Singing in a Strange Land

by Nick Salvatore

  53.Boyer, How Sweet the Sound, 55-57; Brown, Miss Rhythm, 121-22. On Nat King Cole see Detroit Free Press, April 12, 1956; Zolten, Great God A’Mighty! 204. Ruth Brown’s early career is discussed in Ebony, May 1952, 53-56; Michigan Chronicle, January 5, 1963. (back to text)

  54.Zolten, Great God A’Mighty! 40-42; James, Rage to Survive, 75-76; Ward-Royster, How I Got Over, 68-69; Brown, Miss Rhythm, 127. Willa Ward-Royster dates this party to 1943 but it more likely occurred during the 1952 NBC convention in Chicago. Alex Bradford (1927-1978) would have been an unknown sixteen-year-old in 1943, almost a decade away from the release of his first gospel recording in 1951. See Young, Woke Me Up This Morning, xxiv. (back to text)

  55.Bego, Aretha Franklin, 24; Robinson, Smokey, 37, 47; Heilbut, The Gospel Sound, 106; Wexler, Rhythm and the Blues, 203; Collis, The History of Chess, 149. (back to text)

  56.In recent years a number of academics, writers on popular music, historians and theologians, and ministers sensitive to the African American religious experience have told me categorically that CLF was the father of Aretha’s first child. All “heard it” from somebody else: ministerial talk, blues and R&B singers, gospel performers. To each I asked the same question: What verifiable evidence, however limited, is there that might support such a claim? No one had any. In all the research for this book, I did not find any evidence to support this assertion. Given the absence of credible documentation, one could hope that those who, for whatever reason, relish the tale might cease its retelling. (back to text)

  57.Robinson, Smokey, 37, 47; Franklin, Aretha, 62. (back to text)

  58.On CLF’s tours, see Michigan Chronicle, September 17, 1955; October 13, 1956; March 28 and September 25, 1959; April 8, 1961; CLF Interview, May 3, 1978, 201; Buck Interview, 2; interview with Beatrice Buck in Moon, Untold Tales, Unsung Heroes, 188; Roebuck Staples to CLF, January 5, 1961, Chicago, CLFP. Typical is the statement by Jerry Wexler that CLF “reputedly took a walk on the wild side.” He undoubtedly did, but without more specific information, the broader meaning is hard to discern. See Wexler, Rhythm and the Blues, 205-6. (back to text)

  59.Brown, Miss Rhythm, 131; Kathryn Curry, “Memories,” CLFP; “Evelyn,” photo and inscription, CLFP; Franklin, Aretha, 9, 11, 26, 27, 53; Young, “Aretha Franklin,” 3; Goreau, Just Mahalia, Baby, 185-86; Buck Interview, 24; Williams, Temptations, 62; “The Preacher with the Golden Voice, 42. (back to text)

  60.Penn Interview, 12, 13, 31; Kathryn Curry, “Memories,” n.p., CLFP; Wilson is quoted in Bego, Aretha Franklin, 25. See also Rose “Venus” Searcy to CLF, n.d. [November 26, 1956, postmark], Detroit, CLFP. (back to text)

  61.Penn Interview, 8, 9, 12, 13, 31; Ralph Williams Interview, 19-21; Perry Interview, 53. (back to text)

  62.Ward-Royster, How I Got Over, 3-35, 50-52. The quote is on p. 34. (back to text)

  63.Ibid., 56-68; Boyer, How Sweet the Sound, 104-7; Buck Interview, 20; Goreau, Just Mahalia, Baby, 233. See also Mary Katherine Aldin, liner notes to The Clara Ward Singers, Meetin’ Tonight! (back to text)

  64.Ward-Royster, How I Got Over, 100, 117-20. (back to text)

  65.Ibid., 117; Heilbut, The Gospel Sound, 276. On the meeting of the World Baptist Alliance see the eyewitness reports of the Detroit Urban League leader and Afro-Baptist Francis A. Korngay dated July 16, 19, 20, 1955 (carbon copies), Box 4, FAK. The report of July 19, after devoting most of its space to a discussion of A. A. Banks and Jesse Jai McNeil, states that “[o]ne of the striking personalities of this conference is the dynamic radio preacher, C. L. Franklin.” (back to text)

