Olive Williams - Negro Folk Songs

Topic: Kumbaya 1955-1961
Lynn Rohrbough’s repertoire of spirituals may have begun with Olcutt Sanders.  As mentioned in the post for 13 February 2022, Sanders edited a songbook for Conscientious Objectors sometime around 1942.

The Pocket Songster included ten.  All but one were well-known from recordings by Jubilee Quartets, Marian Anderson, and Paul Robeson. [1]  One carried a note that it came from a popular collection edited by Nathaniel Dett at the Hampton Institute. [2]  Perhaps Rohrbough had a copy, but Sanders was just as likely.  He had become interested in area of folklore while he was a student at the University of Texas in Austin.

One was an arrangement by Marion Downs. [3]  The African American was a trained singer who gave concerts in Austin.  Her husband was then president of the local Samuel Huston College. [4]  The Black school was associated with the Methodist church. [5]

Once the spirituals were available from CRS, other editors selected them for their songbooks.  In 1944, E. O. Harbin chose seven for a Methodist songster, and listed the title “Mary and Martha,” but did not provide a version. [6]  Edward Schliming used seven for the Evangelical and Reformed Church, and added “I’ve Got Shoes.”  [7]  Marie Oliver picked six for the YWCA and added “Han’ Me Down.” [8]

Then, in 1945, Rohrbough published an extraordinary collection.  It’s a bit difficult to know exactly what he was doing, from the copy I have.  The first page says it was published in 1945 by Cooperative Recreation Service.

Attached to the beginning are some unnumbered pages and the note “Proofs.  This has a title, and says it was produced by Handy Songs.  It may be Rohrbough took the original booklet, added some songs, and planned to distribute it as a recreation kit.  The unnumbered titles include the recently available “Mary and Martha,” and “Han’ Me Down.”  There also is another arrangement by Downs, this one of “Roll, Jordan, Roll.” [9]

Many of the songs in both sections are arrangements by Olive Williams of songs she heard at the Lincoln School in Marion, Alabama.  The combination high school-normal school originally was sponsored by the American Missionary Association, [10] which was connected to the Congregational and Presbyterian churches.  It was located in Perry County, which abuts Marengo County on the southwest. [11]

Negro Folk Songs introduced 14 spirituals, of which 12 were selected by editors of later songbooks. [12]  It also included some children’s game songs.

During the rest of the 1940s and early 1950s, editors selected spirituals but added few.  Then, in 1953, Larry Eisenberg contributed six new songs for Lift Every Voice. [A]  Although three were familiar, [14] none were picked up by the songbooks I’ve examined.  Some of the others, especially those with named authors, may not have been traditional. [15]

Notes on Performers
Marion Jackson was born in Arkansas in 1916, but raised in Baltimore, Maryland.  She studied at Juilliard and earned a masters in music from Columbia.  She continued performing after her husband, Karl Downs, died in 1948.  She later made albums with an Austin company.  She died in 1990. [16]

Olive J. Williams was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in 1906, and graduated from Howard.  She then taught at several Black schools, including the Lincoln School and Dorchester Academy in Tennessee.  She returned to Harrisburg in 1946, where she had a private studio in the YMCA building.  In the mid-1950s, she was hired by the Baltimore schools, where she lived the rest of her life.  She died in 1990, and her funeral was held in an Episcopalian church. [17]

Like Jackson, Williams studied at Juilliard and earned a music masters from Columbia. [18]  The dates for neither woman have been given, and one wonders if they knew one another.  They did not need to be in classes together.  There must have been few female, African Americans who went to either school during the years of segregation.  Alumnae and other groups may have provided links.

The unanswered question is how Williams heard about Cooperative Recreation Service.

Availability
Songbook: Negro Folk Songs.  Delaware, Ohio: Cooperative Recreation Service, 1945.

End Notes
Unless otherwise noted, the source for recording history is the Discography of American Historical Recordings on-line database.  University of California, Santa Barbara website.

1.  The spirituals included by Sanders are:
“Ev’ry Time I Feel the Spirit” - Paul Robeson (1925), Fisk University Jubilee Singers (1926)

“Go Down Moses” - Tuskegee Institute Singers (1914),  Marian Anderson (1924, 1936), Tuskegee Institute Quartet (1926), Hampton Institute Quartet (1941)

“I Ain’t Gwine Study War” - Fisk University Jubilee Singers (1920)

“I Want To Be Ready” - Tuskegee Institute Singers (1916), Fisk University Jubilee Singers (1919, 1920), Tuskegee Institute Quartet (1926)

“O Nobody Knows” - Marian Anderson (1924), Paul Robeson (1926), Fisk University Jubilee Singers (1926), Tuskegee Institute Singers (1927), Hampton Institute Quartet (1941)

“Steal Away” - Tuskegee Institute Singers (1914), Fisk University Jubilee Singers (1915, 1926), Paul Robeson (1925), Tuskegee Institute Quartet (1927), Hampton Institute Quartet (1941)

“Swing Low Sweet Chariot” -  Fisk University Jubilee Singers (1909, 1915, 1926), Fisk Quartette (1911), Tuskegee Institute Singers (1915), Paul Robeson (1925, 1933), Hampton Institute Quartet (1941)

“Jacob’s Ladder” and “Lord, I Want To Be a Christian” were recorded by the Bethel Jubilee Quartet for Homer Rodeheaver’s Rainbow Records in 1923.  The first was called “Do You Think I’ll Make a Soldier?”  They are discussed in the posts for 25 July 2021 and 22 August 2021.

