African-American Voices of Traditional Sacred Music in Twentieth-Century and Twenty-first Century Los Angeles

Over a span of some 390 years, the African diaspora has developed a rich musical heritage within the United States, generating several important genres that have been nurtured throughout the country by numerous musicians who were introduced to the foundations of the music in the church and through school experiences of their childhood. This heritage, rooted originally in the southern United States, has been transported to California.

A number of blacks who became the musicians (performers, teachers, composers, and scholars) of Los Angeles arrived in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries from states (e.g., Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Texas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Illinois, Michigan, Mississippi, and Maryland) that had strong African-American communities suffused with the musical culture of the African diaspora. Their migration transformed the spiritual, gospel music, blues, and jazz in California (see DjeDje and Meadows 1998) while concurrently cultivating an appreciation for and an expertise in the performance of traditional European classical music.

As new musicians visited and/or permanently settled, they began to nurture the talent of those who were native to the state. John A. Gray came from Norfolk, Virginia, and opened the Gray Conservatory of Music. William T. Wilkins came from Little Rock, Arkansas, and started the Wilkins Piano Academy (opened in 1912 as the first Interracial School of Music in the City of Los Angeles). As explained by Irma Jean Juniel Prescott, a Zion Hill Baptist Church musician from Shreveport, Louisiana, who became a Los Angeles–community piano teacher, “Those individuals who are qualified to teach music and have the time, have an opportunity to be of genuine service to the community and to live rich and rewarding lives” (1973, 24).

In the early twentieth century, the vitality of this musical migration could be seen in the extraordinary career of Thomas L. Johnson (1887–1962), often described as a “golden-voiced Negro baritone.” Johnson was born in Waco, Texas, and raised in Illinois, Indiana, and Detroit, Michigan. His early music career started in Detroit, where he, his brother, Charles, and his two sisters, Nelle and Ethel, organized themselves into the Johnson Quartet, which was often accompanied by a third sister, Olive. Some time after 1915, Thomas settled in Los Angeles. As documented in the California Eagle newspaper, he built an active recital career performing art songs, opera arias, and spirituals throughout California, often accompanied by the talented Fannie Evelyn Wilson (Benjamin). During the early 1920s, he was the director of the choir at People’s Independent Church of Christ. He became a regular performer on KNX, the city’s new radio station, and the baritone soloist and choir director at Aimee Semple McPherson’s Angelus Temple. In 1945, he became the founding choir director of the Euterpians, a fifty-voice ensemble. In describing Johnson, Don Lee White writes:

At the height of his vocal powers, he was approached by the teacher of the famous tenor, Roland Hayes, who had heard him sing on the radio. “Come to Boston, and I will make you as famous as Roland Hayes,” this important man said to Mr. Johnson. Tom Johnson agonized over this unusual invitation, which seemed like a dream come true. But, ultimately, he decided against it because of his concern for the welfare of his wife and young children. He said he never regretted that decision.

(1998, 80)

The expansive geography of the country, with its limited transportation, often isolated Californians in the early part of the twentieth century. This had a significant impact on both the secular and the sacred musical life of the city. Yet, throughout the twentieth century, national interaction occurred regularly in the national meetings of several organizations—for example, the National Association of Negro Musicians (NANM), the annual meetings of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, and the National Baptist Convention.

To study the impact of this musical migration and to facilitate cultural preservation and awareness, California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH), has developed a special performance and archiving program for the study of African Diaspora Sacred Music and Musicians (ADSMM), with its Georgia and Nolan...