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Hallelujah, Amen!

PERFORMING RELIGIOUS MUSIC OF THE AFRICAN AMERICAN EXPERIENCE

The dialectic of miscegenation and segregation Hymnal (Chicago: G.I.A. Publications, Inc., 1987).
surrounds the appropriation of black music by 2 Wyatt Tee Walker, Somebody’s Calling My Name: Black Sacred
whites. Borrowing and mixing are normal as- Music and Social Change (Valley Forge: Judson Press, 1979),
pects of musical development, but in the case of 19.
rock ’n’ roll, white appropriation of black sound 3 James H. Cone, The Spirituals and the Blues. Paperback ed.
and style was devastating to many of the music’s (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1972), 30.
originators. Music producers and promoters 4 Mellonee V. Burnim, “Gospel,” in African American Music: An
recognized that it would be easier to sell white Introduction, ed. Mellonee Burnim and Portia Maultsby
artists to a segregated, majority white nation. At (New York: Routledge, 2006), 189.
the same time, bias against blacks encouraged 5 Walker, 111.
and protected the use of unfair business prac- 6 Ibid., 117.
tices that have always been a part of the Amer- 7 Zora Neale Hurston, “Spirituals and Neo-Spirituals,” in The
ican recording industry. White and black were Negro in Music and Art, ed. Lindsay Patterson (New York:

mixing at a significant cultural level, but racial Publisher’s Company, Inc., 1933), 15.
hierarchy was still very much in eff ect. Overall, 8 Hurston, 15-16.
access and opportunities were better for white 9 Ibid., 15.
performers. Black performers struggled to get a 10 André J. Thomas, Way Over in Beulah Lan’: Understanding and
fair chance and were confined to inferior con- Performing the Negro Spiritual (Dayton: Heritage Music Press,

tracts, resources, and opportunities. In the end, 2007), 87-88.
with their greater visibility and a growing white 11 Arthur C. Jones, Wade in the Water: The Wisdom of the Spirituals,
fan base, white artists took over rock ’n’ roll. 3rd edition (Boulder: Leave a little Room, 2005), 140-141.
From ragtime to swing to rock ’n’ roll, this cycle 12 Ibid., 137-138.
of black innovation and profi table white appro- 13 Wendell Phillips Whalum, “Black Hymnody.” Review &
priation has been repeated in American musical Expositor 70, no. 3 (Summer 1973), 353.
21
history. 14 Cone, 31.
15 Burnim, “The Black Gospel Music Tradition: A Complex of
The fear of harm, insult, and appropriation of Black Ideology, Aesthetic and Behavior,” in More Than Dancing:
culture is well documented, practiced, and prolifi c. The Essays on Afro-American Music and Musicians, ed. Irene V.
Black community is understandably wary of whites, in Jackson (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1985), 162.
particular, singing our music, resulting in harm and/or 16 Ibid.
injury to us. Does this mean that white choirs should not 17 Miriam Webster Dictionary
sing Black music? No. This means that white choirs and 18 James O. Young, Cultural Appropriation and the Arts (Malden:
their conductors should be cognizant of the history of Blackwell Publishing, 2008), 9.
Black music in America, the historical context in which 19 Samuel J. Floyd, Jr., Power of Black Music: Interpreting Its History
this music is situated, and the ways this music has been from Africa to the United States (New York: Oxford University
appropriated. Educate yourselves. Learn the history. Do Press, 1997), 60.
the research. Acknowledge the source community. Per- 20 Jerma A. Jackson, Singing in My Soul: Black Gospel Music in a
form the music in a sensitive, informed, and respectful Secular Age (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina
manner that is authentic to the Black aesthetic. Press, 2004), 119; Kenneth Morris, Improving the Music in
the Church (Martin Morris Music, 1949.
21 Maureen Mahon, Right to Rock: The Black Rock Coalition and the
NOTES Cultural Politics of Race (Durham: Duke University Press,
2004), 148.
1 Sr. Thea Bowman, “The Gift of African American Sacred
Song,” in Lead Me, Guide Me: The African American Catholic

16 CHORAL JOURNAL June/July 2021 Volume 61 Number 11