July 7: “Nothing between my soul and my Savior…”

Do you know who this is?
-He was a founding father of American Gospel music
-He was known as the ‘people’s pastor’.
-He was largely self-educated.

Raised with slaves in Worchester County in the pre-Civil War border state of Maryland, considered free because his parents were a slave father and free mother, he would become the self-educated minister of a 10,000 member multi-racial Methodist Church – in an era where most churches were segregated based on race.

Charles Albert Tindley was born on the Joseph Brindell farm near Berlin, Maryland, on July 7, 1851 to Charles and Hester Miller Tindley. When he was less than five years old his mother died, and he would be raised by his sister. Because economic conditions were poor for the African Americans in the mid-19th Century, Tindley was ‘hired out’ as a young boy by his father, receiving pay for working in the fields alongside slaves – providing young Tindley with the experiences of working on a slave plantation, and his family with a much needed income.

As a youth Tindley would be denied the opportunity for an education. First: he was in the field helping his family during the day. Secondly, although he was considered ‘free born’, schools in his area were for white students – so he taught himself how to read and write.

When he was about seventeen, Tindley married Daisy Henry. He would move to Philadelphia with his family in order to better support them. Working during the day as a janitor and attending school at night, he strove to achieve the American ideal. He once commented “I made a rule to learn at least one new thing—a thing I did not know the day before—each day.”

Tindley had varied educational experiences. He put himself through night school. He earned a Divinity Degree through a correspondence course. He never graduated from a college or seminary. In his seeking the source of truth from the Bible, he studied Greek at the Boston School of Theology. In order to better understand the Old Testament, Tindley studied Hebrew through a synagogue in Philadelphia. He would ultimately be awarded two honorary doctorate degrees: one from North Carolina, the other from Maryland.

He was employed as a janitor from 1880 to 1885 at the Bainbridge Street Methodist Church in Philadelphia. The same church granted him a license to preach – and he would be assigned there as its pastor in 1902 after pasturing in Delaware and New Jersey. The church had 130 African American members when Tindley was appointed as its pastor, and the congregation would reach 10,000 members under his guidance – and would be a multiracial congregation that included African Americans, Europeans, Jews and Hispanics. He led his church in ministering to Philadelphia’s poor – by establishing soup kitchens and a clothing ministry - as well as advocating civil rights in the early 20th century. As a tribute to the accomplishments of the man who led the church for over thirty years, Bainbridge was renamed Tindley Methodist Episcopal Church in the 1920s - over the objections of Tindley.

Tindley was preached powerful messages, and – although technically musically illiterate - began writing hymns that reflected his background – music that later became known as gospel music, which was based on feelings engendered by a history of oppression. He would dictate the words and tunes to a transcriber who would write down the formal musical notes and words. Eventually he would write over forty-five hymns, and while he apparently did not intend for his music to be sung congregationally, some of his hymns wound up in the Methodist hymnal and are sung around the world today. Perhaps one of the most famous of his hymns is “Stand By Me”.

When the storms of life are raging, stand by me;
When the world is tossing me, like a ship upon the sea,
Thou who rulest wind and water, stand by me.

Other well-known hymns by Tindley include “We’ll Understand Better, By and By”, “Lord, I’ve Tried”, and “I Shall Overcome”. Many believe that the words and intent of “I Shall Overcome” was the basis of the anthem for the Civil Rights movement, “We Shall Overcome”.

While many of his sermons are lost, the messages found in his songs remain. These messages are based on his past, and the events occurring in his life, ringing true to us today – over seventy years after the death of their author.

From “We’ll Understand Better, By and By”:
We are often destitute of the things that life demands,
Want of food and want of shelter, thirsty hills and barren lands;
We are trusting in the Lord, and according to God's Word,
We will understand it better by and by.

Or “Nothing Between”, written in 1906 when the church was negotiating to buy a new site for its growing congregation.

Nothing between my soul and my Savior,
naught of this world’s delusive dream;
I have renounced all sinful pleasure;
Jesus is mine, there’s nothing between.
Nothing between my soul and my Savior,
so that his blessed face may be seen;
nothing preventing the least of his favor;
keep the way clear! Let nothing between.

Tindley would pass away on July 26, 1933, from a gangrene infection in his foot. He was 82 years old. It was at the deepest point of the Great Depression when Tindley was buried in Eden Memorial Cemetery in Collingdale, Pennsylvania, and the congregation could not afford a marker for his grave. The situation was rectified in 2002 when 3000 members of his church met in a memorial to Tindley that met, provided a headstone, and remembered Dr. Tindley.

LOCAL LIBRARY RESOURCES:

There are no biographies of Charles Tindley in our local library.

WEB RESOURCES:

Christian History Timeline
Cyber Hymnal
Lower Shore
Preparing for Eternity
Taylor House Museum
Thinkquest
United Methodist Portal
Wikipedia
World Wide Faith News

PHOTO SOURCES:

T 01. Charles Tindley portrait, Find a Grave, by Curtis Jackson
T 02. Charles A. Tindley, Cyberhymnal
T 03. I Shall Overcome songsheet, Thinkquest
T 04. Tindley Memorial, Find a Grave, by Curtis Jackson
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June 23: “…I sing out of my soul to settle it down.”

