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Model Midterm2 answers 2018 Start Research Report Index: Sample Research Report Starts |
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Kara DeLaughter
Black Gospel and Diversity Through Pentecostalism
Music has always been a big part of my life, and growing up Pentecostal,
Black Gospel was always playing in my house. More recently, I have studied
gospel more closely because I play piano for my father’s church and I have
developed a great appreciation for many black musicians. I was not surprised to
learn that almost every genre of music can be traced back to African-American
spirituals and work songs, but what I did not know, until studying for this
research report, is just how intertwined Pentecostalism and Black Gospel were,
and how both were brought to popularity on the back of diversity, and largely,
on the voice of Mahalia Jackson.
The Library of Congress has a rich collection of essays and articles about black
history, and I gathered much information from an article entitled, African
American Gospel. “From its beginnings, Gospel music challenged the existing
church establishment” The aforementioned article supplied this quote, which
brings about the point of Gospel’s divergence, rebellion and consequential
impact. Black Gospel was born out of jazz, but goes all the way back to the
Negro Spirituals and the more recent Pentecostal movement that was begun in
Houston by the diverse duo: Charles Fox Parham, a white Methodist, and William
J. Seymour, a black Baptist Minister (Library of Congress).
As
Pentecostalism swept throughout the country in the first decade of the 1900s,
the exuberant, pentecostal worship, of blacks and whites, men and women, all
together, became a feature one expected to see at the camp meetings. A little
later, Mahalia Jackson’s soulful gospel was particularly well responded too,
according to the NPR article, A History of Gospel Music. Jackson
eventually became the earliest face of the style.
Races were colliding in the birth of this spiritual and musical movement, but
not only races: classes, and genders were also empowered, as William Seymour
brought the movement to the poor parts of Los Angeles, specifically Azusa
Street. Randall J. Stephen’s essay, Assessing the Roots of Pentecostalism,
shows the realization of the “The Dream” of minorities in Pentecostalism: “The
Azusa street revival gathered the "ethnic minority groups of Los Angeles," who
discovered a "sense of dignity and community denied them in the larger urban
culture.” Still today, Pentecostal groups like the Church of God in Christ and
the United Pentecostal Church pride themselves on being multicultural, and
allowing women to be ordained ministers.
In conclusion, I have thoroughly enjoyed learning about my religious heritage,
and I am very proud to be a part of such a progressive movement. Furthermore, in
anticipation of continuing this report, I look forward to discovering more about
the impact Black Gospel continues to have on the cultures that surround it. I
will also be studying other “church” music to contrast with gospel and
hopefully, I will further develop the scope of the impact gospel has had on
society.
Works Cited
African American Gospel.
The Library of Congress.
A History of Gospel Music.
NPR.
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4233793
Assessing The Roots of Pentecostalism: A Historiographic Essay.
Randall J. Stephens.
http://are.as.wvu.edu/pentroot.htm
