Preface

This is a list of gospel songs composed and/or arranged by African Americans. Included also are songs about African Americans, even in cases where the identity of the composer or arranger is not known. For example, Lazaras Aaronson dedicated a song ("God didn't curse me when He made me black") to Congressman William L. Dawson. While we are not sure that Aaronson was African American, we are certain that William L. Dawson. In addition, Aaronson used W.C. Handy as his publisher.

The following samples should explain how entries are listed:

1. By Title

AFTER IT'S ALL OVER. 1953
.....Alex Bradford

The above entry reads: Title (After it’s all over), Date of Publication (1953), Personal name (Alex Bradford)

2. By Personal Name

CLARK, SYLVIA
.....Teach me to pray. 1965 (arr. Roberta Martin)

The above entry reads: Personal name (Sylvia Clark), Title (Teach me to pray), Date of publication (1965), Arranger (Roberta Martin)

3. By Arranger

WOODS (JR), KENNETH
.....All that I am (it's by God's grace). 1961. Margaret Aikens
.....Brighter day ahead, A. 1958. Margaret Aikens

The above entry reads: Kenneth Woods (arranger), All that I am (Title). 1961 (Date of Publication, Margaret Aikens (Composer)


Additionally, in cases where two personal names are listed (i.e. one person composed the music and the other wrote the words), we will establish an entry for both names.

Generally, whenever an arranger’s name appears on a piece of sheet music, the entry will indicated it clearly.

Also, entries that are bracketed may not be in the collection, but are included in this list because the titles were listed on the back of a piece of sheet music. For example:

Wallace D. Adams. [Tired of Wandering]. The song "Tired of Wandering" was listed on a sheet music back cover ad under the heading, "New Songs by Wallace D. Adams". For those pieces in brackets, we did not locate a piece of sheet music. We only listed the title.

Finally, we included a list of historical publishers -mostly African American- as we found them listed on the sheet music. We also include the names of individuals whose picture appears on sheet music.

Sample iconography entry:

Oglesby, Lela
....On this rock, by E.N. Adams. 1950

(An entry for a piece of sheet music with Lela Oglesby on the cover. Title: On this rock. Personal Name: E. N. Adams. Date of Publication: 1950)

Finally, you may also want to visit Sam's African American Spiritual Index at http://samp2211.blogspot.com/

Different Call Numbers

Some music will have a call number other than M2199. For example, PA0000053369.

In the above example, the item was found in the copyright catalog (http://cocatalog.loc.gov/) and should be requested using the call number beginning with PA.

Example:

BRAND NEW. 1978
…..Thomas A. Whitfield (PA0000053369)

Further information about the above it may not be listed (i.e. "first line of the song" etc., because the citation was taken from a database. The sheet music was not previewed as was the case for sheet music under the call number, M2199.