If You Don't Go, Don't Hinder Me

Johnson Reagon Bernice

Description

How do you survive leaving everything you know to try to reconstruct your life and future in a new way? What do you carry with you on your journey to the new place?

 

Migration looms large as a theme in twentieth-century African American life. Bernice Johnson Reagon uses this theme as a centering structure for four essays that examine different genres of African American sacred music as they manifested themselves throughout the twentieth century and within her own life. The first essay examines the evolution of gospel music by looking at the work of Charles Albert Tindley, Thomas Andrew Dorsey, Reverend Smallwood Williams, Roberta Martin, Pearl William Jones, and Richard Smallwood. In the next essay Reagon relates the story of Deacon William Reardon and the prayer bands that carried the tradition of South Carolina spirituals through the twentieth century in the communities of Washington DC, and Baltimore. The concert spiritual tradition is the subject of the third essay, and the final essay explores how stories about African American women of the nineteenth century became a source of strength for Reagon in her development as an African American woman, singer, fighter, and scholar.

Sujets

• USA
• África
• États-Unis
• Africa
• Music

Informations

• Publié par: Nebraska Paperback
• Date de parution: 01 février 2001
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780803207783
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

IF YOU DON’T GO, DON’T HINDER ME

the abraham lincoln lecture series This series aims to reflect the principles that Abraham Lincoln championed: education, justice, tolerance, and union.

Bernice Johnson Reagon

IF YOU DON’T GO, DON’T HINDER ME

The African American Sacred Song Tradition

University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln and London

The lectures on which this book is based were spon- sored by the University of Nebraska Press, Athletic Department, the College of Arts and Sciences, College of Fine and Performing Arts, Teachers College, and Office of Affirmative Action and Diversity Programs of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. © 2001 by the University of Nebraska Press All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America  Library of Congress Cata- loging-in-Publication Data Reagon, Bernice Johnson, 1942– If you don’t go don’t hinder me : the Afri- can American sacred song tradition/Bernice Johnson Reagon. p. cm. (The Abraham Lincoln lecture series) Includes bibliographical references. isbn0-8032-3913-0 (cloth : alk. paper) isbn0-8032-8983-9 (pbk.: alk. paper) 1. Gospel music History and criti- cism. I. Title. II. Series. ml3187 .r3187 2001 782.25'4 dc21 00-055231

To My Mother, Beatrice Wise Johnson 1920–1999

Contents

ix Acknowledgments 1 Introduction

12 twentieth-century gospel: As the People Moved They Sang a New Song 42 the african american congregational song tradition: Deacon William Reardon Sr., Master Songleader 68 spirituals: An African American Communal Voice 100 freedom songs: My African American Singing and Fighting Mothers

143 Notes 149 Bibliography 155 Permissions

Acknowledgments

Why would one for whom voice unleashed in air is the primary and strongest medium of presentation also move to the printed page? For me, it is because of the role of books in my life as a component of my survival. Reading was sacred to my life as an African American child and continues to be a major way for me to be able to create balance and solace in my life. Going from live presentation to paper is excruciating for me and the journey is arduous and long. I actually have to translate my oral presentation a “public-ation” into what often feels like another language rather than another medium. I struggle to both respect the literary forum and at the same time push it to retain and unleash the sound of the original source, imprinted with the sound, nuance, and rhythm of my speaking voice. I am never satisfied, but as I am doing now, I let it go in an offering to you. I am indebted to the support community that circles around me to ensure I survive the process. I am grateful to Nancy Rosen, who contacted me in 1996 about coming to the University of Nebraska–Lincoln to present a series of lectures on African American sacred music culture. I am also indebted to the University of Nebraska Press team who worked with the manuscript and moved it to its final stages.