Thomas A. Dorsey and "Precious Lord, Take My Hand"

Michael W. Harris, in his noteworthy account describing the rise of gospel blues, notes that: "to one group of African American [in attendance at Protestant Black churches], this music was crude: it harked back to the primitive 'cornfield ditties' of enslavement. It seemed to confirm [B]lack's inability to advance by not assimilating the music and liturgical practices of mainline, [W]hite Protestantism. To another group, usually composed of recently settled southern migrants, this music rekindled a spirit of worship that had been dampened by the European classical anthems and unimproved hymns sung in these churches (Harris 1992, xvii)."

Dorsey soon found himself in the middle of this fierce debate over the acceptance of one style of music versus another. "Initially, mainstream churches did not accept [Dorsey's brand of] Gospel music because of its apparent secular influence. The religious music that Dorsey proposed, called for a drastic departure from the music practices of the large Protestant Black churches of Chicago" (Atisu 2019, n.p.). According to gospel historian and music educator Horace Clarence Boyer (1935-2009), ministers would ask Dorsey not to bring his jazzy music brand into the church and not to blues up the music (Dunn & Marsh 1997, n.p.). Dorsey recounts being "thrown out of some of the best churches" (Nierenberg 1982, n.p.), and the ministers believed that "you can't sing no gospel…you can only preach it" (Duckett 1974, 5; Burnim 2015, 189; Shinagawa 2017, 3). "While Dorsey had been ridiculed and even turned out of a few churches, neither ministers, the burgeoning middle class, nor music conservatories could halt the speed at which gospel was growing" (Boyer 2000, 82; Shinagawa 2017, 3). "In spite of this rejection, the growth of the churches that played Dorsey's music convinced the others to incorporate them into their churches" (Atisu 2019, n.p.).