Spirituals and the Birth of a Black Entertainment Industry (Music in American Life)

Spirituals performed by jubilee troupes became a sensation in post-Civil War America. First brought to the stage by choral ensembles like the Fisk Jubilee Singers, spirituals anchored a wide range of late nineteenth-century entertainments, including minstrelsy, variety, and plays by both black and white companies. In the first book-length treatment of postbellum spirituals in theatrical entertainments, Sandra Jean Graham mines a trove of resources to chart the spiritual's journey from the private lives of slaves to the concert stage. Graham navigates the conflicting agendas of those who, in adapting spirituals for their own ends, sold conceptions of racial identity to their patrons. In so doing they lay the foundation for a black entertainment industry whose artistic, financial, and cultural practices extended into the twentieth century. A companion website contains jubilee troupe personnel, recordings, and profiles of 85 jubilee groups. Please go to: http://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/graham/spirituals/

• Readings in Black American Music (Second Edition)
• The Power of Black Music: Interpreting Its History from Africa to the United States
• May We Forever Stand: A History of the Black National Anthem (The John Hope Franklin Series in African American History and Culture)
• We'll Understand It Better By and By: Pioneering African American Gospel Composers (The "Wade in the Water" Series)
• African American Music: An Introduction
• Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Social Upheaval
• African American Music: An Introduction
• The Music of Black Americans: A History (Third Edition)
• Just One of the Boys: Female-to-Male Cross-Dressing on the American Variety Stage (Music in American Life)
• How We Fight White Supremacy: A Field Guide to Black Resistance