  66.Ward-Royster, How I Got Over, 119, 169; CLF Interview, October 21, 1977, 85-87; Michigan Chronicle, July 9 and August 27, 1955; CLF’s passport (issued June 13, 1955), CLFP; Kelley Interview. In his sermon The Rich Man and the Beggar, CLF briefly mentioned “the displaced and [the] refugee camps” he had seen the year before in Jordan and Lebanon. (back to text)

  67.Kyles Interview, 37. Kyles suggests that CLF actually proposed to Ward but that she refused him since she did not think they could maintain dual careers as a couple. (back to text)

  68.Kincaid Interview, 4; Young Interview, 38; Buck Interview, 19-20; Ward-Royster, How I Got Over, 122-23; Penn Interview, 20-22. (back to text)

  69.Young, “Aretha Franklin,” 3. (back to text)

  70.Zolten, Great God A’Mighty! 40-41; Michigan Chronicle, September 28, 1963. For further exchanges on this issue of gospel in nightclubs, see Michigan Chronicle, October 13, 1962; June 22 and August 17, 1963. For a popular treatment of Clara Ward that emphasizes her lavish style and presentation, see Ebony, October 1957, 24-27. (back to text)

  71.Buck Interview, 24; McCoy Interview, 10; Todd Interview, 31; Malone Interview, 33; E. L. Branch Interview, 29. For blues artists’ commentary on preachers see Son House, “Preachin’ Blues,” on Son House, Father of the Delta Blues; Hi Henry Brown, “Preacher Blues,” and Joe McCoy, “Preachers Blues,” reprinted in Taft, Blues Lyric Poetry, 41, 181, respectively. (back to text)

  72.King Interview, 24. (back to text)

  73.Buck Interview, 8; CLF, The Inner Conflict (see also CLF, Following Jesus and The King of the Jews); Taylor Interview; Taylor, How Shall They Preach, 27. On Martin Luther King Jr. see Dyson, “A Useful Hero,” 13-14; on Tillich see Tillich, From Time to Time, 175, 183-91, 241-42. (back to text)

  8. NEW VOICES

  1.Michigan Chronicle, July 27, 1957. (back to text)

  2.On the UAW see Meier and Rudwick, Black Detroit and the Rise of the UAW, passim. On Ethel Watkins see Detroit News, February 22 and 24 and March 8 and 18, 1957; Detroit Free Press, February 24 and March 13, 1957. On violence over housing in the 1950s, see Sugrue, The Origins of the Urban Crisis, 246-58. The poll results are reported in Kornhauser, Detroit as the People See It, 84, 91, 100. (back to text)

  3.See the testimonies and statements of Walter Reuther and Horace Sheffield in U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Hearings Held in Detroit, Michigan, 38-66 (esp. 63-65) and 77-94 (esp. 87), respectively; Sugrue, The Origins of the Urban Crisis, 95-105. See Michigan Chronicle, December 24, 1960, for a contemporary reaction to the hearings. (back to text)

  4.Boyle, “The Kiss”; Sugrue, The Origins of the Urban Crisis, 101-2; Widick, Detroit, 92-93. The auto industry official quoted is cited by Widick, “Black Workers,” 54. For a sharply different view see Horace White, “Democracy a Reality at UAW-CIO,” in Michigan Chronicle, September 4, 1954. For a study of efforts during the war to ensure fair employment practices nationally, see Reed, Seedtime for the Modern Civil Rights Movement. In 1954 Charles Wartman wrote a detailed analysis of the unions affiliated with the American Federation of Labor and their relations, often quite hostile, with black Detroit. See Michigan Chronicle, March 20 and 27, April 3, 10, 17, and 24, and May 1, 1954. (back to text)

  5.For assessments of TULC see Stepp Interview (1999), 6-7; Lichtenstein, The Most Dangerous Man in Detroit, 375-81; Sugrue, The Origins of the Urban Crisis, 174-77; Babson, Working Detroit, 165-66. (back to text)

