26.Buffalo Star, August 16, 1940; Carpenter, Nationality, Color, and Economic Opportunity in the City of Buffalo, 139-40; Butler, Taylor, and Ryu, “Work and Black Neighborhood Life in Buffalo, 1930-1980,” 114-15. For the employment figures see U.S. Bureau of the Census, Sixteenth Census of the United States: 1940, vol. 3, pt. 4, Population: The Labor Force, 391-96. By 1950 at least one important change had occurred, indicating the potential power of the union to aid black progress: two-thirds of black industrial workers now held jobs above the unskilled level. Still, both the clerical and professional/proprietary groups among blacks remained insignificant, with less than 1 percent of the citywide total in each group. See U.S. Bureau of the Census, Seventeenth Decennial Census of the United States, 1950, vol. 2, pt. 32, Population: Characteristics, table 77. (The 1950 figures use the Standard Metropolitan Area, which includes surrounding suburbs, for the first time in calculating urban data.) Unemployment in black Buffalo in 1950 remained abnormally high: 15.6 percent against a citywide average of 6.8 percent. See Butler, Taylor, and Ryu, “Work and Black Neighborhood Life in Buffalo, 1930-1980,” 115-16. (back to text)
27.Billups Interview, 15-16; interview with Mary Hill by author, 15 (hereafter cited as Hill Interview). For contemporary discussions of changes in black job prospects during the war, see Buffalo Courier-Express, October 13, 1942; May 9 and June 5, 1943. On Wilson see McDonald, “Interview with Olin Wilson,” 90-91; Williams, Strangers in the Land of Paradise, 71. See Sernett, Bound for the Promised Land, passim, for an important discussion of the impact on religious faith of black migration to northern cities. For a broader analysis of black workers in these industries in Buffalo, see Northrup, Negro Employment in Basic Industry, pt. 4, passim; Weaver, Negro Labor, 33-34, 122. (back to text)
28.Lizzie Moore Interview, 14, 36. E. L. Billups is an Alabama-born working man who joined Friendship Baptist in March 1945 at age eighteen. That same week he began work at the Dunlop Tire and Rubber Company in Buffalo, where he worked until November 1998. Throughout his working career he was a member of Local 135, United Auto Workers Union, where he served as a shop steward and was deeply involved in Friendship as well. He became a deacon in 1948, served as a church trustee, and for more than two decades was the Superintendent of Friendship’s Sunday School, in charge of organizing the religious and cultural education of the church’s children through their teen years. See Billups Interview, 2-3, 14, 16. (back to text)
29.Billups Interview, 6; CLF Interview, October 14, 1977, 59; VF Interview, 16; Siggers Interview; Carpenter, Nationality, Color, and Economic Opportunity in the City of Buffalo, 160; Buffalo, City Planning Commission, Buffalo’s Population in 1975, 19; Butler, Taylor, and Ryu, “Work and Black Neighborhood Life in Buffalo, 1930-1980,” 115-16; Graebner, Coming of Age in Buffalo, 82; Kraus, Race, Neighborhoods, and Community Power, 52. For a comparison of both neighborhoods in 1940, see Taylor, “The Theories of William Julius Wilson and the Black Experience in Buffalo, New York,” 68; Butler, Taylor, and Ryu, “Work and Black Neighborhood Life in Buffalo, 1930-1980,” 114-15. There is some discrepancy as to the Franklins’ correct address: Polk’s Buffalo (Erie County, N.Y.) City Directory, 1946, 328, lists it as 177 Glenwood; it is listed as 179 Glenwood in National Baptist Convention, Proceedings of the Sixty-fifth Annual Session of the National Baptist Convention, 1945, 240. (back to text)
30.VF Interview, 14-17; EF Interview, 11; Erma Franklin, “Memories of the Franklin Family, 1, CLFP. (back to text)
