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Singing in a Strange Land: C. L. Franklin, the Black Church, and the Transformation of America

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Readers interested in both black church music and black history will relish Singing In A Strange Land: C.L. Franklin, The Black Church, And The Transformation Of America. More than just a biography of C.L. Franklin, Singing In A Strange Land uses Franklin's background to explore both African American religion and musical development in America. Salvatore spent eight years extensively researching, including interviewing Franklin's associates, to develop a winning biography which includes so much more than civil rights history alone.

"Singing in a Strange Land" is very valuable as a sketch of this highly successful, complex legend. It was a compelling read that prompted me to read biographies of two of the most famous supporting characters, Mahalia Jackson and Clara Ward. For chronicles of these I read, and highly recommend, "Got to Tell It", Jules Schwerin's unsparing bio of Mahalia and "How I Got Over", Willa Ward-Royster's portrait of her gifted sister Clara Ward. Besides the priceless info about Mahalia and Clara, these biographies provide further details about C. L. Indeed, one of the vignettes in "Got to Tell It" (a conversation between Mahalia and Aretha about C. L.'s alleged drug use) paints a portrait of C. L. that leads me to suspect that daughter Erma Franklin's cooperation with "Singing in a Strange Land" was possibly conditioned on Salvatore's silence on some matters. Notwithstanding details of C. L.'s life unavailable elsewhere, and whatever self-exposure a preacher betrays in his sermons, "Singing in a Strange Land"'s shortcoming is the reader is left in the dark about C. L.'s thoughts and feelings. This is not the author's fault as Salvatore repeatedly refers to C. L.'s reticence to speak about personal feelings -- particularly about his early life in the Jim Crow South. Accordingly the reader is forced to draw inferences about the man, many of which may be unflattering due to the minister's impious personal life (e.g., his wife's decision to leave the philanderer though it meant painful separation from four of her young children).

I loved the book and was surprised by some of the revelations about the subject.
He was a man who could preach the uncomprising gospel but in his personal life made mistakes that in essence manifested themselves in ways that determined the later part of his life (i.e. constant touring, clubbing, refusal to move to safer neighborhood after two break-ins at his house).
In some ways, I agree with the faction of New Bethel who lobbied for a new pastor after Franklin's debilitation. There was no way after an injury like that for him to do the job of a Pastor and those folks knew it. Aretha in her bio said that the minister in charge "tried to take daddy's church" well one Franklin was an employee who happened to be ceo and was in no shape to perform his duties so the church didnt belong to him personally..I came away with a view of man who through tenacity of spirit and sheer will rose from a sharecropper to dynamic evangelist. I also took from the book that his second wife Barbara was someone to be applauded and in some ways pitied. She gave birth to four children with the man and endured countless nights alone while Franklin "evangelized" and fathered a child with someone else, she forgave him and bore two more children only to be so disgusted that she left him and seeing the economic contrast between her and franklin agreed to leave the four she bore him behind to literally start over at 31 working first at a record store and then getting a nurse's aide position and working herself to death. I got the sense from reading both Aretha's bio and this book that whatever Franklin wanted in his household it was his way or the highway! No woman could put up with that and thus, his children were raised by his mother and frequent housekeepers and maternal figures from New Bethel.
In conclusion, great book worthy of a movie option in my estimation.

If you live in America, particularly its big cities, you need it. If you lived through any part of the 20th century, you need it. "Singing in a Strange Land..." is a timely witness of the life of Rev. C.L. Franklin as an intersection of many apparently unrelated roads. Most interestingly, it gives insight to a time before Rev. Franklin was thought of as "Aretha's daddy". It chronicles the era when she was "the Rev.'s singing little girl".

Aside from the strictly biographical aspects of this volume, there is much to reward those interested in subjects as diverse as the show business of gospel music, Detroit municipal politics, the civil-rights movement and even the growth of the Black community in Buffalo, NY! But, it it is a true pageturner, because Mr. Salvatore's writing never bores.

Now dear reader, I am no expert on literature or scholastic research, but like the man in the museum looking at a Picasso, " I know what I like". I like this effort by Mr. Salvatore, and I believe you will, too. Don't miss it!

In my humble opinion, the history delineated in this writing should be taught in classrooms across America and beyond! I learned so much about the evolution of citizenship, religion in the USA, and music of all genres from this book. I was left feeling that I owe such a great debt to so many who suffered and sacrificed so much that I can enjoy life in this country. The privileges and the luxuries we bask in have deep roots enlivened by much blood, sweat and tears. So much was made clear, especially where it pertains to different music artists, their styles of delivery and their associations with other genres of artists.

I grew up loving both Rev. C. L. Franklin and Clara Ward. I was glad to learn that they loved each other, as Aretha Franklin also attests.

This is a refreshing well written biography that stands as a reminder that a conservative theologian can support progressive social change. Unlike much of today's moral preaching that right is right and everyone else deserves to be burned if they commit heresy like defending gay marriage or claiming that the pro-life vs. women's rights is an economic war, the Reverend C. L. Franklin supported civil and individual rights as common decency for everyone. He used a voice that Motown would have wanted to have tospread the word of freedom to his followers in Detroit and others as a leader in the Civil Rights movements of the 1950s and 1960s. Nick Salvatore using public records, family information, and interviewing older members of Reverend Franklin's New Bethel Baptist Church puts together quite a full picture especially of the pulpit over three decades just after World War II until he was shot and fell into a coma ultimately dying. Readers get a feel for inner city Detroit politics and social upheaval as a backdrop to a deep look at one of the most influential civil rights spokespersons of the era.

Harriet Klausner

I enjoyed reading the book not only to hear about black history but to read about my daughter's history. Alyssa Ellan Smith who will be turning one on 1/4/05 will always have her history of her family in a book. Her grandmother Carl Ellan Kelley a remarkable woman who overcame many roadblocks in her life looks into Alyssa's eyes. Alyssa is a blessing to us but in an eerie feeling to look at Alyssa is to look at C.L. Franklin. From her eyes to her chin to the smile on her face she is an identical to her great-grandfather. We hold up pictures of the two and put them down in amazement. The book finally told the truth of Carl Ellan Kelley she was only a child who because of shame was raised by her grandparents who raised her to be a wonderful person. Thank you C.L. Franklin for giving us the gift of life our Grandmother and mother a woman who inspires me.