Do you know who this is?
-She was considered the greatest of the “anointed singers”.
-She had no formal training as a musician.
-She changed from Baptist to Pentecostal in 1939.

She was the seventh of fourteen children, and was born on June 23, 1904, in Rolling Fork, Mississippi. Named Willie Mae Ford, she would become known to music fans by her married name – Willie Mae Ford Smith.

Her father was a railway brakeman, and the Smith family had to move from Rolling Fork to Memphis, Tennessee, because of his job. The house was crowded, the family was poor, and in the winter up to four children would sleep in a bed, wearing their coats to keep warm. In 1918 they would move to St. Louis, where her mother would open a restaurant – where Smith and some of her siblings worked. Smith would quit school in the eighth-grade in order to help work full-time in the restaurant.

"We were so poor our coats did double time as our blankets. We sometimes slept four in the bed, but we had so much happiness, so much love, so much fun. My father was a deacon, and now I can see he just kept us singing to keep from thinking."

Smith would only have informal musical training. She was not able to attend classes for her music lessons – she picked up music by ear. She commented once that she remembered her grandmother “singing, clapping, and doing the 'Rock Daniel'“ A strict Baptist family – with her father as a deacon – Ford parents sang in churches around their area. In 1922 her father formed The Ford Sisters – a quartet made up of Mary, Emma, Geneva, and Willie Mae – with Willie Mae as the lead singer. They debuted at the National Baptist Convention that same year where they created a sensation with their performances of "Ezekiel Saw the Wheel" and "I'm in His Care".

Soon her sisters had married and quit the group, allowing Smith to pursue a solo career. While briefly considering a classical musician career, she returned to gospel music for the rest of her career after being inspired by Madame Artelia Hutchins of Detroit when she saw and heard Hutchins’ performance at the 1926 Baptist Convention.

In 1927 she married John Peter Smith, a general hauling businessman, and began touring to supplement their household income. Smith was one of the first female gospel singers to tour extensively and continuously, singing at churches as well as conducting revivals in the cities that she visited.

Smith often crossed the path of Thomas Andrew Dorsey – known as the “Father of Gospel Music” – during her many travels. Dorsey was responsible for developing a form of gospel music combining Christian praise with the rhythms of jazz and the blues. Smith adopted many of Dorsey’s musical concepts in her concerts. In 1932 Dorsey invited her to Chicago where she helped organize the national convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses – and would be appointed and retained as its director and principal singing teacher. The organization was involved with evaluating and training gospel singers until the late 1980s. She would later form – and lead- a St. Louis chapter of the organization.

The National Baptist Convention in 1937 would be a hallmark for Smith. She set a new standard for solo singing with her rendition of her own composition, “If You Just Keep Still”. By using gospel blues to rearrange and reinterpret classic Christian songs such as “Jesus Loves Me” and “What A Friend We Have In Jesus”, Smith was able to train a new generation of singers to include the revised songs in their repertoire of gospel music. She taught and mentored Brother Joe May, Myrtle Scott, Edna Gallmon Cooke and Martha Bass. Brother Joe May would give her the nickname “Mother”, which became part of her legacy.

In 1939 Smith would make anther decision that would create a new hallmark for her music: she would join the Church of God Apostolic, and her music would soon reflect the rhythm and energy evidenced by the church services. She considered herself a preacher, and created the “song and sermonette”, which involved combining a sermon at some point (or even at several points) during the concert – either before, during, or after. She toured the Midwest extensively during the 1940s, performing evangelistic concerts with her adopted daughter, Bertha, accompanying her on the piano.

Despite her success on the live music circuit, Smith would not seek to record her music until the late 1940s, early 1950s, and even then she only recorded sparingly. By the early 1950s her focus became more and more on evangelical work.

Smith was almost seventy when she began to receive national recognition. She would perform at a variety of jazz festivals, including the Newport Jazz Festival, and in 1981 would appear in “Say Amen, Somebody”, a gospel documentary film. In 1988 she received a National Heritage Award, and would continue to perform regularly at her church – the Lively Stone Apostolic Church – in St. Louis.

“The gospel song is the Christian blues. I’m like the blues singer: When something’s rubbing me the wrong way, I sing out of my soul to settle it down.”

To hear Smith sing, go here.

Smith would pass away on February 2, 1994 - at the age of eighty-nine - while residing at the Tower Village Nursing Home in St. Louis.

Willie Mae Ford Smith – Mother Smith - was considered by her contemporaries as one of the greatest of those artists who were known as ‘anointed singers’. She rarely recorded, letting her reputation rest on her live performances where her voice, message, and dramatic physical style inspired those who followed her in this musical genre.

LOCAL LIBRARY RESOURCES:

Our local library has no biographies of Willie Mae Ford Smith

WEB RESOURCES:

-African American Registry
-Answers
-Biography
-Black Gospel Choir Tribute
-Nation Master Encyclopedia
-New York Times Obituary
-Wikipedia

PHOTO SOURCES:

01. Willie Mae Ford Smith singing: National Endowment of the Arts
02. Smith singing: African American Registry
03. Singing in church: Find A Grave

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