31.VF Interview, 15, 26, 29, 38-39; EF Interview, 11; Siggers Interview. (back to text)
32.CLF Interview, November 30, 1977, 173, 185; Hill Interview, 9; Siggers Interview; VF Interview, 18, 21, 23; RF Interview, 19. (back to text)
33.CLF Interview, November 30, 1977, 173; CLF Interview, May 17, 1978, 249-50; Siggers Interview; VF Interview, 34. (back to text)
34.CLF Interview, November 30, 1977, 168; Williams, Strangers in the Land of Paradise, 103, 104, 105, 120, 123-78; Yearwood, “First Shiloh Baptist Church of Buffalo, New York,” 81-84. On the Garvey movement in Buffalo see Williams, Strangers in the Land of Paradise, 105, 178-80; Watkins, “The Marcus Garvey Movement in Buffalo, New York,” 40-44. The history of the Michigan Avenue Y before 1940 is told in Williams, Strangers in the Land of Paradise, 100-122. (back to text)
35.Buffalo Criterion, February 5 and 19 and May 6, 1944. The debate over the structure of the postwar world can be followed in Buffalo Criterion, February 5, March 18, May 27, and December 9, 1944; November 10, 1945; Buffalo Courier-Express, June 27 and August 3 and 5, 1943. (back to text)
36.Hill Interview, 4; Buffalo Criterion, August 25, 1945. (back to text)
37.On black veterans and the civil rights movement see Dittmer, Local People, 1-18; Dalfiume, Desegregation of the U.S. Armed Forces, 122-23, 132-33. (back to text)
38.CLF Interview, May 3, 1978, 204. (back to text)
39.National Baptist Voice, October 1, 1945; Wilson, Toast of the Town, 95. (back to text)
40.Nannie H. Burroughs, “Report of the Corresponding Secretary,” National Baptist Convention, Proceedings of the Sixty-fifth Annual Session of the National Baptist Convention, 1945, 343-51; Michigan Chronicle, September 15, 1945. On the Fair Employment Practices Commission see Reed, Seedtime for the Modern Civil Rights Movement. (back to text)
41.National Baptist Voice, April 15, 1940, and October 1, 1944. For continued discussions of whooping, see ibid., June 15, 1951, and January 1953; on Barbour see Williams, Biographical Directory of Negro Ministers, 34. (back to text)
42.National Baptist Voice, December 15, 1944; Michigan Chronicle, September 15, 1945. (back to text)
43.National Baptist Voice, October 1, 1945. Franklin took his text from 2 Corinthians 5:1-2; see National Baptist Convention, Proceedings of the Sixty-fifth Annual Session of the National Baptist Convention, 1945, 57. (back to text)
44.Hill Interview, 12, 18; Billups Interview, 8. Both Mary Hill and E. L. Billups remarked that the church meeting called to discuss CLF’s leaving was explosive. Deacon Billups, who attended the 1946 meeting but did not speak at it, stated that older members “discussed about some things that I definitely wouldn’t want to be, to be a part of this [interview], and, but, I’ll tell you this, we were here that night until quarter to three in the morning.” Both agreed that they heard no stories of Franklin engaging in relations with women in or out of the congregation. See Hill Interview, 17, 19; Billups Interview, 18. (back to text)
45.CLF Interview, October 14, 1977, 60. (back to text)
5. HASTINGS STREET
1.John Lee Hooker, “Boogie Chillen,” in Hooker, The Legendary Modern Recordings; Wilson, Toast of the Town, 64, 101-2; Derricotte, The Black Notebooks, 94. (back to text)
