blackgospelchoir.com

5 Baptist detainees meet with Haitian judge

Black Gospel Choir — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 06:21:33 +0000

WASHINGTON (BP)–Five members of a Baptist volunteer team being detained in Haiti met with a judge in Port-au-Prince Feb. 2, according to the Voice of America and other news reports Feb. 3.

In all, 10 Baptist volunteers continue to be held by authorities in the capital city over allegations of illegally attempting to transport 33 children from the ravages of the Jan. 12 earthquake into the neighboring Dominican Republic.

Meanwhile, a Haitian pastor who assisted the team has told the Associated Press that the Baptist volunteers had permission from parents of children in the group who were not orphans to transport them into the Dominican Republic.

The pastor, Jean Sainvil, however, described the controversy as a misunderstanding stemming from the volunteers not having the needed paperwork for the children. Sainvil said the Baptist volunteers were acting “with a good heart.”

The five women on the team, members of Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian, Idaho, were questioned by the Haitian judge Feb. 2.

The five men on the team, members of other Baptist churches, in Idaho, Kansas and Texas, were to meet with the judge Wednesday, Feb. 3.

No additional details about the proceedings were being reported in the media as of mid-afternoon Feb. 3.

Remembering the Scottsboro Boys

Black Gospel Choir — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 03:02:06 +0000

The Scottsboro Boys Museum and Cultural Center will officially open on Monday, Feb. 1 at 10 a.m.
Ceremonies dedicating the facility, located at Joyce Chapel United Methodist Church on West Willow Street, will be held beginning at 10 a.m. Lecia J. Brooks, the director of Montgomery’s Civil Rights Museum and an employee of the Southern Poverty Law Center, will be a featured speaker along with Kathy Horton Garrett, the granddaughter of Judge James E. Horton who presided over the trial of one of nine black teenagers accused of raping two white women while on a train traveling through Jackson County in 1931.

Land swap would pave way for Zion’s rebirth from ashes

Black Gospel Choir — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 02:50:43 +0000

The city and a church are close to a land-swap deal that would give a new home to a congregation displaced by fire, find a use for a former Superfund site and open a prime piece of downtown to redevelopment.
Zion Baptist was organized in 1865 and grew into one of the most prestigious black churches in Portsmouth, VA.

Washington Metropolitan AME Zion Gospel Choir

Black Gospel Choir — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 02:32:10 +0000

St. Louis, MO

Washington Metropolitan AME Zion Church was organized in 1865. It began with house to house prayer meetings led by the first known Pastor, Rev. Gary Matthews. Later, in 1865 the prayer group moved into it’s first building located at Fourteenth and Market Streets, St. Louis, MO.
The choir loft is situated directly behind the pulpit. For many years, Cathedral Choir has produced celestial sounds in the form of anthems, hymns and canticles and the acoustics of the church are the finest of any cathedral in the area.

Tribute to Madame Edna Gallmon Cooke

Black Gospel Choir — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 02:03:45 +0000

1917 - 1967

Madame Cooke “was a prolific recording artist she started in 1949 and recorded extensively (mainly for Nashboro) until her death in 1967. During her years with Nashboro she almost always recorded with a male vocal group but prior to that made a series of recordings with The Young People’s Choir.” Very little has been written about Madame Edna Gallmon Cooke. Most of the information on her are found in liner notes to various CD’s and the notes on the back of various albums. We do know that she was born in Columbia, South Carolina in 1917. She died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on September 4, 1967. She was 49 years old at the time of her death. She is probably best remembered for her recordings of “Stop Gambler” and “Heavy Load.” The name Cooke was from her first marriage. It is our understanding that the marriage ended because of the death of her husband.

The liner notes to “Mother Smith and Her Children” describes Madame Cooke as “an exquisite stylist, with a sensuous appeal akin to Billie Holiday’s. [She is referred to as] rap music’s gospel progenitor; a penchant for rhymed, spoken chants produced her most famous recordings. Though she was born in Columbia, South Carolina, the daughter of a shouting Baptist preacher, Reverend Eddie J. Gallmon, she was more educated and musically trained than most gospel singers. As a young adult, she lived and studied in Washington and Philadelphia, attending Temple University and briefly teaching elementary school. She had contemplated a career in semi-classics and show tunes when she underwent a twin conversion. In the late 1930s, she heard Willie Mae Ford Smith. ‘I was shocked. The woman sang with such finesse until I knew I had to be a gospel singer.’ Shortly after, she entered the Holiness Church and the would-be pop star became preeminently consecrated (the Holiness Church bestowed the honorific ‘Madame’ to announce her devotion). During the forties she toured the southeast, billed as the ‘Sweetheart of the Potomac,’ belting out hymns and gospel songs in Willie Mae Ford Smith fashion, although her mezzo-soprano was simply to petite to duplicate Smith’s contralto blasts. So she elaborated on the style. Returning to home sources, she began using the sermonettes and spirituals Eddie Gallmon had performed in the twenties. She became a transcendent moaner and a mistress of that note-bending musicologists call melisma and church folks call ‘curlicues.’ ‘runs’ and ‘flowers and frills.’ She began recording in the late forties, accompanied usually by the choir of her father’s Springfield Baptist Church of Washington, DC. Her switch in styles occurred after her marriage to Barney Parks, Jr., a former member of the Dixie Hummingbirds and a founder of The Nightingales. They had met in 1951 when Marie Knight, Rosetta Tharp’s old partner, organized a tour featuring herself, Cooke, and The Nightingales. The tour’s fruits included three marriages: Cooke’s to Parks, the Nightingales’ manager; her accompanist Marge’s to Julius Cheeks, the quartet’s lead; and Knight’s sister Bernice’s to the quartet’s basso, Carl Henry.

