Researcher finds civil rights songs on flip side of gospel records

WACO, Texas (ABP) -- A Baylor University professor says a surprisingly
large number of lesser-known “B” sides on vintage records of gospel
songs championed civil rights, suggesting Christian artists were
interested in bettering the here and now as well as proclaiming hope for
the hereafter.

The recent discovery “tells us that the gospel community was much more
involved in the civil rights movement than we previously thought --
outside of Mahalia Jackson and Dorothy Love Coates, who we knew were
very involved,” said Robert Darden, an associate professor of journalism
at Baylor and a former gospel editor for Billboard magazine.

In 2005, Darden began a search-and-rescue mission for gospel music on
old 78s, 45s and LPs and in various taped formats to be preserved
digitally and cataloged at Baylor. Darden -- author of People Get Ready! A New History of Black Gospel Music
-- was concerned that while contemporary gospel was thriving, early
gospel by lesser-known artists during the 1940s to the 1970s -- the
“Golden Age of Gospel Music” -- might be lost forever. He now oversees
Baylor’s Black Gospel Music Restoration Project.