2.Hooker quoted in Murray, Boogie Man, 103. On the boundaries of Paradise Valley see Wilson, Toast of the Town, 43; Bjorn, Before Motown, 39; Murray, Boogie Man, 97; interview with Sheldon Tappes and with Richard L. King in Moon, Untold Tales, Unsung Heroes, 105, 161-62, respectively. On the city’s growing black population see Detroit Urban League, A Profile of the Detroit Negro, 1959-1967, 21; also of interest for the Hastings Street neighborhood is a report by the Detroit City Planning Commission, “Population Change by Census Tracts and Tract Areas, City of Detroit, 1930, 1940, 1950, 1960,” (mimeo., n.p., 1963), Box 71, DUL. On Hooker’s early career, rent parties, and the Henry Swing Club, see Mike Rowe, liner notes to Hooker, Detroit Blues, and Hooker’s version of “House Rent Boogie” on the same album; Edwards, The World Don’t Owe Me Nothing, 240; Collis, The Story of Chess Records, 30; Murray, Boogie Man, passim; Bjorn, Before Motown, 66. Hastings Street’s reputation during and after World War II is recalled in the interview with Dorothy Elizabeth Lawson in Moon, Untold Tales, Unsung Heroes, 118. (back to text)
3.On the growth of Detroit’s musical scene see Russ J. Cowans, “Those Roaring 20’s Were Haphy [sic] Days!” Michigan Chronicle, April 11, 1964; Lt. Fred L. Williams, “When Detroit Was a Reall
y Jazzy Site,” Michigan Chronicle, February 21, 1981; Bjorn, Before Motown, 61-104, esp. 64, 74, 77, 90; John Cohassey, liner notes to Hastings Street Grease, vol. 1; John Sinclair, liner notes to Hastings Street Grease, vol. 2. The emergence of black DJs is discussed by Bill Lane, untitled clipping [Detroit Tribune], n.d. [1952], Box 5, FAK. On the appearances of nationally famous acts in these clubs, see the advertisements in the entertainment section of the Michigan Chronicle, 1945-1950; on the decline of Paradise Valley’s music scene by the mid-1950s, see the interview with Earl Van Dyke in Moon, Untold Tales, Unsung Heroes, 242; Michigan Chronicle, April 10 and October 9, 1954; April 14, 1956. Gerald Early provides an insightful analysis of the city’s musical foundations in his One Nation Under a Groove. (back to text)
4.For descriptions of Hastings Street establishments see Bjorn, Before Motown, 43; Wilson, Toast of the Town, 104-5. On the social texture of the Valley see Wilson, Toast of the Town, 64-65; EF Interview, 44-45; interview with Karl Gregory by author, 8-11 (hereafter cited as Gregory Interview). (back to text)
5.Derricotte, The Black Notebooks, 94; Gordy, To Be Loved, 16, 22-23. (back to text)
6.Sugrue, The Origins of the Urban Crisis, 197-207; Bauer, Open the Door, 17; interview with Norman McRae and with Robert Bynum Jr. in Moon, Untold Tales, Unsung Heroes, 185, 199, respectively. The activities of the myriad social clubs among black elites can be followed in the society pages of the Michigan Chronicle; see, for example, the issues of January 11 and 25 and April 19, 1947; March 19, 1949. (back to text)
7.CLF Interview, October 7, 1977, 21; CLF Interview, October 14, 1977, 60-61; CLF Interview, November 30, 1977, 193. (back to text)
8.National Baptist Voice, June 15, 1944; New Bethel Baptist Church, “Gospel Tribute” for Reverend Clarence LaVaughn Franklin, December 10, 1979, n.p.; interview with Willie Todd by author, 7 (hereafter cited as Todd Interview); Clayborne, The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr., 1:361 n. 4. On the rise of gospel music see Harris, The Rise of Gospel Blues, passim; on the social and psychological importance of these churches within a faith context, see Sernett, Bound for the Promised Land; Gilkes, “The Black Church as a Therapeutic Community”; Paris, “Moral Development for African-American Leadership,” 24; Trulear, “The Lord Will Make a Way Somehow,” 89-97; King, Daddy King, 93. (back to text)
9.National Baptist Voice, June 1 and November 11, 1941; June 15, 1944; March 1 and December 15, 1945; Michigan Chronicle, April 6, 1946. (back to text)
10.Stovall, The Growth of Black Elected Officials in the City of Detroit, 1870-1973, 6. In the 1950s Detroit as a whole lost population for the first time in its history (-9.7 percent) due largely to whites leaving for the suburbs, and the resulting racial density in neighborhoods intensified significantly. See Detroit Urban League, A Profile of the Detroit Negro, 1959-1967, 23. This transformation occurred with much political conflict, violence, and destruction of property as racial tensions were fought out block by block, neighborhood by neighborhood. See Sugrue, The Origins of the Urban Crisis, pt. 3. (back to text)
