|
|
|
|
|
Singing in a Strange Land
Coy James Lecture for 2005
Reveals Life of Detroit Minister/Activist C.L. Franklin
Story and photos by Jake Weber The father of the Queen of Soul, minister and civil rights activist C.L. Franklin was no less important or influential to American life as his famous daughter, despite being far less well-treated by history. The story of Franklin's fascinating and inspirational life was the subject of Albion College's 2005 Coy James lecture, "Singing in a Strange Land: C.L. Franklin’s Ministry from Mississippi to Detroit, 1915-1984."
Nick Salvatore, professor of American Studies at Cornell University and author of several popular and critically-acclaimed books of American history, spent several years researching the life of C.L.Franklin, who as a pioneering radio evangelist, was known to thousands of Americans in the 1940s and 50s through his radio broadcasts. Franklin went on to lead Detroit's New Bethel Church, preaching to thousands each Sunday; his sermons were so popular that many other Detroit churches rescheduled their own services so their members could attend New Bethel as well.
In the Coy James lecture, Salvatore outlined Franklin's rise from a Mississippi Delta childhood in a black community terrorized by racial violence, to an influential position in the civil rights movement. Franklin was a member of Martin Luther King Jr.,'s Southern Christian Leadership Conference and assisted in organizing and promoting protest events. Despite having little formal education, Franklin had a keen and curious mind, and promoted progressive views on ethnic pride, integration and tolerance. “I wanted to tell Franklin's story not because it's am important part of African-American history, but because it's an important part of American history," says Salvatore, who recently published a book with the same title as his lecture. "He had a remarkable life and the things he did have had an impact on all our lives today." | |||||
|
Albion College ◦ Albion, Michigan
◦ 517/629-1000
|
Cornell University's Nick Salvatore presented the 2005 Coy James lecture
on the life of C.L. Franklin, leader of Detroit's New Bethel Church for
nearly 40 years. James was the father of soul slinger Aretha
Franklin.
Salvatore and alumnus Tom Brown, Jr., continue discussion after
the lecture.
Assistant professor of history Marcy Sacks (right) first met Salvatore
as an undergraduate at Cornell. "It's an honor for me to welcome
my dear friend to Albion," Sacks noted in her introduction.