Thomas A. Dorsey
Thomas A. Dorsey is the acknowledged Father of Black Gospel Music and perhaps the most influential figure ever to impact the genre. Dorsey was the son of a revivalist preacher. Influenced in childhood by blues pianists in the Atlanta, Ga., area he is best known as the writer of the classic songs “Take My Hand Precious Lord” and “Peace in the Valley“. He was a versatile composer whose material shifted from energetic hard gospel to hymns. Dorsey was a pioneering force in the renowned Chicago gospel community of the 1930s, where he helped launch the careers of legends Mahalia Jackson and Sallie Martin.
Thomas A. Dorsey attained his education from the classrooms of Villa Roca and Atlanta in Georgia. As the child of a preacher Thomas attended elementary school where he would learn academics and observe the benefits associated with being the child of a preacher. People all around made much of Thomas because he was the preacher’s son. In the 1920s he toured with Ma Rainey and his own bands, often featuring the slide guitarist Tampa Red. His first attempt at writing a gospel song, 1921’s “If I Don’t Get There,” had met with some success.
Then he returned to song writing with a renewed sense of purpose, renouncing secular music to devote all his talents to the church circuit. From 1928-1931, Dorsey tried to sell his gospel music to local churches only to discover they would not embrace the sacred music he infused with blues and jazz syncopations. The African-American church which had successfully incorporated European sacred classics into its Sunday morning worship service refused to consider incorporating Dorsey’s music into its services.
In 1932, while in Indianapolis organizing a choir, Dorsey received tragic news. His wife and son died in childbirth. Thomas turned to the one source of comfort that he knew – the piano. A mystical experience occurred. As his hands hovered over the keys, a strange sensation took over him, and he began to play a melody and the accompanying words followed.
From this experience, he composed, “Precious Lord, Take My Hand,” his most famous gospel classic sung in churches across America. Dorsey always maintained that this song came from God himself. It became the anthem of Fannie Lou Hamer´s 1964 Mississippi Summer. Dorsey´s friend, Mahalia Jackson, sang it at Martin Luther King, Jr´s funeral. He founded the first gospel publishing house by African American composers. By organizing the first National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses in 1932, he nationalized the gospel music tradition.