11.Michigan Chronicle, September 14, 1946; Billups Interview, 20. On the Gotham see Wilson, Toast of the Town, 154-55; Dancy, Sand against the Wind, 113-14; interview with Beatrice M. Buck in Moon, Untold Tales, Unsung Heroes, 188. Buck worked at the hotel between 1951 and 1955. (back to text)
12.Interview with Kermit G. Bailer in Moon, Untold Tales, Unsung Heroes, 179. (back to text)
13.For a broad overview of black religion and black church organizations in this era of migration, see Lincoln and Mamiya, The Black Church in the African American Experience; Sernett, Bound for the Promised Land. (back to text)
14.CLF Interview, October 14, 1977, 65. He also noted Reverends H. H. Coleman, William Haney, Horace White, and “the minister Bishop” of the African Methodist Episcopal denomination whose name he did not recall. (back to text)
15.On A[llen] A. Banks and Second Baptist see Detroit Free Press, March 16 and 19, 1936; National Baptist Voice, February 15, 1947; May 1, 1950; February 15, 1951; May 1953; Michigan Chronicle, December 29, 1945; June 8 and 15, 1946; January 11, May 3, and November 15, 1947; A. A. Banks to Nannie H. Burroughs, January 7, 1947, Box 3, NHB; Williams, Biographical Directory of Negro Ministers, 32. Harry Kincaid migrated from the Mississippi Delta to Detroit in 1949. A war veteran and a “Southern University man,” Kincaid joined Second Baptist, a church that epitomized his aspirations for social and economic mobility. The sermons left something to be desired, he felt, and, after meeting CLF and discovering their common Delta roots, Kincaid began attending New Bethel following Second’s services and soon joined CLF’s church. In this case, common experiences and the draw of the rural-inflected church services proved critical, and his new affiliation did not deter Kincaid from achieving his economic goals. See Kincaid Interview, 2, 4, 13. (back to text)
16.On McNeil see National Baptist Voice, February 1, 1944; Michigan Chronicle, September 4 and December 18, 1948; June 10, 1950; May 12, 1951; J. J. McNeil to Nannie H. Burroughs, January 24, 1944, Nashville; McNeil to Burroughs, April 12, 1945, Marshall, TX; McNeil to Burroughs, June 26, 1948, Detroit, all in Box 20, NHB. (back to text)
17.On Victoria Banks see National Baptist Voice, February 15, 1947, and May 1953; Michigan Chronicle, January 11, 1947; on Pearl McNeil see Michigan Chronicle, June 10, 1950 (Bill Lane’s column), and June 5, 1954. (back to text)
18.New Bethel Baptist Church, The Sixteenth Anniversary Program, n.p.; EF Interview, 24, 36, 45; interview with Myra Perkins by author, 39 (hereafter cited as Perkins Interview); Derricotte, The Black Notebooks, 94. Barbour depicted the paradoxical situation with pointed humor: “The Detroit preachers ought to be on the back row in heaven,” he proclaimed. “It would not be fair to the rest of us who live in humble homes for those fellows to have all those fine mansions on Arden Park and Boston Boulevard and then reside on Hallelujah boulevard in Heaven.” National Baptist Voice, February 15, 1951. On CLF’s house see Robinson, Smokey, 28, 29. (back to text)
19.CLF Interview, October 14, 1977, 69-70; CLF Interview, November 30, 1977, 174-75. (back to text)
20.For a detailed discussion of this from the ministerial perspective, one that CLF may well have read, see S. L. Morgan Sr., “The Economic Struggle between Pastors and Churches,” National Baptist Voice, December 15, 1947. (back to text)
