Black gospel music grew from obscure nineteenth-century beginnings
to become the leading style of sacred music in black American
communities after World War II. Jerma A. Jackson traces the music's
unique history, profiling the careers of several
singers--particularly Sister Rosetta Tharpe--and demonstrating the
important role women played in popularizing gospel.
Female gospel singers initially developed their musical abilities
in churches where gospel prevailed as a mode of worship. Few,
however, stayed exclusively in the religious realm. As recordings
and sheet music pushed gospel into the commercial arena, gospel
began to develop a life beyond the church, spreading first among a
broad spectrum of African Americans and then to white middle-class
audiences. Retail outlets, recording companies, and booking
agencies turned gospel into big business, and local church singers
emerged as national and international celebrities. Amid these
changes, the music acquired increasing significance as a source of
black identity.
These successes, however, generated fierce controversy. As gospel
gained public visibility and broad commercial appeal, debates broke
out over the meaning of the music and its message, raising
questions about the virtues of commercialism and material values,
the contours of racial identity, and the nature of the sacred.
Jackson engages these debates to explore how race, faith, and
identity became central questions in twentieth-century African
American life.