Miracles Through Song / When Malindy Sings

"Miracles Through Song / When Malindy Sings" features Homer Rodenheaver, the "Dean of Gospel Singers", and the Zion Travelers and Anne Nicholson performing famous gospel songs. The film likely dates from the early 1950s, and certainly predates 1955. Rodeheaver was an American evangelist, music director, music publisher, composer of gospel songs, and pioneer in the recording of sacred music who was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 1973.

00:00 Rodenheaver introduces a program dedicated to "miracles through gospel songs," taking viewers on a journey to the pre-Civil War Deep South to explore the origins and beauty of Negro Spirituals, which in his opinion are presented as distinctly American music given by God for religious expression. Rodenheaver also introduces the "Negro spiritual" (:46) by painting a picture of the pre-Civil War South, with a heavily romanticized vision of magnolia blossoms and "happy people" The program features a rendition of "You Got Shoes" (2:11) and "It's Too High, You Can't Get Over It" (3:22), explaining the theological message of the latter. At (2:15), the Zion Travelers group of Black singers dressed in overalls and straw hats harmonizes two spirituals, with Rodenheaver providing commentary before and after. Rodenheaver then praises the Negro race for their contributions to music, referencing Dvořák's use of spirituals in his New World Symphony, and highlights the poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar, with a performance of his poem "When Melindy Sings" (6:48). This spiritual's lyrics are from Paul Laurence Dunbar's poem, which is a tribute to his mother's spontaneous outbursts of singing as she worked in the kitchen. This is a dialect poem written in the Black vernacular language. At (7:13) "Uncle Frank" performs "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot". Rodenheaver insists that "Uncle Frank" is Black, but this appears to be a white man in blackface; he pretends to speak in vernacular language. The program concludes with a (11:42) farewell message from Omar Odhaver, promising more "miracles through song."

It's not clear who the members of the Zion Travelers are who perform. In 1944 the group consisted of: L.C. Cohen (lead vocals), Bartha L. Watkins (lead vocals), L.W. Van (tenor vocals), Garland Fate Mason (tenor vocals), Wesley Sherman (baritone vocals), Felton Vernon (bass vocals), LLoyd Macklin (tenor vocals), William Robinson (tenor vocals), Joe Hughes (guitar)