WACO, Texas — In honor of Black History Month, 6 News took a deep dive into black gospel music and how it has influenced the lives and culture of African Americans.
The word "gospel" means, "good news." The term was first used by white churchgoers, but in 1921 an African American book of hymnals called "The Gospel Pearls" was published. This helped gospel become the basis for black religious music.
Starting in 1945 through the 1960s, the golden age of gospel music, famed singers like Thomas A. Dorsey and Mahalia Jackson took the genre to new heights.
Some say gospel is at its best when it is sung as a congregation. Often times it starts with tragedy, but it does not always end that way.
"When you sing these songs, you’re not singing lyrics, you're singing a story. A story that your ancestors were all a part of. That's what gospel is," Baylor student Jada Holliday said.
It was a packed house at Toliver Chapel Missionary Baptist Church on the night of Feb.4, as the Pruit Memorial Symposium and the Black Gospel Restoration Project at Baylor University hosted a gospel sing with Dr. Cedric Dent. Dent is a Grammy award-winning professor of music at Middle Tennessee State University.
"Oftentimes we talk about gospel music, but we don’t get specific,” Dent said. "There are a lot of sub-genres of gospel music. I really wanted to delve into the history of black gospel music through story and song and engagement."
Dent said in the early years of gospel music, slaves in the South would sing in code. For them, sometimes going to heaven meant escaping to the North.
"They used spirituals to convey coded and double messages toward one another. It wasn’t until the end of slavery they began to embrace Christianity in large numbers," Dent said.
Dent said that just after the turn of the 20th century, black people started to advance politically and economically. That is when the shout, the holy ghost, and the raising of the hands emerged in the church.
"When they saw the possibility we might be free, that changed things for them," Dent said.
He said like secular music, through the years, black gospel has changed to a more contemporary sound with artists like Kirk Franklin and Yolanda Adams.
The crowd hung on his every word.
"Everybody came and we sang and we praised the name of all names King Jesus," Dent said.
From 1985-2011 professor Dent sang baritone with gospel and jazz vocal sextet Take 6. He recorded 11 albums that sold millions of copies and garnered eight Grammy awards and 10 Dove awards.
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