ABSTRACT
On Wednesday, June 17, 2015, the tragic deaths of nine African Americans at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) in Charleston, South Carolina, brought racism to the forefront of the nation’s consciousness once again. Nine days later, the nationally televised funeral service for South Carolina Senator and AME Pastor Clementa Pinckney galvanized the nation, causing both blacks and whites to demand removal of the South’s most polarizing symbol—the rebel flag. However, this funeral also offered many white Americans their first glimpse of the African Methodist Episcopal worship experience. Throughout the service they witnessed vestiges of the West African musical past such as characteristic call and responses, handclapping, vocal outbursts, and improvisatory singing from none other than President Barack Obama, who gave an emotional version of “Amazing Grace.” Equally present was the more formal hymn lining and singing that link the AME Church to its early beginnings in the white Methodist Episcopal Church. Indeed, this juxtaposition of the formal and informal or white and black are the distinguishing trademarks of black Methodist music in the South. This chapter examines the use of European-influenced hymns, hymn lining, Negro spirituals, camp meeting hymns, and the shout within black sacred music, specifically within the AME Church since its founding in 1816.
