FORT THOMAS - In her mind's eye, she can see him still. He is a gentle, good man - a minister - but on this day, he is furiously angry.
He is Anne Kear's father. The year is 1948 or '49, and the family is living in Alliance, Ohio, a steel town not far from Youngstown. The Rev. Ms. Kear, now pastor of her own church in Fort Thomas, is 8 years old.
"I can see him kind of striding into the house and saying, 'You just won't believe what happened at the Lexington Hotel. I've been on the phone all afternoon, and I think I have places where these people can stay.'
"He was steaming."
The memory comes back to the Rev. Ms. Kear as she learns of Saturday's schedule at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center. At 5 p.m., the Wings Over Jordan Celebration Chorus will perform along with our own Northern Kentucky Brotherhood singers.
"Golly, I'm old," she says. "I didn't realize they still existed as a group. When I heard they were coming, I thought, 'Oh my goodness.' "
Fifty years ago, the Wings Over Jordan helped an 8-year-old girl discover who she was.
At the time, Alliance was a segregated town, although not nearly as white as Fort Thomas is today. The Rev. Ms. Kear's father belonged to a ministerial association that included black pastors, and she was used to many visitors in their home - African-Americans, Iraqis, missionaries from India, even.
Her father and other music lovers had invited the Wings Over Jordan Choir to perform in Alliance. The choir already had been around the world, singing for heads of state, presidents, church leaders and U.S. troops in Europe. Its goal: to preserve the style and content of slave spirituals, sung by African-Americans forced to communicate through music instead of words.
"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" was a reference to transportation for runaway slaves. "Get on Board, Little Children" carried a similar message.
The Rev. Ms. Kear's father met the choir members and escorted them to Alliance's only hotel, where reservations had been made. "The (hotel) said, 'They can't stay here.' My dad said, 'Why not?' And they stammered around. They didn't want to say," she recalls.
"The reason was that they were 'Negro.' "
Outraged, her father threatened to boycott the only hotel in town. Then he contacted ministers and friends to arrange other lodging. Two singers stayed in their home that evening, the Rev. Ms. Kear says, and the performance went on as planned.
"I always went to those concerts; that was part of my education as a child," she says. "I can close my eyes and almost see them on the stage."
This weekend, with any luck, she will see them again.
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IF YOU GO
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What: Concert by the Northern Kentucky Brotherhood singers and the Wings Over Jordan Celebration Chorus.
When: 5 p.m. Saturday.
Where: Northern Kentucky Convention Center, 1 W. River Center Blvd., Covington.
Cost: Adults, $11 at the door; seniors, $8.25; children, $5.50.
Information: Call the sponsor, the Northern Kentucky African-American Heritage Task Force, at 431-5502.
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The Wings Over Jordan Celebration Chorus was formed in 1988 to carry on the original group's mission.
"From the musical standpoint, it represents excellence, and I think people ought to hear excellence any time they can," says Hensley Jemmott, a member of the Northern Kentucky African-American Heritage Task Force.
The spirituals also are historically important. They gave political expression to a people's yearning for freedom, and they shaped the future of American music.
"It has been said that the only original American music was jazz. Jazz came out of the black church - jazz and the gospels and spirituals all were expressions of those people," Mr. Jemmott says.
Last weekend, he briefly plugged the concert at a gathering of church and community leaders in Covington. They had given up their Saturdays to talk about racism - that age-old subject - but this time in a different way. Under the direction of Cathy Cox, a facilitator from the Kentucky Council of Churches, the assembled citizens brainstormed concrete ways to become actively anti-racist. They will meet again in January to continue their work.
The crowd included the Rev. Ms. Kear, who presides over Christ Church United Church of Christ. Most participants were from Kenton County; the Rev. Ms. Kear joined them because she cares about the subject.
"I just really think we have to get at that," she says. "Fort Thomas knows it's affluent and blessed. I think that often expresses itself in reaching out. However, I don't think anybody's addressed the issue that we're pretty white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant - Catholic here," she says.
Because of who she is and how she grew up, the Rev. Ms. Kear's mission includes broadening minds.
Sometimes music does that to a person.
Karen Samples is The Enquirer's Kentucky columnist. Her column appears on Sundays and Thursdays in The Kentucky Enquirer. She can be reached at 578-5584 or email
her at ksamples@enquirer.com
SAMPLES ARCHIVE
