The Syosset High School Chamber Chorus of Syosset, New York, U.S.A. sings a selection from their 16th Annual Concert at The Cathedral of Saint Patrick, NY, NY, on 17 December 2015. This African-American spiritual was arranged by the late Larry L. Fleming, Ph.D., founder and director of the National Lutheran Choir. The Syosset H.S. Chamber Chorus is directed by Kristin Howell, BSME. Syosset High School is scored by leading U.S. daily and weekly print media as being an outstanding high school in the U.S.A.
Between 1875-1900, this African-American spiritual became a favorite of the Fisk Jubilee Singers on their tours to raise funds for Fisk University. Harry Thacker Burleigh collected many of their songs and arranged them in his, “Jubilee Songs of the United States of America (1916).”
“Jesus was the Savior and a friend, human-and-yet-divine and yet the Son of God. Because of their often brutal treatment, the slaves easily identified with his suffering in a very personal way. ‘Were you there when they crucified MY Lord?’ they sang. As Howard Thurman (1899-1981) said, ‘He suffered, He died, but not alone—they were there with Him. They knew what He suffered; it was a cry of the heart that found a response and an echo in their own woes’ (Thurman, 1975, p. 22).
The slaves’ imagination was powerfully captivated by the notion of having a king who was powerful enough that absolutely no one could ‘hinder’ him. If Jesus could not be hindered, then they had agency in terms of their own lives as well. Some versions of this life-affirming song add ‘He is the King of Kings, He is the Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ, the First and Last, no man hinders me’! This song captures the aspiration of the hearts of enslaved peoples. Jesus was born a baby, yes, but He was also a king, recalling his triumphal, un-hindered entry into Jerusalem.”
By Eileen Guenther/CMH. "Ride On, King Jesus." The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology. Canterbury Press.
Ref.: Howard Thurman, Deep River and the Negro Spiritual Speaks of Life and Death. (Richmond, Indiana.: Friends United Press, 1975).
Base video Iele/Roberts
