Black History Month: Two Women

The body of sacred congregational song composed by African Americans is an incredibly rich and diverse gift to the church. It includes spirituals, folk songs, hymns, classic gospel songs, contemporary gospel songs, choruses, and praise music, as well as examples in all of the modern, contemporary alternative styles. Two of the most successful and prolific contributors to the modern body of African American worship song are women: Doris Akers and Margaret Douroux.

Doris Mae Akers was born in Brookfield, Missouri, May 21, 1922, and died in Minneapolis on July 26, 1995. She composed her first song at age ten; and even though she lacked formal music training, she went on to a successful career conducting choirs throughout the U.S.A. and composing gospel songs. Noted hymnologist William J. Reynolds quotes Akers as describing her ability to capture the attention of the congregation as "just letting go and releasing the Spirit of God" (Carlton Young, Companion to the United Methodist Hymnal, p. 715). Her songs have been recorded by many artists and groups, including the Stamps-Baxter Quartet, Bill Gaither, George Beverly Shea, and Mahalia Jackson. Manna Music presented her with a Gold West Plaque in recognition of "Lord, Don't Move the Mountain," a song she co-wrote with Mahalia Jackson, achieving one million record sales. She has been honored by the Smithsonian Institution, which has labeled her songs and recordings "National Treasures." In 2001 she was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame.

It was Akers' custom to pray with her singers prior to worship or concert, and on a Sunday morning in 1962, she told her singers, "You are not ready to go in." They had already prayed, but she felt they had not prayed enough that morning, so they began to pray again, this time with renewed fervor. Realizing that the pastor and congregation were waiting for them to start the service, she said to the choir, "We have to go. I hate to leave this room and I know you hate to leave, but you know we do have to go to the service. But there is such a sweet, sweet Spirit in this place." She had written down the new song by the next day. ( See "Honored by the Smithsonian: 'Sweet, Sweet Spirit'" )

There are two songs in our songbooks by Doris Akers:

• "There's a Sweet, Sweet Spirit in this Place" (United Methodist Hymnal, 334). Akers composed the words and music in 1962 while she was choir director for the Sky Pilot Radio Church in Los Angeles. The song first appeared as sheet music in 1965. This arrangement is by Fred Bock for his 1976 hymnal, Hymns for the Family of God.
• "Lead Me, Guide Me" (The Faith We Sing, 2214). This gospel song is a plea for God to lead us in strength and power in our times of weakness and darkness. In addition to Elvis singing it in his last movie, it provided the title for a Catholic hymnal in 1987 as well as an Elvis CD.

Margaret Pleasant Douroux is a daughter and sister of pastors. Her mother taught her, her four sisters, and one brother to sing and play the piano. She went on to formal music study, earning a bachelor's (Cal State, Los Angeles), two master's (USC) and Ph.D. degrees. Despite her training, she never intended music as a career, and went on to work as an educational psychologist in the Los Angeles schools.

Her father, the Rev. Earl A. Pleasant, toured as a singer with his friend, Mahalia Jackson, and founded Mount Moriah Baptist Church near the Los Angeles Coliseum. She wrote her first song, "Give Me a Clean Heart," in 1970, and it caught on after it was introduced at a national gospel convention. Douroux went on to a catalog of more than 200 songs, many of which have been recorded by numerous artists and included in hymnals and songbooks, including "We're Blessed" and "If It Had Not Been for the Lord on My Side." She remains active in her church music position and as a teacher, speaker, and guest musician.

There are two songs by Margaret Douroux in The Faith We Sing:

• "If It Had Not Been for the Lord on My Side" (2053). This song is usually sung with a strong rhythmic pulse, but not particularly fast. It is a "personal and communal testimony of ways that God intercedes in moments of human trials and conflicts" (The Faith We Sing, Worship Planner Edition, page 56). It might be more comfortable for most congregations in the key of C.
• "Give Me a Clean Heart" (2133). This short chorus is in an arch form with a crescendo leading to a climax at " . . . of all those blessings. Give me a clean heart . . ." followed by a dramatic diminuendo. Sing this setting of Psalm 51:10, called in the Worship Planner Edition of The Faith We Sing a "purging process through the music," at a slow, expressive tempo.