PRAISE GOD AND DO SOMETHING: THE ROLE OF BLACK AMERICAN GOSPEL ARTISTS AS SOCIAL ACTIVISTS, 1945-1960
Open Access
- Author:
- Frederick II, Nathaniel
- Graduate Program:
- Mass Communications
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- March 06, 2009
- Committee Members:
- James Ford Risley, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Dr Ford Risley And Dr Matthew Jordan, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Matthew Frank Jordan, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
C Michael Elavsky, Committee Member
Deborah Frances Atwater, Committee Member
Joseph Jerome Zolten, Committee Member - Keywords:
- Black church
gospel music
African American history
civil right movement
radio
media history - Abstract:
- Music in the oral culture of Black Americans is both functional and meaningful in the way it communicates culture. Music is functional as a transmitter of messages and ideas. Music is meaningful as a ritual and serves as a form of community maintenance. Sacred music in particular was crucial in maintaining culture because it was often through religion that enslaved Africans were able to practice modified African rituals under the guise of Christianity. Black American sacred music has historically been a medium that has functioned as an outlet for the frustration against the dominant ideology of racial oppression in the United States. This dissertation examines the intersection between Black American sacred music, cultural production, and social protest during an emerging civil rights awareness from 1945 to 1960. As a crucial part of the trajectory of sacred music in the 20th century, gospel music during the 1940s and 1950s captured the collective sentiment of Black Americans. The popularity of gospel music after World War II coincided with civil rights awareness. This dissertation, based on oral history of gospel musicians, examines how the music created and reinforced social awareness at a time when Black Americans had limited access to mass media. It argues that, contrary to the view that sacred music served as an escape from the mundane world of politics and social issues, gospel music and performance functioned as an outlet for messages of social awareness. This time frame is significant for two reasons. First, this period is widely considered the Golden Age of Gospel. Gospel music was able to reach a mass Black American audience largely through the influx of independent recording companies and radio stations that focused on the Black American community as a viable niche market. Radio served as an important means of dissemination of gospel music and messages of social awareness. Second, this period is significant because it overlaps a period of early civil rights victories, tragedies, and protests. Social relevancy did not stop with the spirituals. Gospel music in 1930s also reflected the Black experience and addressed worldly issues and even more so 1940s and 1950s, while coinciding with an emerging civil rights awareness.