The great African-American preacher C.L Franklin is caricatured in Genius – the new mini-series about his daughter Aretha’s life and times. Genius’s traduction sent us back to this post by Nick Salvatore, author of Singing in a Strange Land: C. L. Franklin, the Black Church, and the Transformation of America, who meditated on the patriarch’s singular contribution to the tradition of “black and more than black” expression.
Nick Salvatore
Chicago Breakdown
Thomas Geoghegan, Only One Thing Can Save Us: Why America Needs a New Kind of Labor Movement (The New Press 2014)
The Real Deal
Michael Grunwald, The New New Deal: The Hidden Story of Change in the Obama Era (New York, 2012)
Express Yourself
Barack Obama went back to (the black) church during his Tucson speech as he brought good news about Gabby Giffords – “She opened her eyes! She opened her eyes! She opened her eyes!” His little improvisation reminded me of Al Sharpton’s gospel triad at Michael Jackson’s funeral – “Michael never stopped! Michael never stopped! Michael never stopped!” In the following piece, Nick Salvatore – author of the biography of the great African-American preacher C.L. Franklin, “Singing in a Strange Land” – meditates on Franklin’s singular contribution to the tradition that’s helped shape Obama’s best “black and more than black” self (and songs). B.D.