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Will the Circle Be Unbroken?: The Sacred Music of the African American Diaspora

Exhibit 08 - Jester Hairston

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1. Exhibit 05- Don Lee White case This case features the life and works of noted composer, conductor, and arranger Don Lee White. Among his many achievements, White was the music minister at Grant African Methodist Episcopal Church for almost 40 years and the founder of the dlw Community Chorale. Part of the "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" exhibit at California State University Dominguez Hills. Photo by Beth McDonald, February 2020.
3. Exhibit 02- The Legacy of the Fisk Jubilee Singers The tradition of the concert spiritual – a more formal, arranged version of the songs sung by slaves – began with the Fisk Jubilee Singers. The popularity of the Fisk Singers and the warm reception of their music inspired other choirs to follow in their footsteps. The concert spiritual tradition continues at many historically black colleges, churches, and community choirs today. African American composers, past and present, who are masters of the concert spiritual include John Wesley Work, Jr. R. Nathaniel Dett, Hall Johnson, Jester Hairston, and Moses Hogan. Part of the "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" exhibit at California State University Domniguez Hills. Photo by Beth McDonald, February 2020.
4. Exhibit 03- Gospel Roots case The church has been a center of African American life since the earliest congregations were established in the 1700s and has also often been the center of the community’s musical traditions. This legacy was brought to California by ministers who arrived in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries from states that had strong African-American communities steeped in the musical culture of the African diaspora. Part of the "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" exhibit at California State University Dominguez Hills. Photo by Beth McDonald, February 2020.
5. Exhibit 07- The Evolution of African American Music This case contains books and albums that record a wide cross section of African American music and the musicians who popularized them from spirituals through gospel, ragtime, jazz, and modern pop. The artists in this case were trailbreakers for the musicians that came after them, making music so extraordinary it was impossible to ignore, regardless of race. Many of the modern variations of these genres are made up of earlier forms that have been merged and remixed, creating new styles for old stories. Part of the "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" exhibit at California State University Dominguez Hills. Photo by Beth McDonald, February 2020.
6. Exhibit 08 - Jester Hairston
7. Exhibit 09- The Albert McNeil Jubilee Singers Part 1
8. Exhibit 04- Women and Worship case African American women have always been significant contributors to sacred music in all arenas from composition to performance, though their accomplishments are sometimes overshadowed by their male counterparts. In studying their achievements as part of a larger whole, we can truly celebrate and appreciate the scope of the impact that they have had. These women rewrote the songbook of African American sacred music, changing the musical landscape and leaving a legacy for future generations. Part of the "will the Circle Be Unbroken" exhibit at California State University Dominguez Hills. Photo by Beth McDonald, February 2020.
10. Exhibit 13- Songs of the Underground Railroad and Harriet Tubman
11. Exhibit 14- Hansonia Caldwell
12. Exhibit 15 - Hansonia Caldwell
13. Exhibit 10- The Albert McNeil Jubilee Singers Part 2
14. Exhibit 12 - Albert McNeil case Side 2
15. Exhibit 11 - Albert McNeil case Side 1

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Jester Hairston Jester Hairston was an actor, composer, song writer, arranger, choral conductor, Goodwill Ambassador for the United States, and an expert on Spirituals.

The grandson of a slave, Hairston was born in Belews Creek, N.C., in 1901 but moved north as a child to Pittsburgh, where generations of his family worked in steel mills. As a child, Hairston heard his grandmother and her friends talking and singing about life on the plantations of the southern US. He escaped the mills through a scholarship from his Baptist church and enrolled in landscape design at Massachusetts Agricultural College (now the University of Massachusetts). He dropped out of college for several years but returned to school when he met Anna Laura Kidder, an accompanist for his church choir. She saw his potential in music and offered him financial assistance to study music at Tufts University, from which he graduated in 1929. He was one of the first black students admitted to Tufts. Later he moved to New York and studied music at the Juilliard School.

In New York, he met Hall Johnson, a popular conductor of Negro spirituals whose choir was the most prominent black singing group of the 1930s. Hairston became his assistant. It was Johnson who taught Hairston to respect the Negro spiritual. The Hall Johnson Choir performed in many Broadway shows, which led to them being invited to California in 1935 to be a part of the film production of “The Green Pastures.” This production gave Hairston his entre into the world of Hollywood music. He conducted, composed, and arranged music for films for over 20 years, and was the choral director for Hollywood's's first integrated choir.

Hairston acted in over 20 films, mostly in small roles. As an actor, he is most well-known for his roles in the television shows “Amos ‘n Andy” and “Amen.” Though many of his acting roles were stereotypes, especially in the early years of his career, Hairston never made apologies for portraying racial stereotypes during his career, which he said embodied the black actor's struggle in Hollywood. "We had a hard time then fighting for dignity," he once said of his early roles. " . . . We had no power. We had to take it, and because we took it the young people today have opportunities." For his contribution to the television and film industry, Hairston has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Hairston was equally adamant about the need to preserve Negro spirituals, the focus of his other career. He was a sought-after choral director for half a century and composed or arranged more than 300 spirituals. He was best known for his arrangement of "Amen," which he dubbed for Sidney Poitier in the 1963 film "Lilies of the Field." His research and work have been documented for history. In recognition of his work, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from The University of Massachusetts in 1972, and another in music from Tufts in 1977.

In 1961, the US State Department appointed Jester Hairston as Goodwill Ambassador. He traveled all over the world teaching and performing the folk music of the slaves. In the 1960s he held choral festivals with public high school choirs, introducing them to Negro Spiritual music, and sometimes leading several hundred students in community performances. In 1985 he took the Jester Hairston Chorale, a multi-racial group, to sing in the People's Republic of China, at a time when foreign visitors were still quite rare in that country.

Hairston died in Los Angeles of natural causes in 2000 at age 98. He is buried at Inglewood Park Cemetery, Inglewood, California. Explore the Jester Hairston Collection.