Prepare for a visit to AAMLO with these special topic resource guides.
This resource guide is intended to help users locate holdings at AAMLO related to Gospel Music in the Bay Area.
It highlights holdings in the following areas:
● Selected Library Material at AAMLO
● Selected Archival Collections at AAMLO
Other collections may contain relevant materials. Please contact AAMLO (aamlo@oaklandlibrary.org) with any questions or to schedule an appointment to view materials in person.
Selected Library Materials
From Labor to Reward: Black Church Beginnings in San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, and Richmond, 1849-1972 by Martha C. Taylor
We'll Understand It Better by and by: Pioneering African American Gospel Composers edited by Bernice Johnson Reagon
Music in Black American Life, 1945-2020
The New Grove Dictionary of Gospel, Blues and Jazz
Protest & Praise: Sacred Music of Black Religion by Jon Michael Spencer
How Sweet the Sound: the Golden Age of Gospel by Horace Clarence Boyer
Oh Happy Day [Streaming Video]
Walter Hawkins and the Love Center Choir: Love Alive [DVD]
Selected Archival Collections
First African Methodist Episcopal Church (Oakland, Calif.) Collection. Includes programs and photographs documenting the FAME Oakland Church Choir.
Arnold Vernon Baranco Papers. Baranco was an early member of the Oakland Colored Chorus, which later expanded to sixty singers under the directorship of Elmer Keeton, who acquired its funding from the Works Progress Administration Federal Arts Project. When Elmer Keeton died in 1947, Baranco became one of three co-directors of the choir, renamed the Keeton Memorial Choir.
Maxine and Roy C. Blackburn Papers. As a child, Maxine Blackburn studied piano with Elmer F. Keeton and then went on to study at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. On March 19, 1943, she organized the Gospel Singers' Fellowship Circle at St. Paul's AME church in Berkeley. Designed to establish links between church choirs, this group also gave performances throughout the Bay Area. In addition, Blackburn helped to organize the United Choirs of Oakland and San Francisco, which gave monthly concerts at churches in the Bay Area.
Warren Moore Audio Recordings Collection. The Warren Moore Audio Recordings Collection consists of 1633 audiocassettes of church sermons, funeral programs, business meetings, prayer clinics, bible lessons, radio broadcasts of sermons on KRE and KDIA, sermons delivered at the annual Oakland City Revival, religious humor and music, business seminars, speeches delivered at the Democratic National Convention and interviews with members of the Moore family related to the family’s history between 1972-2002.
Emmit A. Powell Papers. Gospel radio and television broadcaster Emmit Powell was born December 18, 1933, in Tallahassee, Florida, the son of Emmit Powell Sr. and Ruby Mae Powell. After completing service duties he moved to San Francisco, California, and worked as General Manager of Traffic and Transportation Management for the Emporium-Capwell Company. Beginning in 1972, Powell operated a restaurant known as Powell's Place on Hayes Street in San Francisco. His radio career began at KPOO-FM in San Francisco in 1973. By 1975, Powell had became the gospel music programmer on KPFA FM which aired his long-running “The Gospel Experience” for over 45 years. In 1976, Powell founded Emmit Powell & the Gospel Elites, performing original gospel music. Powell was also the host of a Sunday morning show, “Emmit Powell’s Gospel Experience,” on community access television.
Henry Delton Williams Papers. Fashion and costume designer Henry Delton Williams had an early career in gospel music, singing with such talents as the Hawkins Family and on the weekly live gospel show for KRE radio, Berkeley. In 1963, Williams was offered a singing contract with the Los Angeles Gospel All Stars. Over the next decades he would develop a business designing entertainment costumes for performers such as the Whispers, the Hawkins Family Singers, and Martha Reeves.
African American Museum & Library at Oakland Oral History Collection. Includes an interview with Henry Delton Williams discussing his love of gospel music. [Online items]
Rhonda White-Warner Papers. Includes publisher and media consultant Rhonda White-Warner's subject files on the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir.
African American Museum & Library at Oakland Vertical File Collection. Includes unpublished material related to:
- William Elmer Keeton and the Keeton Chorus
- Evergreen Baptist Church's radio ministry
- Various gospel recital programs held at the First African Methodist Church of Oakland, Parks Chapel A.M.E. Church, Beebe Memorial C.M.E. Church, Mary Church Terrell Club, Rising Star Baptist Church, and others
- Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir
Oakland Post Photograph Collection. Includes publicity stills and portraits of gospel performers and recording artists including Edwin Hawkins, Dorothy Love Coates, Kenneth Glover, James Cleveland, Louis H. Narcisse, The Gospel Clouds, Brother Joe May, Marion Williams, and others.
Additional Information
Search the library using the catalog.
Consult AAMLO's finding aids in the Online Archive of California.
We are working to create new resource guides. Have an idea for a new guide? Contact us at aamlo@oaklandlibrary.org.
