Sermon “WE FALL DOWN, BUT WE GET UP”
Elder, Robert M. Mason, Jr.
Director of Music, Heather Bennett
Liturgist, Elder Edward Chang-Soon
Soloists, Nkechi Fyle and Jeremy Watson
Participating Singers, Ruth Whyte and Blanche Young
A MOMENT IN BLACK HISTORY – Did You Know?
African American spirituals, gospel, and folk music have all played a critical role in inspiring, mobilizing, and giving voice to the civil rights movement.
“These freedom songs played a strong and vital role in the struggle,”
said Martin Luther King, Jr. They gave the people courage and a sense of hope, for black citizens living under the oppression of Jim Crow laws in the segregated South.
A gifted artist named Sam Cooke felt compelled to write a song that spoke to his own struggle and of those around him, that pertained to the Civil Rights Movement.
He recorded “A Change is Gonna Come” in 1963.
The message he wanted the audience to recognize from the song was that, during the Civil Rights Movement the black community was not allowed to live a life without concern and fear, because people were experiencing frequent racial discrimination.