Black On Campus
Higher Education and the African American Experience

Sunday Inspiration: Professor Derrick Bell on the Power of Gospel Music

August 16th, 2009 by Ajuan Mance

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Derrick Bell is a visiting professor of Constitutional Law at New York University School of Law. He has held this position for more than a decade. For a more detailed biography of this pioneering scholar in the field of critical race theory, follow this link.

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Gospel, and particularly the gospel choir at its best, echoes the tempos of the soul searching for God’s peace in the midst of a hostile world…Who among us, of whatever race, class, or creed, can hear gospel music without surrendering to the felt need to tap a foot, sway just a bit, perhaps even join in when the handclapping really gets going? Truly this music speaks to the unavoidable fact that, at bottom, we are all in the same boat.

–Derrick Bell in his “Prologue” to Gospel Choirs: Psalms of Survival in an Alien Land Called Home

Posted by Ajuan Mance

Posted in Academia, African American, African American Professors, Derrick Bell

One Response

  1. Villager

    God Bless You! Derrick Bell wrote a number of books back in the day that I thoroughly enjoyed. However, I never new about this book on Gospel choirs. Thank you for sharing it…

    I invite your blog readers to visit my Sunday Inspirations post as I try to recognize that God doesn’t want us to worry about anything

    peace, Villager