Preaching on Wax: The Phonograph and the Shaping of Modern African American Religion

Although histories of American religion have focused on the relationship of radio to the growth of preaching in America, especially among white clergy, there has been no study of the impact of the phonograph on the development of black preaching in the mid-20th century. Martin draws deeply on record company archives to explore how the phonograph sermons of black Protestant preachers between 1925 and 1941 significantly shaped African-American religion and culture. With no access to radio, more than 100 black clergymen teamed up with Columbia, Paramount, and RCA-Victor, among other labels, to record and sell their sermons, creating records that sold in numbers often rivaling those of Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey. Martin demonstrates that preaching on wax made black Christianity a mass-produced commodity, and phonograph religion laid the foundations of modern religious broadcasting in black Christianity. Martin's vital study contributes significantly not only to the history of religion, but also to the lively, ongoing discussion of "race records" by African-American musicians in early 20th-century America. (Nov.)