Bio references www.scgospelquartet.com

History - William Carney

Black Gospel Choir — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 16:35:28 +0000

Slave - Medal of Honor

William Harvey Carney (February 29, 1840 – December 8, 1908) was an American Civil War soldier and the first African American to receive the Medal of Honor.
Carney was born a slave in Norfolk, Virginia, but escaped to Massachusetts like his father through the Underground Railroad. They later bought the rest of the family out of slavery.
Carney served with the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry as a Sergeant and took part in the July 18, 1863, assault on Fort Wagner in Charleston, South Carolina. He received his medal for saving the American flag and planting it on the parapet and although wounded, holding it while the troops charged. But recognizing the Federal troops had to retreat under fire, Carney struggled back across the battlefield, and although wounded twice more, returned the flag to the Union lines. Before turning over the colors to another survivor of the 54th, Carney modestly said, “Boys, I only did my duty; the old flag never touched the ground!”
Carney was awarded the Medal of Honor May 23, 1900, nearly 40 years after his act of bravery. In later life, Carney was a postal employee and popular speaker at patriotic events. He died in Boston, Massachusetts, and is buried in the family plot at Oak Grove Cemetery in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Engraved on his stone monument is a gold image of the Medal of Honor.

source:wikipedia.org - photo credit:old-photos.blogspot.com

Former Ku Klux Klan Member Ordained In Black Church

Black Gospel Choir — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 22:01:01 +0000

Johnny Lee Clary, right,poses with Bishop George McKinney, who helped ordain him as a minister of the Church of God in Christ.

SAN DIEGO, CA — A former Ku Klux Klan imperial wizard says he was ordained in San Diego so he could serve the nation’s largest black denomination.

Former Klan member Johnny Lee Clary said he was authorized by the Church of God in Christ to take part in the ministry of racial reconciliation and conduct evangelism campaigns, the Tulsa (Okla.) World reported Saturday.

After joining the KKK Youth during his younger years, Clark went on to become the national spokesman for the White Knights of the KKK.

Clary said he began reconsidering his life choices and embraced religion.

The Tulsa World said that new path led Clary to his recent ordainment by the 6 million-member church and a new viewpoint about racism.

“I’ve learned that good friends come in all colors. I believe I have something to contribute in the area of racial reconciliation. I’m going to spend the rest of my life building bridges and bringing people together,” said Clary, who deems racism a cancer on humanity.
source:www.crnewswire.com

Tribute to The Soul Stirrers

Black Gospel Choir — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 21:40:34 +0000

1926 -

The Soul Stirrers have the great distinction of being the only gospel quartet to be inducted into the America’s Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame in 1988 and The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989.
The group was formed by Roy Crain, who had launched his first quartet, which sang in a jubilee style, in 1926 in Trinity, Texas. In the early 1930s, after Crain moved to Houston, he joined an existing group on the condition that it change its name to “the Soul Stirrers.” Among the members of that group was R.H. Harris, who soon became its musical leader.

The Late Martin J Cox sings lead

He pioneered the “swing lead”, in which two singers would share the job of leading the song, allowing virtuoso singers to increase the emotional intensity of the song as the lead passed between them. That innovation led the Soul Stirrers, while still called a quartet, to acquire five members; later groups would have as many as seven but still consider themselves “quartets”, which referred more to their style than their number.

Some Bio references wikipedia.org

Florida A&M University Gospel Choir

Black Gospel Choir — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 21:05:54 +0000

Tallahassee, Florida

The mission of the Florida A&M University Choral Music Division is to provide the highest quality vocal / piano music at the undergraduate level for music majors embarking on careers as teachers, scholars, performers or composers. It is also the mission of the division to teach non-majors and members of the community about music as a part of human culture and experience.

History - Daniel “Chappie” James Jr.

Black Gospel Choir — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 20:11:13 +0000

11 February 1920 – 25 February 1978

The First African American to reach the rank of (four-star) general.

Born February 11, 1920 at Pensacola, Florida, he learned to fly while attending the Tuskegee Institute and after graduation in 1942 continued civilian flight training until he received appointment as a Cadet in the Army Air Corps in January 1943.

He was commissioned in July 1943 and throughout the remainder of World War II he trained pilots for the all-black 99th Pursuit Squardon and worked in other assignments. He was subsequently stationed in Ohio and in the Philippines.

During the Korean War he flew 101 missions in fighters. From 1953 to 1956 he was at Otis Air Force Base, Massachusetts, receiving promotion to Major in that period. On graduating from the Air Command-Staff School in 1957, he was assigned to staff duty in Washington.

From 1960 to 1964, he was stationed in England and from 1964 to 1966 in Arizona and in 1966-67 in Vietnam where he flew 78 combat missions. By then a Colonel, he was Vice Commander of the 33rd Tactical Fighter Wing, Elgin Air Force Base, Florida, in 1967-69, and then promoted to Brigadier General, was named base commander of Wheelus Air Force Base in Libya.

In March 1970 be became Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs and advanced to Major General. In September 1974, with the rank of Lieutenant General, he became Vice Commander of the Military Airlift Command at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois.

In September 1975 he became the first black officer in the history of the United States military to attain 4-star full General rank. At that time he was named Commander of the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD), with responsibility for all aspects of the air defense of the United States and Canada. He was also much-sought after as a public speaker and devoted considerable time to addressing youth groups, particularly minority students.

General James died of a heart attack in February 1978 at the age of fifty-eight, 3 weeks after retiring from the Air Force.

source:www.arlingtoncemetery.net