From Publishers Weekly
In the fall of 1871, while the country was reeling from the effects of the Civil War, a choir of former slaves and freedmen took to the road to raise money for their school, Fisk University, which was near financial collapse. Under the direction of George White, a white missionary who was Fisk's treasurer and self-appointed choirmaster, the group traveled north, performing Negro spirituals. At first they encountered only ridicule, prejudice and physical hardship, and the venture seemed so surely headed for disaster that one alarmed father called his daughter home. But when the remaining singers reached New York City, the flamboyant abolitionist preacher Henry Ward Beecher took up their cause, and the Jubilee Singers began to enjoy stupendous success. They traveled throughout the eastern U.S. and Europe, performing in churches, concert halls and the homes of the elite, astonishing audiences with moving renditions of plantation hymns, which most whites had never heard before. Ward (Our Bones Are Scattered) describes the Singers' three grueling tours, providing intimate portraits of each member of the group as well as their famous patrons and the besieged administrators and teachers back home at Fisk. In the process, he creates a vivid picture of the plight of blacks during and after the Civil War and shows how deeply whites opposed education for Negroes. At times, Ward's history may strike readers as overly detailed, but exhaustive factual accounts are relieved by quotations from the singers' own eloquently recorded impressions. The book is a fascinating tribute to a group of enterprising young men and women whose dignity and courage Ward calls "a constellation in the dark midnight from which they rose." Photos not seen by PW. (May)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Adult/High School-An incredible story of perseverance, courage, and determination. Established in the wake of the Civil War with a mission to teach emancipated slaves to read and write, Fisk University found it difficult to collect tuition from its desperately poor students. In 1871, needing to raise money to keep the school alive and operating, Fisk's treasurer and choirmaster, George White, organized a group of singers who would tour the eastern United States and, later, Europe. These nine students, the Fisk Jubilee Singers, took the music of black America and, in particular, the spiritual, to people of all different backgrounds, from queens to Supreme Court Justices to the common man. However, their efforts, and their success, did not come without a price. The singers faced heart-wrenching discrimination and, in some cases, such poor physical conditions that their health and voices were greatly compromised. Ward has done a wonderful job of relaying the events of the times and the history of the Jubilee Singers. Worthwhile reading about these ambassadors of music.-Peggy Bercher, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
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