Singing through Struggle
Singing through Struggle
Music, Worship, and Identity in Postemancipation Black Churches
Singing through Struggle: Music, Worship, and Identity in Postemancipation Black Churches offers an innovative look at the vital role music and worship played in nurturing Black citizenship and identity during the Reconstruction era. In such border cities as Baltimore, Washington, DC, and Philadelphia, the church was where newly emancipated migrants and members of the free Black community merged identities, priorities, and experiences through a process of cultural negotiation. Music, as a sign of Black achievement and as a genuine expression of identity, produced both bastions and battlegrounds in the fight for democracy.
The music of Black churchgoers, singing together in sanctuaries as well as in homes, schools, and outdoors, expressed resistance to uplift ideologies within and to white supremacy without. Even while using hymns and music of the European sacred tradition, members infused the songs they chose with new meanings relevant to their evolving concerns and situations. Drawing on fresh archival sources, Singing through Struggle sheds light on the unexplored gap in the study of African American religious music between slavery and the Great Migration, demonstrating the continuous stream of Black creativity and dignity that existed in religious music making between gospel music and the spirituals.
This close-up investigation of three Black congregations draws out previously forgotten stories of men and women who understood church music as key to shaping a collective purpose and civic identity. Their stories demonstrate how faith, music, and ritual gave the Black community means for exploring a deeply complex and ever-changing reality.
Singing through Struggle is poised to become the seminal work on an era of African American sacred music that has to this point received scant attention from historians and researchers, despite its significance as a transitional period between the folk spiritual and gospel music. Author Carolynne Hitter Brown reveals the missing piece that ties together the whole history of African sacred music in America.
Singing through Struggle makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the moments following emancipation and the Civil War. This story provides insight into religious practices, especially worship music, and debates within Black communities over uplift strategies.
Carolynne Hitter Brown is a pianist and singer. She teaches Christian history at Gordon-Conwell Seminary. Hitter Brown earned her doctor of theology from Boston University School of Theology, and her work has appeared in the Journal of Pan-African Pentecostalism.
