Negro Art Singers Program No. 28

The NYPR Archive Collections | Jan 1, 2000

The exact date of this episode is unknown. We've filled in the date above with a placeholder. What we actually have on record is: 193u-uu-uu.

Presented by the Works Progress Administration and the Federal Music Project, William Lawrence directs the Negro Art Singers in a program of spirituals.

If You Love God Serve Him (arranged by William C. Elkins)
King Emanuel
There's Going to Be a Landslide
(composer - Lily Strickland, singer - William C. Elkins, pianist - William Lawrence)
In That Great Gettin' Up Morning

The announcer says a few words about the composer of the last song, "an old slave who could neither write nor read, but dreamed one night of the general judgment and related the dream to his friends the next morning in the form of a song."

The program begins and ends with "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny."

Recorded between 1935 and 1938.


Audio courtesy of the NYC Municipal Archives WNYC Collection


WNYC archives id: 150497
Municipal archives id: LT4768

Be alert for scams. WNYC never asks for nor accepts money for coverage or interviews. Anyone making such a request does not represent WNYC.

Top Stories

Darializa Avila-Chevalier on Mamdani, ICE and the NYPD

Has MAGA Lost Faith in Donald Trump? Plus, Molly Fischer on Waymo

Watch: Test your news knowledge with Brian Lehrer

A Nobel Peace Prize Winner on the State of Press Freedom and Democracy

YOU ARE ONLINE