Prologue

Abstract

To understand the major themes in Homer Rodeheaver’s life, the authors examine the highpoint of American revivalism, Billy Sunday’s 1917 campaign in Atlanta. Forced into segregated meetings during the Jim Crow era, Rodeheaver attempted to diffuse a difficult situation by organizing a mass choir from black churches, featuring spirituals and community singing. Occurring at the cusp of World War I, the meetings broadly influenced Thomas A. Dorsey, the family of Martin Luther King Jr., and the next generation of evangelicals. The moment illustrates Rodeheaver’s advocacy of black music for white congregations, but it also reveals Billy Sunday’s refusal to condemn racial segregation or the Ku Klux Klan. The tensions would continue for much of Rodeheaver’s life.