>> Reggie Harris:
Well, hi, there.
I'm musician, storyteller,
educator Reggie Harris,
and I'm so glad to be
here with you today.
The American Folk Life
Center at the Library
of Congress has invited me
to be part of their Homegrown
At Home Concert Series.
And so, that's why, today,
I am not in Washington,
D.C. I'm in upstate New York.
The American Folk Life Center
is presenting concerts every
Wednesday at noon, eastern time,
all the way through
September 30th,
so be sure to check them out.
And all of us artists -- well,
we're going to be present
with you in the chat room, so
be sure to pop in and say hi.
After each concert is released,
you'll find that
they're available to you
on the Library website,
or on the YouTube channel.
And so, with all that in play,
let's get this music started.
[ Music and Singing ]
People in slavery
were not allowed
to learn to read and write.
They sang all the time, because
that was something they brought
with them from Africa
as part of the culture,
but Frederick Douglass
was one of those
who secretly learned to read.
And what he said was, "The songs
of the slave are the sorrows
of their hearts, and
they are relieved by them
as one is relieved
by their tears."
The Bible was the only book that
people in slavery were allowed
to read, if, in fact,
they read at all,
and they heard Bible
verses all the time.
One of those verses said,
"My sheep hear my voice,
and I know them,
and they follow me."
And the people hearing
that, they translated
that into many things, but one
of those things was this song.
I first heard this song on a
Library of Congress recording.
Bessie Jones, recorded by Alan
Lomax, sitting in a church
with some of her fellow Georgia
Sea Island Singers, "Sheep,
sheep, don't you know the road?
Yes, my Lord, I know the road.
Sheep, sheep, don't
you know the road?
Yes, Lord, I know the road."
[ Singing ]
Sheep, sheep, don't
you know the road?
I almost drove off the road
when I heard that song,
the power of those voices,
and the power of that message.
The songs carried messages.
The songs carried hope.
And sometimes, they also
carried secret codes.
We know that the Underground
Railroad, that secret group
of people who were working
hard not only to get people
out of slavery -- and
the slaves, of course,
were helping themselves --
but also to end the
institution altogether.
But the songs sometimes
were very practical means
of inspiring escape, and so it
is that, around Christmastime,
you heard, "Children,
go where I send thee.
How shall I send thee?
I'm going to send
thee one by one,
two by two, three by three."
That song often was used
to indicate how many
people were escaping.
Indeed, the messages were
contained in the song.
I'm going to play a song for
you now that I wrote including
and containing that song,
but the song that I wrote,
"Heaven Is Less Than
Fair," actually was based
on some narrative letters,
this one from a man
who escaped to Canada.
Canada's code word was heaven.
He wrote back to his wife, still
in slavery, to let her know
that he had made it to freedom.
"And indeed, the wind blows
from the south today..
My burden is very heavy."
Those were codes that were used
on the Underground Railroad.
I learned that from
Dr. Charles Blockson
at Temple University years ago.
I took the information from Dr.
Blockson, and from that letter,
and I put them into a song
of someone who's making an
escape on the gospel train.
"Heaven is Less Than Fair."
[ Music and Singing ]
Well, I hope you're
having a good time.
These songs are so amazingly
powerful, and you find
out things when you
talk to the people
at the Library of Congress.
On August the 28th, 1963, I
was out playing in the street
when my mother called
me into the house.
She said, "Sit down
on the sofa."
We were going to watch TV
in the middle of the day,
which was an amazingly
unusual thing.
What I didn't know was, that
was the day for the March
on Washington for
Jobs and Freedom.
And at the end of that long
day, with all of its singers
and speakers, the very
powerful Dr. Martin Luther King,
Jr. stepped to the
podium and made a speech.
"I have a dream."
He didn't actually plan to
do that speech that day,
but that's a story
for another day.
He was inspired by Mahalia
Jackson, the gospel singer
who called out, "Martin,
tell them about the dream,"
and he actually went
into a dream speech
that he had made a
couple of weeks before.
And at the end of that speech,
he sent out a clarion call
to America and to the world,
that we needed to come together
and unite across our different
boundaries and differences.
He said, "In that moment,
we will all sing the old Negro
spiritual, 'Free at last,
free at last, thank
God Almighty,
we are free at last.'" Well,
that song was one I"d heard
in my church, but talking to
Steve Winick at the Library
of Congress, he sent me some
information that I didn't have,
information about the song, and
two people that were new to me,
Becky Elzy and Alberta
Bradford, hidden folklorists,
hidden spiritual folklorists.
They were recorded by Mr. E.A.
Mcilhenny, who was working along
with Alan Lomax,
and he sent me one
of the earliest known
versions of this song,
a song that I have
sung for years.
"Free at last, free at
last, thank God Almighty,
we're free at last," a song that
evolved in the spirituals late
in the period, somewhere
around the Civil War.
But I've been singing this song
because it indeed
does give us hope.
We are not yet there, but we
can still sing and celebrate all
that we have yet
accomplished, and say,
"Thank God Almighty,
we're free at last."
[ Singing ]
Thank God Almighty,
we're free at last.
Well, we are still working
on freedom, and indeed,
these songs, these spirituals --
they keep us focused on the fact
that there were so many
who have gone before,
so many who prepared the
way, and I am reminded
of that every single day by this
amazing song that first was sung
in my church in Philadelphia.
These were people who had
migrated from the south,
and they'd brought
their music with them.
This is a song that is inspired
by people hearing
stories from the Bible.
They heard the stories
of the Jews in Egypt,
and how they tried to
get out of slavery.
They heard the many
stories that are contained
in the Hebrew scriptures,
and my ancestors, well,
they fashioned their own
song from those stories.
[ Music and Singing ]
Now I realize that I haven't
given you an opportunity
to sing today.
Well, folks, here it is.
Call and response.
I'll sing a line
that says, "Well,
now who were those children
all dressed in red?"
You sing, "God's going
to trouble the water."
[ Music and Singing ]
Well, thank you so much
for joining me here today.
I hope it's been as much fun
for you as it's been for me.
I'd like to give a special
shout-out to the staff
at the Library of Congress,
especially Sophia, Steve,
and Jennifer [assumed spellings]
for making my appearance
today possible.
They are really great folks,
and they're working for you.
And be sure to check out
the American Folk Life
Center's website.
You're going to find lots
of amazing recordings
that you can explore.
That website is
www.loc.gov/folklife.
And if you want to find
out more about me, well,
you can visit my website
at reggieharrismusic.com.
Remember, music is community,
and music gets the heart
and the mind flowing,
so keep singing.
Thanks so much, and
see you down the road.