  6.Hall Interview, 20-21. For earlier African American caucuses within the UAW see interview with Joseph Billups by Herbert Hill, Shelton Tappes, and Roberta McBride, ALUA; Stevenson, “African Americans and Jews in Organized Labor,” 252. On the economic conditions of black Detroiters during these years, see Detroit Urban League, A Profile of the Detroit Negro, 1959-1967, 33; Sugrue, The Origins of the Urban Crisis, 125-52. For the reaction of UAW officials see Detroit Times, January 20, 1960; interview with Douglas Fraser by author, 14-15 (hereafter cited as Fraser Interview); Lichtenstein, The Most Dangerous Man in Detroit, 379 (Mazey quote). (back to text)

  7.On Cleage and his family history see Michigan Chronicle, February 26, 1949, and April 12, 1952; obituary of Albert B. Cleage Jr., New York Times, February 27, 2000; Ward, Prophet of the Black Nation, passim; Williams, Biographical Directory of Negro Ministers, 111. On the importance of skin color in the family, see Buck Interview, 33; Young Interview, 20; Boggs, L
iving for Change, 118-19. (back to text)

  8.On Cleage’s years at St. Mark’s, and particularly the development of his perspective from one that stressed a “high intellectual and cultural level” to social activism, see Michigan Chronicle, May 12 and November 17, 1951; March 21 and 28, 1953. On Cleage’s new church see Michigan Chronicle, September 28, 1957. The theologian Reinhold Niebuhr influenced him as well; see Ward, Prophet of the Black Nation, 102. (back to text)

  9.Michigan Chronicle, October 19 and 26, 1957. (back to text)

  10.On the 1957 election see Michigan Chronicle, February 16, July 13, August 3 and 17, September 7 and 21 and October 12 and 19, 1957; January 11, 1958; Detroit Times, June 7, 1957; Stovall, The Growth of Black Elected Officials in the City of Detroit, 6, 119, 129-33. “[W]e were the moving force” in the Patrick election, Douglas Fraser of the UAW recalled decades later, but given the union’s long resistance to endorsing black candidates, “we haven’t got too much to brag about.” Fraser Interview, 23. (back to text)

  11.CLF, Hannah, The Ideal Mother. CLF took his text from 1 Samuel 1:4-11. On Victorian domestic thinking see Sklar, Catherine Beecher. (back to text)

  12.Farley, Danziger, and Holzer, Detroit Divided, 74-75, 103-6; CLF, Study to Show Thyself to God. For CLF’s analysis of the problems confronting black youth in the city, see also CLF, The Inner Conflict and Counting the Cost; CLF Interview, October 5, 1977, 15-16; CLF Interview, October 14, 1977, 58. (back to text)

  13.VF Interview, 23-25, 32; Corbett Interview, 5, 11, 22. On Louise (Franklin) Bryant’s death see Michigan Chronicle, December 19, 1953; January 23 and February 6, 1954; Perkins Interview, 38. (back to text)

  14.Kelley Interview; Franklin, Aretha, 72. There is no mention of Kelley in Aretha Franklin’s autobiography. (back to text)

  15.Kelley Interview. (back to text)

  16.See also Carl Ellan to “Dear Daddy,” December 15, 1970, CLFP, where Carl Ellan regrets she cannot afford to come to Detroit for the holidays and concludes, “Of course, the high spirits of my love are always present. Take care, and be a good boy.” (back to text)

  17.EF Interview, 2; Corbett Interview, 12. (back to text)

  18.Young, Bodies and Soul, 20; Robinson, Smokey, 109, 137; Wilson, Dreamgirl, 22, 23-24, 26-27; Ross, Secrets of a Sparrow, 1, 26-27, 90-93; Williams, Temptations, 44. A vivid description of Detroit’s 1950s black youth culture is in King, “Searching for Brothers Kindred,” 21-29; for an insightful analysis of key aspects of this culture and its impact on American culture in the 1960s, see Early, One Nation under a Groove. (back to text)

