Caesar, Shirley

Shirley Caesar

Gospel singer

For the Record…

Selected discography

Sources

With 150 concerts a year, 25 hours a week helping the poor in her Outreach Ministries, seven Gram-mies, and thirty record albums to her credit, Shirley Caesar may seem to be a whole army of gospel singers instead of just one diminutive woman. The “Queen of Gospel” packs a lot of wallop in her small frame. Backed by a sixty-person choir, rocking like a tempest, she is a bundle of fireworks on the Fourth of July. The gospel style of song and sermonette, singing that involves both the spoken word and dramatic acting, was developed primarily by Shirley Caesar. She journeys all over the world, sometimes traveling all night to return to her pulpit in Durham, North Carolina, the town where she was born. “It is not easy,” said Shirley in her 1995 video He Will Come (Word Records), “In fact, sometimes it is downright mind-boggling. But, somehow, even though I’m wearing all of these hats, the Lord helps me to just barrel through it.” Shirley has barreled through 50years of touring and preaching, starting at age ten, and she continues to bring the house down every time she performs.

The tenth of 12 children, Shirley Caesar was born October 13, 1938. Her father James was a tobacco worker who was well-known in the Carolinas as the lead singer in a gospel quartet, the Just Came Four. Shirley began singing with the group at age ten. When she was twelve, her father died, and she began touring with an evangelist named LeRoy Johnson, who also had a television show in Portsmouth, Virginia. In 1951, at thirteen, she recorded her first song “I’d Rather Have Jesus.” While still in high school, she toured throughout the Carolinas.

This was a time when Jim Crow laws were still in effect in North Carolina. Shirley remembers restaurants putting up the “CLOSED” sign when she would arrive. “I went to school in the days when all the white kids got things better,” she told People Weekly, “I remember once when a lady gave cookies to all the kids in the state. The white kids got the fresh ones; we got the stale ones.” Despite these obstacles, her beloved mother Hannah taught her to respect herself and to persevere.

Her determination took her to North Carolina Central College where she studied business education. She has said that she got the call to God’s work in the middle of a typing test. According to Kim Hubbard of People Weekly, she heard someone call out her name. Shirley turned to the young woman next to her and asked if she had spoken. When Shirley went home, she lay on the bed, and heard the same voice: “Behold, I have called you from your mother’s womb and I have anointed your lips to preach the gospel.” Shirley believed that this was a message that foretold special work for her in spreading the Gospel. Around the same time, Shirley heard

For the Record…

Born October 13, 1938 in Durham, NC; daughter of James (lead singer in the gospel quartet Just Came Four) and Hannah; married Rev. Harold Williams, 1983. Education: enrolled at Shaw University in business education and graduated 1984.

Sang on tour with her father from age ten; after James Caesar died, joined evangelist LeRoy Johnson 1950; first recording “I’d Rather Have Jesus” 1951; attended North Carolina Central College 1956; left school in 1958 to join the Caravans; recorded “Hallelujah, It’s Done” 1961; formed the Caesar Singers 1966; country and western hit “Faded Roses” 1980; served on the Durham City Council 1987-91; sang at the White House for President George Bush 1992; Broadway gospel musical Mama, I Want to Sing 1994; Broadway musical Sing Mama 2 1995; video Shirley Caesar Live… He Will Come 1995.

Awards: Grammy for “Put Your Hand in the Hand of the Man From Galilee” 1971; Best Soul Gospel Performance Grammy for album Rejoice 1980; inducted into the Gospel Hall of Fame 1982; two more Grammies for Sailin’ 1984; NAACP Achievement Award 1987; Soul Train Best Gospel Album and sixth Grammy for He’s Working It Out for You 1992; Best Traditional Soul Gospel Grammy for Stand Still 1994.

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Chicago’s female gospel group, the Caravans, and she saw an opportunity to answer the call. She sought an audition with the group, was immediately hired, and left school for a life of singing and ministry.

The Caravans had several members who became famous in the history of gospel music: Albertina Walker, Inez Andrews, and Sarah McKissick. Each woman had a different style and Shirley’s contribution was an energetic and dramatic approach where she would act out the songs and walk among the congregation, engaging the members directly. On the song “I Won’t Be Back,” she would run through the hall searching for an exit, then leave for a brief period. Her forte was the sermon in the middle of songs that addressed the subject of the song and expounded on its theme. She exhorted the listeners toreach outtoGod and to take theexampleof Jesus. On the subject of motherhood, she was particularly effective. Her song “Don’t Drive Your Mama Away” tells of a son who is shamed for putting his mother in the rest home.

Along the way, Shirley found a male counterpart in the singer James Cleveland and they made several records together. They became known as the “King and Queen of Gospel.” Shirley formed her own group in 1966 called the Caesar Singers, but she would reunite with the Caravans and the Reverend Cleveland occasionally throughout the years. In 1971, she won her first Gram-my-for the popular song “Put Your Hand in the Hand of the Man from Galilee.” On the night of the awards, she had returned very late from an engagement in Homer, Louisiana. People began banging on her door, and when she eventually answered, her sister Ann, one of her backup singers, shouted “You won!” It was the first G rammy for a black female gospel singer since Mahalia Jackson. Shirley went on to win the award in 1980, 1984, 1985, 1992 and 1994-for an astonishing total of seven Grammies.

Among her numerous honors are eight Dove awards, theGospel Music Association’s highest tribute. She was inducted into the Gospel Hall of Fame in 1982. She was the first female gospel artist to perform at Harvard University. In recent years, Shirley Caesar moved into other media, making several videos: Live in Memphis, I Remember Mama, and He Will Come. Broadway found that the gospel singer could conquer a big city when Caesar packed them in for the musical Mama I Want to Sing (1994). Her second Broadway musical in 1995 was titled Sing: Mama 2. Perhaps her proudest achievement was the creation of a ministry in Durham to provide emergency funds, food and shelter for the needy, the Shirley Caesar Outreach Ministries. When Caesar ran for public office and was elected to the Durham City Council in 1987, she concentrated her efforts on housing and care for the poor and elderly.

Her biggest fan, the Rev. Harold I. Williams, whom Shirley has called “my pastor, my best friend, my husband,” assessed his wife’s character in the 1995 video He Will Come: “After twelve years, I’m going tosay the same thing I said after the first year I was married to Shirley: exciting! You never know what is coming next. I mean it is exciting. It is from one thing to another. She’s an exciting person. She’s a joy to be around.” Most who have seen her perform would agree.

Selected discography

Rejoice (Word/Epic) 1980.

Jesus, I Love Calling Your Name (Word/Epic) 1982

Sailin’ (Word/Epic) 1984.

Go (Word/Epic/Myrrh) 1984.

Celebration (Word/Epic/Myrrh) 1986.

Her Very Best (Word/Epic) 1987.

Live…In Chicago (Word/Epic) 1988.

I Remember Mama (Word/Epic) 1989.

He’s Working It Out For You (Word/Epic) 1991.

Stand Still (Word/Epic) 1993.

Shirley Caesar Live… He Will Come (Word/Epic) 1995.

The Best of Shirley Caesar with the Caravans (Savoy).

Why Me Lord (HOB).

Sources

Books

Cusic, Don, The Sound of Light: A History of Gospel Music, (1993).

Heilbut, Anthony, The Gospel Sound (1985).

Periodicals

American Gospel, March/April 1992.

Ebony, December 1988; March 1994; February 1996.

Essence, October 1990.

Jet January 8, 1990; August 26, 1991; March 9, 1992.

Journal of American Folklore, Summer 1991.

People Weekly, November 9, 1987.

—Paul Anderson