A group of former slaves started a singing group to keep their school from shutting down - and more than a century later, America's first all-black hit singing group is still going strong.
Jazz, blues, and R&B form the backbone of American musical history. Where would we be without icons like Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, Otis Redding, Chuck Berry, or Billie Holiday?
If there’s one thing America can do right, it’s music –and for that, we’re deeply indebted to African-American culture. The Beatles started out as a blues cover band, and even Elvis wouldn’t have gotten far without the lessons he picked up from his B.B. King albums.
African-American artists have been topping the Billboard charts for generations –and, though you probably won’t read about them in Vibe, the first all-black hit singing group is still going strong today. They’re a group of eighteen singers from Tennessee called the Fisk Jubilee Singers –and the band’s been around since 1871. (It probably goes without saying, but the members have all changed a few times since then.)
The Fisk Jubilee Singers may not be as familiar a name as Aretha Franklin, but this traditional gospel group has a remarkable history.
As you might imagine, most former slaves still had it pretty rough in the days after the Civil War. Though the government had promised each freed slave 40 acres of land and a mule, they never delivered on their vow, and families were struggling to get by. One ray of hope, though, was the new opportunity for African-American children to attend school. One of the earliest historically-black colleges was Fisk University in Tennessee, which opened its doors to former slaves in 1866.
Though the University, founded by northern missionaries, had the best of intentions, it didn’t have the financial support to keep the school going. A mere five years after opening its doors, Fisk seemed ready to shut them for good. Unless university officials could come up with the money to keep the school going, it would be forced to close –sending most of its students back to work in the fields.
In an effort to keep the school open, the school’s treasurer, George Leonard White, organized a choir group of the college’s nine best singers, mostly former slaves, who would be known as the Fisk Jubilee Singers.
“Not one of us had an overcoat or wrap,” one of the original singers, Ella Sheppard, told PBS in the film, Jubilee Singers: Sacrifice and Glory. “Taking every cent he had, and all he could borrow, Mr. White started with his little band of singers to sing the money out of the hearts and pockets of people.”
At the time, many white singers performed in “blackface” and put on minstrel shows as racist parodies, but there was simply no outlet for black performers. The Jubilee Singers changed that, taking to the stage in cities and towns around the United States to perform traditional African-American gospel songs, which had been sung by former slaves in the fields and the kitchen.
Over time, even white Americans with strong prejudices became seduced by the Jubilee Singers’ beautiful voices and uplifting melodies, such as the classics “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” and “This Little Light of Mine.” The group became a national sensation, performing for luminaries such as writer Mark Twain, President Ulysses S. Grant, and England’s Queen Victoria. Best of all, they raised over $20,000 –enough to save the school from shutting down.
“We sang as if inspired. We not only paid the debts at home, we carried home $20,000 with which was purchased the site of our new school,” said Ella Shepard. “We returned to Fisk amid great rejoicing.”
The gospel choir did far more than save a school, though: “In their wake, hotels, railways, steamship lines, and boards of education integrated their facilities. The Jubilees not only introduced the world to the music of black America, they championed the liberties of all Americans,” historian Andrew Ward told PBS.
Today, Fisk University is still a thriving college, and the gospel tradition is alive and well –both thanks in large part to the group. If you visit the campus, you may have a chance to attend a performance by today’s Fisk Jubilee Singers –still raising their voices in tribute to the slaves who sung the same songs in the fields and kitchens of their masters, singing in celebration of a future brighter than their ancestors ever could have imagined.