerreli.1.1.08 Review Essay GOSPEL MINSTRELSY on Bob Dylan, Trouble No More: 1979–1981 The Bootleg Series, volume 13 Columbia Records (2017) Kathryn Lofton Yale University, New Haven, USA You have to begin by capturing in words something that is only partly about words. It isn’t not about words. It is just that words are the wrong way at it. Gospel is the sound of spirit. A particular kind of song and lyric, yes. Mainly, though, a spirit you use sound to achieve. Braxton Shelley says, “gospel music is a means by which to make one’s way through the world.” In his language, gospel is a sonic phenomenon that deploys a combination of repetition and intensification “to organize both sound and perception in pursuit of transcendence.”1 I am now going to write about something that we should hear to know.2 1 Braxton D. Shelley, “Analyzing Gospel,” Journal of the American Musicological Society 72, no. 1 (2019), 196, 239. My work about Bob Dylan in music history is inspired and informed by the scholarly and pedagogical contributions of Daphne Brooks and Gayle Wald. 2 Listening to gospel music while reading or writing about gospel music helps correct for some of this sensory hermeneutic confusion. If you would like a soundtrack to your reading, consider pulling up The Bootleg Series Vol. 13: Trouble No More 1979–1981. On streaming services, you find the standard two-disc edition. From that double album I American Religion 1:1 138 Of course: we talk a lot about gospel. We talk about its formal chronological beginnings (the 1930s) and the regions that intersected to forge its emergence (i.e., “Gospel music is the twentieth-century form of African American religious music that evolved in urban cites following the Great Migration of Blacks from the agrarian South in the period surrounding World Wars I and II”).3 We talk about its predecessor and contributing genres (spirituals, blues, jubilee, and camp-meeting songs); we talk about its founding father (Thomas A. Dorsey, 1899–1993) and his signature song (“Precious Lord”).4 We talk about its defining attributes (the call and response format, ample room for improvisation, rhythm, and frequent use of the flatted seventh and third in melodies).5 We try to write out how we got from there to here, from Mahalia Jackson (1911–1972) to Yolanda Adams (1961-), James David Vaughan (1864–1941) to Kirk Franklin (1970-), Rosetta Tharpe (1915–1973) to Valerie June (1982-). We try to say what is so special about this sound alongside other sounds, and why this sound could make communities stand up, and feel together. Whatever our studies of gospel music address, they invariably try to name this feeling of gospel sound. Where does that feeling derive, and what does that feeling do? Gospel songs “are emotionally inspired—by visions, trouble, sorrow, thanksgiving, and joy,” notes George Ricks.6 Gospel songs are trying to—in the words of Thomas Dorsey—“help somebody else” through an upbeat retelling of the “good news.”7 Throughout the history of Christianity, the concept of gospel was connected to an idea of a singular life story that needed to be told to others so they could know something they might not about the recommend tracks 5 and 12 from the first disc, and 6 and 16 from the second. The eleventh installment in the Columbia bootleg series of Dylan’s recordings, Trouble No More is available in three versions: a two-disc set common to the rest of the series after the first three volumes; a four-LP album version of the standard set; and a nine-disc deluxe version including a DVD. 3 Mellonee V. Burnim, “Gospel,” African American Music: An Introduction, 2nd ed., ed. Mellonee V. Burnim and Portia K. Maultsby (New York: Routledge, 2015), 189. 4 Burnim, “Gospel,” 171. 5 Robert Darden, People Get Ready! A New History of Black Gospel Music (New York: Continuum, 2004), 183. 6 George Robinson Ricks, Some Aspects of Religious Music of the United States Negro: An Ethnomusicological Study with Special...

This article argues that framing the Birmingham struggle of 1963 as the critical moment when the southern civil rights movement became a national civil rights struggle problematically marginalizes the long history of antiracist activism in the US North and West. New York, like many other northern and western cities, was reshaped by the enormous in-migration of black southerners throughout the 20th century. While they discovered that segregation was present and lawful nationwide, these migrants and their children seized on the comparatively greater political opportunities in New York to wage a comprehensive fight for racial freedom. The many defeats and setbacks of this northern civil rights movement constitute a backdrop to the unrest of the late 1960s.