Singing in a Strange Land: C. L. Franklin, the Black Church, and the Transformation of America

by Nick Salvatore

Book Overview

A prizewinning historian pens this biography of C.L. Franklin, the greatest African-American preacher of his generation, father of Aretha, and civil rights pioneer.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316160377
• ISBN13: 9780316160377
• Release Date: February 2005
• Publisher: Little Brown and Company
• Length: 419 Pages
• Weight: 1.58 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.3" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Some Things are never as they appear

I loved the book and was surprised by some of the revelations about the subject. He was a man who could preach the uncomprising gospel but in his personal life made mistakes that in essence manifested themselves in ways that determined the later part of his life (i.e. constant touring, clubbing, refusal to move to safer neighborhood after two break-ins at his house). In some ways, I agree with the faction of New Bethel who lobbied for a new pastor after Franklin's debilitation. There was no way after an injury like that for him to do the job of a Pastor and those folks knew it. Aretha in her bio said that the minister in charge "tried to take daddy's church" well one Franklin was an employee who happened to be ceo and was in no shape to perform his duties so the church didnt belong to him personally..I came away with a view of man who through tenacity of spirit and sheer will rose from a sharecropper to dynamic evangelist. I also took from the book that his second wife Barbara was someone to be applauded and in some ways pitied. She gave birth to four children with the man and endured countless nights alone while Franklin "evangelized" and fathered a child with someone else, she forgave him and bore two more children only to be so disgusted that she left him and seeing the economic contrast between her and franklin agreed to leave the four she bore him behind to literally start over at 31 working first at a record store and then getting a nurse's aide position and working herself to death. I got the sense from reading both Aretha's bio and this book that whatever Franklin wanted in his household it was his way or the highway! No woman could put up with that and thus, his children were raised by his mother and frequent housekeepers and maternal figures from New Bethel. In conclusion, great book worthy of a movie option in my estimation.

HISTORY YOU MUST KNOW ABOUT

In my humble opinion, the history delineated in this writing should be taught in classrooms across America and beyond! I learned so much about the evolution of citizenship, religion in the USA, and music of all genres from this book. I was left feeling that I owe such a great debt to so many who suffered and sacrificed so much that I can enjoy life in this country. The privileges and the luxuries we bask in have deep roots enlivened by much blood, sweat and tears. So much was made clear, especially where it pertains to different music artists, their styles of delivery and their associations with other genres of artists. I grew up loving both Rev. C. L. Franklin and Clara Ward. I was glad to learn that they loved each other, as Aretha Franklin also attests.

Portrait of a Legend

"Singing in a Strange Land" is very valuable as a sketch of this highly successful, complex legend. It was a compelling read that prompted me to read biographies of two of the most famous supporting characters, Mahalia Jackson and Clara Ward. For chronicles of these I read, and highly recommend, "Got to Tell It", Jules Schwerin's unsparing bio of Mahalia and "How I Got Over", Willa Ward-Royster's portrait of her gifted sister Clara Ward. Besides the priceless info about Mahalia and Clara, these biographies provide further details about C. L. Indeed, one of the vignettes in "Got to Tell It" (a conversation between Mahalia and Aretha about C. L.'s alleged drug use) paints a portrait of C. L. that leads me to suspect that daughter Erma Franklin's cooperation with "Singing in a Strange Land" was possibly conditioned on Salvatore's silence on some matters. Notwithstanding details of C. L.'s life unavailable elsewhere, and whatever self-exposure a preacher betrays in his sermons, "Singing in a Strange Land"'s shortcoming is the reader is left in the dark about C. L.'s thoughts and feelings. This is not the author's fault as Salvatore repeatedly refers to C. L.'s reticence to speak about personal feelings -- particularly about his early life in the Jim Crow South. Accordingly the reader is forced to draw inferences about the man, many of which may be unflattering due to the minister's impious personal life (e.g., his wife's decision to leave the philanderer though it meant painful separation from four of her young children).

You Need This Book!

If you live in America, particularly its big cities, you need it. If you lived through any part of the 20th century, you need it. "Singing in a Strange Land..." is a timely witness of the life of Rev. C.L. Franklin as an intersection of many apparently unrelated roads. Most interestingly, it gives insight to a time before Rev. Franklin was thought of as "Aretha's daddy". It chronicles the era when she was "the Rev.'s singing little girl". Aside from the strictly biographical aspects of this volume, there is much to reward those interested in subjects as diverse as the show business of gospel music, Detroit municipal politics, the civil-rights movement and even the growth of the Black community in Buffalo, NY! But, it it is a true pageturner, because Mr. Salvatore's writing never bores. Now dear reader, I am no expert on literature or scholastic research, but like the man in the museum looking at a Picasso, " I know what I like". I like this effort by Mr. Salvatore, and I believe you will, too. Don't miss it!

A winning biography which includes so much more than civil rights history alone

Readers interested in both black church music and black history will relish Singing In A Strange Land: C.L. Franklin, The Black Church, And The Transformation Of America. More than just a biography of C.L. Franklin, Singing In A Strange Land uses Franklin's background to explore both African American religion and musical development in America. Salvatore spent eight years extensively researching, including interviewing Franklin's associates, to develop a winning biography which includes so much more than civil rights history alone.