For many Black children, Sunday mornings are filled with pageantry, hot combs, and gospel. But you will not hear soft melodic instrumental gospel tracks in these mahogany pews — you will hear the upbeat tempo of a people’s survival, you will hear the percussion of politics. These hymns are the physical manifestations of 400 years of history of a people’s struggle.
Throughout history, African Americans have used music to communicate biblical devotion, plans of escape, and political protests. The hymns of a people denied literacy don’t just serve a religious experience; they have been used to create a community in the face of a nation that denied them basic humanity, and their legacy is intertwined in the Black experience of so many generational African Americans today.
When denied access to the wider society, Black Churches became the epicenter for African American life, including the fight for political rights. The “Black Church” derives its meaning from what W.E.B Dubois coined the “Negro Church,” in his book by the same title and most commonly refers to the seven most major Black Protestant denominations.
Black People and The Bible
The Bible and Christianity had been present in Africa from the 1st century AD and were introduced to Sub-Saharan Africa in the 15th century by Portuguese merchants. However, the vast majority of enslaved peoples were prohibited from being baptized or converting to slavery because slave holders believed that the Bible might incite rebellion. In fact, in the 1730s, several would-be-Confederate states adopted anti-literacy laws that made it illegal for enslaved peoples to be taught to read.
However, as the First Great Awakening and Revivals swept America from the 1740s through the turn of the century, Black enslaved people began to convert to Christianity. This was in large part because the Evangelicalism and Methodism of the First Great Awakening was imbued with a democratizing force by asserting that all people could be Christianized. In fact, Methodists welcomed conversions from enslaved Black people and the White working class. The relationship between enslaved peoples and the Bible was complex and used in a variety of ways, including to legitimize their humanity and subsequent freedom and to criticize their enslavement.
Oral Biblicism
Without being able to widely access and engage with the Bible in its traditional written format, Black Christianity became an oral tradition. As explained in Allen Dwight Callahan’s “The Talking Book,” while there were some literate enslaved preachers, the vast majority relied on sermons taught by White missionaries or passed down from family members.
In the last few decades before the abolishment of slavery, Negro Spirtuals, or religious folksongs often retelling the stories of the Bible or popular motifs, became widely popular. Some of the most popular — which are still sung in Black Churches today — include “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” by Wallis Willis and “Go Down Moses,” whose composer is unknown. Negro Spirtuals incorporated traditional West African musical traditions and Christian motifs. Many enslaved Africans’ native tongue included tonal words that weren’t present in English; these tones that had been stripped from them were transformed into the rhythms of spirituals, and they also drew from the traditional communal aspect of singing and dancing in West African tradition.
These spirituals often encompassed stories in the Bible associated with freedom like the story of Exodus, in which the Israelites were enslaved in Egypt for 400 years and subsequently freed by God. In Albert Raboteau’s 1994 “Afro-Americans, Exodus, and the American Israel,” he explains that while most White colonists saw America as Israel or the Promised Land, many enslaved peoples viewed the White colonists as the biblical Egyptians and their forced home as Egypt land. It is important to note that the relationships between enslaved peoples and the Bible is one with complex intricacies and deeply rooted historical meaning, and this article only touches on a small portion of the expansive story.
During the 19th century, Negro Spirtuals served a dual purpose: a vessel for religious devotion and a signal for escape. As the Underground Railroad ushered enslaved peoples out of the “peculiar institution” and into Northern freedom, enslaved peoples would communicate plans for escape through the use of spirituals sung throughout their daily tasks. “Map songs” like “Follow the Drinking Gourd” provided enslaved peoples with the essential instructions for escape. Historians refer to these songs with double meanings as “coded spirituals.”
Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights, and Hymns
Negro Spirtuals, however, did not end with the emancipation of enslaved people; they persisted throughout the late 19th century and the 20th century. Although the system of chattel slavery officially ended on June 19, 1865, systemic forms of abuse and racism did not. With the failure of reconstruction and introduction of Jim Crow, Black people were still living under eerily similar conditions of poverty and a lack of opportunities as pre-Civil War times. Despite being denied entrance into “polite” society, the Black religious experience became deeply rooted in the lives of newly freed enslaved peoples. In the decades following the Civil War, many large Black churches in the North sent thousands of missionaries to the South. As Black Christianity grew, the traditional and comforting spirituals became a center of church service. However, the solemnly slow beats were replaced by fast paced praise dance-inducing rhythms.
In fact, the Harlem Renaissance revolutionized Black music by introducing jazz and blues to the already extensive musical history of Black Americans. With the Great Migration, many Black Southerners brought music — most specifically, early blues — developed on plantations and the postwar South to the North while in search of better jobs and less discrimination. This new coalition of Black people settled throughout the North, especially in Harlem. With the Harlem Renaissance and jazz making its way into the music collections of White Americans, the irony is that with the introduction of jazz to White people, its Black creators were barred from enjoying the music in parlors and clubs. As the Harlem Renaissance was funded by White dollars, its music expanded beyond the gospel and freedom genre in order to appeal to a wider audience. Although Black music began to explore secular topics, it still maintained stylistic elements of traditional spirituals like rhythmic precision and even used lyrics from spirituals. However, religious spirituals and hymns, the former of which is characterized by its praise aspects, were still widely used throughout the Black community. This cultural touch point would be thrust into the national spotlight during the Civil Rights Movement.
The Black Church and Black religious leaders, including Dr. Martin Luther King and Reverend Ralph Abernathy, were at the forefront of the movement. Through the use of widely known spirituals and hymns, preachers were able to mobilize and motivate their congregations and White Christians to join in calling for the end of Jim Crow. The emotional songs reflected the struggles of Black Americans and dispersed their message to those who did not readily see the toll of discrimination directly. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr called music the “soul of the movement” in his 1964 book “Why We Can’t Wait.”
Black Music and Politics Now
Black Hymns and the oral traditionality of Black Christianity has long held strong in our community. Music has united a community that has faced injustice and discrimination for 400 years, from negro spirituals to hip-hop. In light of the Black Lives Matter movement surfacing in 2013, utilizing Black music as a political message has once again emerged.
Songs like R&B artist H.E.R.’s somber blues song “I Can’t Breathe” are reminiscent of the messaging frequently found in Civil Rights Era songs and even traditional negro spirituals. Artists aren’t just focusing on protest music — some are advocating for the conservation and celebration of traditional Black songs. Recently, a movement to acknowledge what is colloquially known as “The Black National Anthem” has emerged in the media, with Sherly Lee Ralph singing the song at the 2023 Super Bowl.
The Black National Anthem refers to Lift Every Voice and Sing, originally a poem and hymn composed by James Weldon and Johnson in 1900. The song was later adopted by the NAACP and used in the 1950s and 1960s as a rallying call in Black Churches and Civil Rights demonstrations. The song emerged at the turn of a century, one that many Black Americans hoped would finally be their way out of “Egypt land” and into the “promised land” they had been searching for since their arrivals on the beaches of Virginia.
Black musical politics is far from gone and its history runs parallel and oftentimes intersects with the broader American political history. From spirituals meant to connect enslaved Americans to new found religion to hip-hop and R&B songs that reflect the current lives of Black Americans, music and hymns have always deeply influenced how Black folks interact with the world. Today, however, the anthem is sung as a celebration of overcoming and has been sung by some of the most iconic Black artists of our generation, including Beyoncé.
They took our language, they blinded our eyes, but they could not break our spirit. Our resilience is manifested in melodies and remembered in rhythms. What was once enslaved peoples only connection to a home most would never return to has become an anchoring point for generational African Americans who have known no other.
