In 1932 Sallie Martin became its vice-president and remained in office the rest of her life.
Through annual regional conferences in various regions of the U.S., the Convention promoted gospel music and promulgated the new songs written by Dorsey and his colleagues. Frye, and several other gospel musicians. Sallie Martin commenced traveling around the country, establishing dozens, possibly hundreds, of new gospel choirs and selling new Dorsey songs, so prolific that they then were called “dorseys.” A gifted organizer, Martin co-founded the National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses along with Dorsey, Theodore R.
By 1937 she performed regularly on WLFL radio with Dorsey's University Gospel Singers. In 1933 Martin sang her first solo with the Pilgrim Baptist chorus. He first refused to feature her as soloist because she could not read music and showed no interest in learning, but he shortly realized that most gospel singers learned all their music by ear. Hearing her audition, Dorsey was moved by Martin's evangelistic fervor but disliked her rough, untrained vocal style with its shouting, stepping “sanctified” accompaniments. Dorsey's work promoting gospel church choir programs, and in the early 1930s she determined to join his new gospel chorus at Pilgrim Baptist Church. Martin found work in a local hospital and sang as a soloist in a number of church venues, including pentecostal congregations, where she was received with enthusiasm. After moving to Cleveland in 1917 with her husband, she settled in Chicago around 1927 they divorced in 1929. Although her family had followed Baptist worship, in 1916 she joined a Holiness church and experienced a new kind of “sanctified” church singing. Martin's evangelistic gospel ministry moved from church choir singing to radio ministry, extensive touring, and recording.īorn on Novemin Pittsfield, Georgia, Martin's short childhood ended before high school when she commenced work as a babysitter, domestic worker, and laundry laborer in Atlanta. churches to a “sanctified” gospel sound with clapping, vocal embellishments, shouting, and stepping or dancing. Martin's life spans the transformation of popular gospel music from hymn-like jubilee singing in African American Baptist and A.M.E. A co-founder in 1933 of the National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses, she was the first to tour as gospel soloist throughout the United States, and she formed one of the first all-female gospel singing groups. Sallie Martin, often called the “Mother of Gospel Music,” promoted gospel music through her singing career, her gospel music publishing, her civil rights activism, and her international philanthropy during the “golden age” of gospel. Jeanie Child, supervised by Michael Flug, September 2014 Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature When quoting material from this collection the preferred citation is: Martin and Morris Music Company Papers, Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. In 2003 she transferred this sheet music to the Vivian G. Halsted Street, Chicago, Illinois 60628īrenda McGlohon, then head of the Humanities Department at Woodson Regional Library, purchased gospel sheet music from Martin and Morris Music, Inc., in 19, using funds donated by the Friends of Woodson Regional Library. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature, 9525 S. 1 linear foot (3 archival document cases)Ĭhicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G.