A moment In Black History with Montgomery's 1st Lady
JAMES CLEVELAND was born in Chicago, Illinois on December 5, 1931 to Rosie Lee and Benjamin Cleveland during the height of the greatest depression. James’ grandmother attended Pilgrim Baptist Church, where she was a member of the choir. James had no choice but to attend these rehearsals with his grandmother and found himself sitting through these choir rehearsals – bored stiff!! Eventually James decided he would conquer the boredom through attempting to sing along with the choir. It was in one of these rehearsal that James’ singing was noticed and he was made choir mascot. The choir director, Thomas A. Dorsey wrote a song for him which launched the career of what was the be a long line of performances. Through Dorsey’s teaching and directing young James was influenced in a great way.
Playing the piano was a skill that James developed through trial and error. His keen ear and ability to quickly grasp musical style helped him develop a command of the keyboard. But it was Roberta Martin who was the inspiration for his piano style. At a young age, James patterned his playing after Mrs. Martin, and it was Roberta Martin who published James Cleveland’s first composition, “I Want to See Jesus”. After developing his musical skills, James went to New York where he became Minister of Music at Faith Temple COGIC. where Bishop A. A. Childs was pastor. There he worked with organist Herman Stevens. From New York, James went to Philadelphia, where along with Bessie Folk and Narcellus McKissick (former members of the Martin Singers) the Gospel group “The Gospelaires” was formed. After much success with the Gospelaires, James went on to move to Detroit, Michigan where he became Minister of Music for Dr. C. L. Franklin. In the course of the next few years, James moved from Detroit to Chicago, and then back to Detroit. It was then that he became Second Assistant Pastor to Rev. Chas A. Craig Sr., at Prayer Tabernacle and through this fellowship the famous “Voices of Tabernacle” was born. Eventually Rev. Cleveland relocated to Los Angeles, California, where he founded the Cornerstone Baptist Church. Even though the church started with less than 100 members, the membership grew to over 7,000 people.
Copyright by the National James Cleveland Chorus
© 2012
