By and By

Charles Albert Tindley,
the Father of Gospel Music

Atheneum Books
for Young Readers
(pub. 1.14.2020) 
48 pages

A True Tale with

A Cherry On Top   

A uthor:  Carole Boston Weatherford
       and illustrator:  Bryan Collier

 
C haracter: Charles Albert Tindley

O verview: 

     "At a time when most African Americans were still enslaved, Charles Tindley was born free. His childhood was far from easy, with backbreaking hours in the fields, and no opportunity to go to school. But the spirituals he heard as he worked made him long to know how to read the Gospel for himself. Late at night, he taught himself to read from scraps of newspapers. From those small scraps, young Charles raised himself to become a founding father of American gospel music whose hymn was the basis for the Civil Rights anthem 'We Shall Overcome.'

      Told in lilting verse with snippets of spirituals and Tindley’s own hymns woven throughout, Carole Boston Weatherford’s lyrical words and Bryan Collier’s luminous pictures celebrate a man whose music and conviction has inspired countless lives."

T antalizing taste: 

"Berlin, Maryland, 1851.
Charles and Hester had a son.
Father, enslaved, but Mother, free;
The law spared me from slavery. 

Minding master, hired out to farms.

I think of children with parents at home ...
While mine are gone and I am alone.

Chants in the field at break of dawn.
Keep yo' han' on-a dat plow. Hold on!
Hold on!

Spirituals, first Bible that I heard.
I yearned for more - to read the Word."

And something more: In a joint interview by The Booking Biz with her artist/spoken word poet son, Jeffery Boston Weatherford, Carole Boston Weatherford discusses where she gets ideas for her books: "I get inspiration from educators, family, my hometowns, my travels, the media and even music. I was moved to write BY AND BY: CHARLES A. TINDLEY, THE FATHER OF GOSPEL MUSIC after having listened to his hymns in church."  She also answers the question "If you ruled the world, what would it look like?": "More women would be in charge. There would be more equality and less of a wealth gap. Policies would value children, the elderly and people of color. The Golden Rule would rule."