This powerfully moving article remembers the story and charisma
of Roland Hayes, the great and almost forgotten African American
tenor. A classically trained musician, Hayes was as well known
in his day as Paul Robeson and Marian Anderson, both of whom he
mentored. Hayes introduced the beauty and joy of spirituals to
concert audiences in Europe and America. Roland Hayes touched
the author’s life when she was a very young child. Her parents
were faculty members at Black Mountain College. In mid 1940s
North Carolina, her father committed what at that time was the
revolutionary act of inviting Hayes to perform before an
integrated audience. This memorable concert featured the son of
freed slaves singing the European repertoire of Schubert and
Bach and the African American folk tradition of spirituals.
Spirituals offer a religious attitude that intertwines African,
Jewish and Christian roots with the practical function of
conveying secret messages about the way to freedom— a peculiarly
American blend of soul that