When Sunday Comes

Much has been said about the golden age of gospel music in the 1940s and 50s. But what about the gospel music that came later when hip-hop and soul were dominant? Claudrena Harold’s in her book, When Sunday Comes, takes us to the Black record shops, churches, and businesses that transformed gospel after the Civil Rights era and nurtured the music that was an essential cultural and political expression for African Americans.

Later in the show: Historian Lauranett Lee shares the history of the Juneteenth holiday. She says in this country we have parallel histories, with Black and white Americans knowing about and acknowledging different pasts. But local historians are elevating the stories of African Americans so that those parallel histories are brought together. One of those is Wilma Jones, who grew up in the mostly Black community of Halls Hill in Arlington, Virginia. Now the neighborhood is rapidly gentrifying and Black families like hers have been pushed out. Jones says it’s too late to save Grandma’s house, but it’s not too late to save her history.