Black American Gospel Music Series, Roberta Martin and The Roberta Martin Singers: The Legacy of Music
name: label: Collection Collector
content: Maltsby, Portia
label: Collection Creator
content: Smithsonian Institution. Program in African American Culture
setName: label: See more items in
content: Program in African American Culture Collection
label: See more items in
content: Program in African American Culture Collection / Series 1: Program Files
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1981 February 6-9
container: label: Container
content: Box 7, Folder 8
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Program held February 6-8, 1981, at Baird Auditorium, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. It explored the richness of black gospel music as one of this country's most powerful contemporary urban music forms. More importantly, the program highlighted Roberta Martin as one of the most significant pioneers and innovators of Black American gospel music in the 1930s. Roberta Martin, inspired by Thomas A. Dorsey and Sallie Martin, became a composer and arranger of gospel music. Martin's first church position was as a pianist for the Young Peoples' Choir of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Chicago. There she worked with Thomas A. Dorsey and Theodore Frye, both of whom helped guide her early career. In 1933, with the help of Dorsey and Frye, Roberta Martin organized the Martin Frye Quartet with Eugene Smith, James Lawrence, Robert Anderson,
Willie Webb, and Norsalus McKissick. This group became the Roberta Martin Singers in 1936. In the mid-1940s, the group expanded with the addition of two females, Bessie Folk and Delois Barrett Campbell. The Roberta Martin Singers documented here are Delois Barrett Campbell, Lucy Smith Collier, Archie Dennis, Bessie Folk, Gloria Griffin, Louise McCord, Norsalus McKissick,
Eugene Smith, Romance Watson. From Roberta Martin and the Roberta Martin Singers: Program Notes. See Program Notes for additional information on Roberta Martin and the Roberta Martin Singers. The Division of Performing Arts presented the concert as part of the Black American Gospel Music Series. The Black American Gospel Music Series and the Roberta Martin program were organized by Bernice Johnson Reagon, director of the Program in African American Culture (formerly known as the Program in Black Culture). Program number AC408.10.