Wade in the Water Radio Series Collection
name: label: Creator
content: Smithsonian Institution
label: Creator
content: National Public Radio
label: Creator
content: Reagon, Bernice Johnson, 1942-2024
place: label: Place
content: Southern States -- Religion
topic: label: Topic
content: African American composers
label: Topic
content: African American history
label: Topic
content: African Americans -- Music
label: Topic
content: African American music -- 20th century
label: Topic
content: Church music
label: Topic
content: Civil rights movements
label: Topic
content: Concerts
label: Topic
content: Gospel music
label: Topic
content: Jazz
label: Topic
content: Jazz -- 20th century -- United States
label: Topic
content: Music by women composers
label: Topic
content: Music -- Religious aspects
label: Topic
content: Oral tradition
label: Topic
content: Performance art -- United States
label: Topic
content: Popular music -- African American influences
label: Topic
content: Popular music -- 20th century -- United States
label: Topic
content: Public worship
label: Topic
content: Radio programs, Musical
label: Topic
content: Rhythm and blues music
label: Topic
content: Sacred music
label: Topic
content: Spirituals (Songs) -- United States.
label: Topic
content: Slavery
label: Topic
content: Slavery -- Songs and music
label: Topic
content: Slavery -- United States
label: Topic
content: Soul music
label: Topic
content: African Americans -- Civil rights -- Songs and music.
label: Topic
content: African Americans -- Religion
label: Topic
content: African American religion
label: Topic
content: Women composers -- United States
label: Topic
content: African American churches
label: Topic
content: Churches
label: Topic
content: African American churches -- 1950-1960
label: Topic
content: Africa -- Songs and music
label: Topic
content: Africa, Southern -- Songs and music
label: Topic
content: African Americans -- Songs and music
label: Topic
content: African Americans -- Songs, English -- United States.
label: Topic
content: Gospel music -- Southern States.
label: Topic
content: Gospel music -- United States -- 1960-1970.
label: Topic
content: Gospel singers
label: Topic
content: Church choirs, gospel singers, and preachers
label: Topic
content: Jazz -- History -- 1920-1980.
label: Topic
content: African American music teachers
label: Topic
content: Ethnomusicology
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: Created at the National Museum of American History, 1992.
creator: label: Creator
content: Smithsonian Institution
label: Creator
content: National Public Radio
label: Creator
content: Reagon, Bernice Johnson, 1942-2024
culture: label: Culture
content: African American musicians
label: Culture
content: African American Culture
label: Culture
content: African Americans -- Civil rights
setName: label: See more items in
content: Wade in the Water Radio Series Collection
abstract: label: Summary
content: Primarily consists of original performance and interview audio recordings, audio outtake materials, and edited program audio tapes created by the Smithsonian Institution (SI) and National Public Radio (NPR) for Wade in the Water: African American Sacred Music Traditions radio series documenting the influence of religion on various African American sacred and secular music styles.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: In 1993, the National Public Radio (NPR) and the Smithsonian Institution (SI) entered an agreement to develop, produce, and distribute an original radio series on the sacred music tradition of the African American church.  The radio series used the collections, research, and other resources of the Smithsonian to create twenty-six one-hour programs. Collectively titled Wade in the Water: African American Sacred Song and Worship the series was distributed for broadcast by the National Public Radio (NPR) in 1994.  

The twenty-six one-hour programs included Songs and Singing as Church; In Search of the Sacred; Steal Away, Songs and Stories About Slavery; Sacred Songs as History; The Power of Communal Song; Lined Hymn and Shaped-Note Tradition; The Fisk Jubilee Singers and the Concert Spiritual Tradition; African American Composers and the Concert Spiritual Tradition; The Struggle for a New Classical Concert Tradition; The Legacy of the Golden Gate Quartet; Birmingham, Alabama Regional Quartet Tradition; From Local Community to Nation, Post-WWII Quartet Tradition; The Song Ministry of Charles A. Tindley; Lucie Campbell, Gospel's First African American Woman Composer; William Herbert Brewster, the Eloquent Poet of Gospel; The Gospel Song Legacy of Thomas Andrew Dorsey; The Music of Roberta Martin and Kenneth Morris; I'm A Soldier in the Army of the Lord; The Many Ways of the Crossover; Beyond Text: Instruments in the Service of the Lord; Jazz and the Wider World of the Sacred (Part One); Jazz and the Wider World of the Sacred (Part Two); Sing 'Till the Power ...; The Story of the California Gospel Movement; Pushing the Boundaries with Contemporary Gospel Choir; and Pushing the Boundaries with Contemporary Gospel Composers.