  19.Corbett Interview, 19-20; Wilson, Dreamgirl, 23, 73-74; Cohodas, Spinning Blues into Gold, 186-87. On Carolyn Franklin see EF Interview, 30-31. On Cecil Franklin see anonymous [EF?], “Biography of Cecil LaRone Franklin,” n.d., n.p. (transcript), CLFP; Corbett Interview, 38-39. Cecil later would become his sister Aretha’s business manager between 1969 and 1989. (back to text)

  20.Franklin, Aretha, 42, 59, 70-71; Penn Interview, 2. (back to text)

  21.EF Interview, 8, 12; Kyles Interview, 51, Kelley Interview. (back to text)

  22.Metropolitan Civic League for Legal Action, “Constitution,” (typed original, n.p.), CLFP. On police actions under Mirani see Michigan Chronicle, May 17 and 24 and November 29, 1958; February 17, March 7, July 25, September 5, 1959; December 16, 1961; Johnson Interview, 6; Thompson Interview, 40. For a fuller presentation of Johnson’s views of the Detroit police, see his 1960 testimony in U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Hearings Held in Detroit, Michigan, 302-20. On the dispute over the reelection of prosecutor Samuel H. Olsen, see Michigan Chronicle, July 28, 1962; Olsen offered his perspective on these issues two years earlier; see U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Hearings Held in Detroit, Michigan, 500-503. (back to text)

  23.Johnson Interview, 25; Thompson Interview, 40. On the “urban renewal” of the Hastings Street area see Michigan Chronicle, October 27, 1951; July 24, 1954; April 6, 1957; April 9, 1960. On CLF in Los Angeles see Michigan Chronicle, September 25, 1959; Jasper Williams Interview, 24; B. T. Moore Interview, 21-22; Hurley Interview, 20-21; Hooks Interview, 19. Hooks places this a few years later, suggesting that CLF’s involvement may have continued in some fashion into the mid-1960s. (back to text)

  24.Thompson Interview, 49. Ironically, Young was simultaneously beginning to reposition himself as a decidedly liberal, yet mainstream politician. On Young’s political career in the early 1960s see Michigan Chronicle, July 23 and 30, 1960; May 12, 1962; Rich, Coleman Young and Detroit Politics, 61-90. (back to text)

  25.On CLF and the entertainment industry see CLF to Donroyal Enterprises, Los Angeles, February 23, 1962, Detroit, and H. Cohen, Ass’t Trust Officer, Bank of America to CLF, July 19, 1963, Los Angeles, both in CLFP. At times his ministerial and celebrity roles might merge, as when he appeared at the bedside of Etta James, his daughter Aretha’s friend, as she was coming out of “a nod” from too much heroin in the early 1960s. CLF was friendly with her doctor as well, a somewhat dubious medical advisor to musicians and singers. James described Franklin sitting “by the side of my bed, where he prayed for me and kept reassuring me I’d be all right.” James, Rage to Survive, 121. (back to text)

  26.The unions that discriminated are named in George Weaver to Walter P. Reuther, January 27, 1960, WPR. See also Sheffield’s testimony in U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Hearings Held in Detroit, Michigan, 79-80. (back to text)

  27.On the 1959 UAW convention see Michigan Chronicle, October 24, 1959; Stepp Interview (1999), 15; interview with Horace Sheffield by Herbert Hill and Roberta McBride, 17-19, ALUA; interview with Robert Battle by Herbert Hill, 36-37, ALUA; Lichtenstein, The Most Dangerous Man in Detroit, 376-77. The following year Randolph and others founded the Detroit-based Negro American Labor Council to fight segregation within labor; see Detroit Free Press, May 27, 1960. On Nelson Jack Edwards see Michigan Chronicle, May 26, 1962; March 14, 1964; October 15, 1966; Illustrated News, May 14, 1962; interview with Horace Sheffield, 21-23, ALUA; Young Interview, 32-33. (back to text)