“Let Us Cheer the Weary Traveler” was recorded by the Kentucky Jubilee Four (1937), the Memphis Pullman Porters Chorus (1930), the Heavenly Gospel Singers (1938), the Golden Gate Quartet (1938).  By 1944, CRS was giving credit to R. Nathaniel Dett.  Religious Folk Songs of the Negro.  Hampton, Virginia: The Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, 1927.  30.

2.  “I Want To Be Ready.”  R. Nathaniel Dett.  The Dett Collection of Negro Spirituals.  Chicago: Hall and McCreary Company, 1936.  Volume 1.

3.  “Ev’ry Time I Feel the Spirit.”

4.  Philip J. Merrill.  “Get On Board: The Life & Legacy of Marion Jackson Downs.”  Old West Baltimore website, 27 June 2019.  Her photograph appears with her biographical entry on the Discogs website.

5.  “Huston–Tillotson University.”  Wikipedia website, accessed 24 December 2022.

6.  Joyful Singing.  This songbook is discussed in the posts for 20 February 2022 and 27 February 2022.  “Mary and Martha” was recorded by the Tuskegee Institute Singers in 1914.

7.  Songs of Many Nations.  46.  This songbook is discussed in the posts for 20 February 2022 and 27 February 2022.  “Shoes” was recorded by Marian Anderson in 1924 and 1928 as “Heav’n, Heav’n.”

8.  Sing Along the Way.  54-55.  This songbook is discussed in the post for 13 March 2022.  “Han’ Me Down” was credited to J. Rosamund Johnson.  Rolling Along in Song.  New York: The Viking Press, 1937.  “Hand Me Down My Silver Trumpet” was recorded by the Bethel Jubilee Quartet in 1923.

9.  “Roll, Jordan, Roll” was recorded by the Fisk University Jubilee Singers (1909, 1919, 1920) and the Tuskegee Institute Singers (1915).

10.  “Lincoln Normal School.”  Wikipedia website, accessed 24 December 2022.
11.  Marengo County is discussed in the post for 24 January 2021.

12.  The songs that were not selected by later editors were Williams’ arrangement of “Go Tell It on the Mountain” and Francis Ames’ “Good News in the Kingdom.”  The latter is described as a West Indian spiritual.  Ames wrote lyrics or songs published by C. C. Birchard.  Some examples include “Columbus” in 1926, [19] “Sailor’s Home Song” in 1936, [20] and “The Patteran” in 1943. [21]

13.  This songbook is discussed in the post for 9 February 2020.

14.  “Good News” was recorded by the Fisk University Jubilee Singers (1911, 1916, 1920), the Tuskegee Institute Singers (1914), and the Tuskegee Institute Quartet (1926).

“I Know the Lord” was recorded by the Fisk University Jubilee Singers (1911, 1919, 1920, 1924) and was included Dett’s popular collection.

“I’m Gonna Sing” was included in Dett’s larger collection.

15.  “Come Out the Wilderness” was from Helen and Larry Eisenberg.  The Pleasure Chest.  Nashville, Tennessee: Parthenon Press, 1949.

16.  Merrill.

17.  “Olive J. Williams dies; music teacher was 84.”  The Baltimore Sun, 26 May 1990.  1.  Copy posted on the web by rachaelkeriwilliams on 1 November 2019.  It has her photograph.

18.  Baltimore Sun.

19.  Francis Ames.  “Columbus.”  In Senior Laurel Songs, edited by M. Teresa Armitage.  Boston: C. C. Birchard Publishing Company, 1926.  [WorldCat entry.]  Her song books competed with those of the Concord Institute mentioned in the posts for 5 September 2021 and 5 December 2021.  This one also has “Ain’t Gwine Study War No More.”

20.  Francis Ames.  “Sailor’s Home Song.”  In Laurel Glee Book, edited by M. Teresa Armitage.  Boston: C. C. Birchard, 1936.  [WorldCat entry].  This also has “The Climate” and “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.”

21.  Francis Ames.  “The Patteran.”  In Music Everywhere, edited by M. Teresa Armitage and Peter W. Dykema.  Boston: C. C. Birchard and Company, 1943. [WorldCat entry.]  This also has “Every time I feel the Spirit” and “Chick-a-hank-a.”  The second is included in Look Away which is discussed in the post for 5 February 2023.