As part of the requirements outlined in the agreement the Smithsonian Institution's curator Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon was to play a critical role in the creation of the radio series. Her knowledge of the subject matter and experience in the field were essential to the success of the series. Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon (October 4, 1942-July 16, 2024) was a song leader, composer, professor of American history, and social activist, who was a founding member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) Freedom Singers in the Albany Movement in Georgia. She served as the chief scholar, host, and conceptional producer of the radio series. Dr. Reagon provided the overall concept,  content, program formats, music, suggestions of individuals to be interviewed and to  perform, program script approvals, and selected the advisory panel.

Research materials used for the radio series came from the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History's (NMAH) Division of Community Life. Much of this material had been created by Dr. Reagon and the division's Program in African American Culture (PAAC). The Program in African American Culture (PAAC), originally known as the Program in Black Culture, was a research and programming office that was created as an outgrowth of the African Diaspora component of the 1975 and 1976 Festival of American Folklife. As the founding director, Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon developed the programming office as a center for researching and presenting topics of interest to the study of African American history and culture. The Program was transferred to the National Museum of American History in 1983, where it provided, a forum for the presentation of traditional and historical forms of African American cultural expression. To accomplish this, the Program in African American Culture (PAAC) staff conducted research, which resulted in public programs including conferences, concerts, colloquia, and seminars on a wide range of topics.

National Public Radio (NPR) raised the funds to cover the total cost for the radio series including those associated with hiring personnel and consultants. In addition, National Public Radio (NPR) paid for the creative, production, marketing, and distribution costs.    
The materials used to create the radio series were transferred to the National Museum of American History's (NMAH) Archives Center in March 1995.


Source: National Public Radio Program Production Agreement, 1993
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 27 Cubic feet
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1992-1994, undated
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NMAH.AC.0516
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Audiotapes
label: Type
content: Interviews
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: Collection is arranged in two series.

Series 1: Interview and Programming Materials, 1993


Subseries 1.1: Program Scripts, 1993


Subseries 1.2: Interview Transcripts, 1993 
 

Subseries 1.3: Cultural Programming Department Music Cue Sheets, 1993 


Subseries 1.4: Field Recording Logs, 1993 


Subseries 1.5: Interview Releases and Performance Agreements, 1993

 
 
Series 2: Audiovisual Materials, 1993 


Subseries 2.1: Master Digital Audio Tapes of Edited Programs, 1993 


Subseries 2.2: Master Digital Audio Tapes of Interviews, 1992-1993


Subseries 2.3: Master Digital Audio Tapes of Music, 1992-1993


Subseries 2.4: Reference Audio Cassette Tapes of Edited Programs, 1993


Subseries 2.5: Audio Recordings of Interviews, 1993


Subseries 2.6: Bernice Johnson Reagon Tracks, 1993


Subseries 2.7: Audio Outtake Reels, 1993

 
Subseries 2.8: Audio Recording Mixing Elements, 1993


Subseries 2.9: Remotes, 1993
 

Subseries 2.10: Music for Digital Cleanup, 1993
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: Collection partially processed by NMAH Staff, 2003; Vanessa Broussard Simmons, archivist, 2024; and Meredith Clowse, intern, 2024. The finding aid was encoded by Meredith Clowse, intern, 2024.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Audiotapes
label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Collection consists of material created by the National Public Radio (NPR) and Smithsonian Institution (SI) for its radio series documenting the influence of religion on various African American sacred and secular music styles including gospel, spirituals, classical, popular, and jazz. Using the Smithsonian Institution's collections, research, and other resources the radio series consisted of twenty-six one-hour programs collectively titled Wade in the Water: African American Sacred Song and Worship.  Materials in this collection are the direct result of the two cultural institutions' work to create final programs for broadcast on National Public Radio (NPR). 
 

Collection is arranged in two series. Series one contains textual records including the transcripts of interviews, program scripts, music cue sheets, field recording logs, interview releases, and performance agreements.  Series two is audiovisual materials and comprises the largest portion of the collection.  It consists of master digital audio tapes and reference audio cassette tapes of the original edited programs, audio recordings of interviews and musical performances, Bernice Johnson Reagon's tracks, audio outtake reels, audio recording mixing elements, remotes, and music for digital cleanup.
relatedmaterial: label: Related Materials
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution

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