  28.On the 1960 convention and its aftermath see Michigan Chronicle, September 17 and 24 and October 1 and 8, 1960; Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, September 9, 1960; Philadelphia Inquirer, September 10, 1960; Caesar Clark, “The True Philadelphia Story,” National Baptist Voice, October 1960; A. A. Banks to “Dr. Gardner Taylor,” November 1, 1960, Detroit, reel 4, SEC. On the 1961 meeting and the planning for the Progressive Convention see Gardner Taylor to A. A. Banks, August 2, 1961, Brooklyn; A. A. Banks to “Dear Dr. Taylor,” August 10, 1961, Detroit; A. A. Banks to Reverend Marvin T. Robinson, August 17, 1961, Detroit; and A. A. Banks to “Dear Friend Taylor,” September 27, 1961, Detroit, all on reel 4, SEC; Haizlip, The Sweeter the Juice, 197-98; Progressive National Baptist Convention, Minutes of the First Annual Session of the Progressive National Baptist Convention, 1962, 57-64; Michigan Chronicle, September 9, 16, and 23, 1961. Jackson’s position can be found in National Baptist Voice, June, July, and August, 1961; Jackson, Unholy Shadows and Freedom’s Holy Light, 117-30. For useful discussions of the Progressive National Baptist Convention see Lincoln and Mamiya, The Black Church in the African American Experience, 36-38; McBeth, The Baptist Heritage, 787-88; Fitts, A History of Black Baptists, 100-102. (back to text)

  29.McCoy Interview, 29; Michigan Chronicle, July 1, 1961; Jackson, Unholy Shadows and Freedom’s Holy Light, 184 and passim; Lafayette Interview, 33-34. Jackson’s opposition to the civil rights movement had support within the Convention. See, for example, Matthews Interview, 26-29, in which this staunch supporter of, and successor to, H. H. Hume as leader of the Mississippi Baptist Convention discussed his opposition to movement activists in Mississippi. Similar ideas were expressed by Ivory James, a Baptist minister who actively opposed the movement. See James Interview, 13-17. (back to text)

  30.Martin Luther King Jr. had been elected vice president of the Sunday School and Baptist Training Union Congress between 1958
and 1961. See Michigan Chronicle, June 28, 1958; July 25, 1959; February 2 and July 2, 1960. On King’s removal see Michigan Chronicle, September 23, 1961; A. A. Banks to “Dear Friend Gardner [C. Taylor],” September 27, 1961, Detroit, reel 4, SEC; Hooks Interview, 33; Lincoln and Mamiya, The Black Church in the African American Experience, 36-37. (back to text)

  31.EF Interview, 27-28, 29; Matthews Interview, 23; Kyles Interview, 24, 27. On the positions CLF held within the Convention, see National Baptist Convention, Proceedings of the Sixty-eighth Annual Session of the National Baptist Convention, 1948, 13; National Baptist Convention, Proceedings of the Sixty-ninth Annual Session of the National Baptist Convention, 1949, 14; National Baptist Convention, The Record of the Seventy-third Annual Session of the National Baptist Convention, 1953, 32; National Baptist Convention, The Record of the Seventy-fourth Annual Session of the National Baptist Convention, 1954, 40; National Baptist Convention, The Record of the Seventy-fifth Annual Session of the National Baptist Convention, 1955, 40; Rev. Charles W. Alexander to Bd. of Directors, NBC, August 28, 1964, CLFP. (back to text)

  32.McCoy Interview, 11, 30; Rev. Charles W. Alexander to Bd. of Directors, NBC, August 28, 1964, CLFP. On Martin Luther King’s tuning in CLF see Lafayette Interview, 18, and the confirmation of it by two others who also witnessed it at different times: Lewis Interview, 16; Kyles Interview, 22. On the closeness of King to CLF see Kyles Interview, 22; Hooks Interview, 22; Lewis Interview, 14; Ralph Williams Interview, 31; EF Interview, 5; Corbett Interview, 22; Baldwin, There Is a Balm in Gilead, 299 n. 88, 302; Bego, Aretha Franklin, 109, citing Aretha Franklin. CLF refers to his friendship with King in CLF Interview, November 8, 1977, 148. For Williams’s assessment see Jasper Williams Interview, 15; he notes his support of J. H. Jackson’s policies in Jasper Williams Interview, 11. (back to text)