21.Michigan Chronicle, May 10, 1947; March 13 and May 29, 1948; New Bethel Baptist Church, The Fifteenth Anniversary Program, n.p.; New Bethel Baptist Church, The Sixteenth Anniversary Program, n.p. (back to text)
22.Interview with Milton Hall by author, 1, 2, 5, 10, 17, 23 ( hereafter cited as Hall Interview). (back to text)
23.On this increase in New Bethel’s membership see New Bethel Baptist Church, The Sixteenth Anniversary Program, n.p. (back to text)
24.Brewster Homes, built in 1937, held 941 units in eight 14-story buildings between Hastings and Beaubien, two blocks west, and a few blocks south of Willis. See Boykin, A Handbook on the Detroit Negro, 53-54; Michigan Chronicle, October 25, 1947, and November 3, 1948; Wilson, Dreamgirl, 21; Gordy, To Be Loved, 43; Stovall, The Growth of Black Elected Officials in the City of Detroit, 61. On CLF at this time see New Bethel Baptist Church, “Gospel Tribute” for Reverend Clarence LaVaughn Franklin, 2; CLF Interview, October 14, 1977, 63-64; CLF Interview, November 2, 1977, 104; “The Preacher with the Golden Voice,” 42. CLF incorporated the church’s struggles into a sermon a decade later; see his recording The Devil Tempts Jesus. (back to text)
25.VF Interview, 21. In her book Aretha Franklin explains that at that time, “adults did not discuss their affairs with children” and thus she and her siblings had no idea then (and by implication now) of the causes of the separation. See Franklin, Aretha, 5. (back to text)
26.Perkins Interview, 8, 9; EF Interview, 15; Siggers Interview; VF Interview, 10; Corbett Interview, 7-8; Todd Interview, 14-15. On Barbara’s alleged desertion see “Lady Soul: Singing It Like It Is,” Time, June 28, 1968,
63; Farley, “Soul Sister 2000,” 78; Franklin, Aretha, 5-7; VF Interview, 22-23; interview with Sylvia Penn by author, 1, 2 (hereafter cited as Penn Interview). For other uses of that term see Wexler, Rhythm and the Blues, 205-6; Broughton, Black Gospel, 98; Garland, “The Lady Who’s the Soul of Soul,” 26; Heilbut, The Gospel Sound, 276. (back to text)
27.Franklin, Aretha, 6-7; VF Interview, 5-6; Billups Interview, 21, 24-25; Hill Interview, 21-25. (back to text)
28.Perkins Interview, 17; Penn Interview, 1, 2, 4. On Rachel Franklin see VF Interview, 35; RF Interview, 19; Todd Interview, 14; interview with Carolyn King by author, 15 (hereafter cited as King Interview); Corbett Interview, 12, 13-14. (back to text)
29.VF Interview, 22-23; Franklin, Aretha, 20; Billups Interview, 25; Todd Interview, 14-15; Penn Interview, 2. (back to text)
30.Mahalia Jackson is quoted in Broughton, Black Gospel, 98. See also VF Interview, 23-25, 32. (back to text)
31.National Baptist Voice, October 1, 1948. (back to text)
32.CLF Interview, November 2, 112-13, 1977; CLF Interview, November 30, 1977, 186; Kyles Interview, 13, 14; Todd Interview, 9-10; George, “Lucie E. Campbell” (1987), 38, 39; Boyer, The Golden Age of Gospel, 247-49, 257-58; Franklin, Aretha, 52; “James Cleveland: King of Gospel,” passim. On the rivalry between preachers and sacred singers see Kyles Interview, 13, 14; Lincoln and Mamiya, The Black Church in the African American Experience, 346; Harris, The Rise of Gospel Blues, 184-85. Grace Cobb was a member of New Light Baptist Church but frequently sang with the New Bethel choir. Sammy Bryant can be heard singing “The Angels Keep Watching over Me” on the album None but the Righteous: Chess Gospel Greats. (back to text)
33.Michigan Chronicle, February 19, 1949; Kyles Interview, 10, 13-14; Franklin, Aretha, 44; Hirshey, Nowhere to Run, 47-48; Wilson, Toast of the Town, 157; Wolff, You Send Me, 52-54. Kyles was born in 1934 in Shelby, Mississippi, where his father, also a minister, was friends with CLF. The family moved to Chicago in 1938. See chapter 2 above. (back to text)
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