Agnes Brown's music is meant to incite more than applause from her audience. When she sings, with her unique blend of grace and exuberance, she is celebrating her faith, freedom and Alberta roots. "To me, of all the music, gospel is the real thing," says Brown. "Other types of singing can eventually vanish, but gospel can speak to the young and to the old. We take it as a ministry. It's much more than just entertainment."
Whether singing solo or in a group, or directing a church choir, the 70-year-old Sherwood Park resident has been spreading the good news through the songs of her ancestors for over 60 years.
But the history of Alberta's black gospel music doesn't begin with the woman dubbed "Edmonton's Queen of Gospel Music." It goes back two generations further, to 1910, when her grandparents immigrated from the U.S. to Alberta's Amber Valley (formerly known as Pine Creek).
Calgary-based author and filmmaker Cheryl Foggo wrote a book entitled Pourin' Down Rain about her African-American family, who were among the first black settlers in Alberta. She says that by the time her grandparents and Brown's settled in northern Alberta, black pioneers had already been a part of the province's landscape since the late 1870s, but the biggest wave arrived in the early 1900s. Many of these settlers made the 3,500-kilometre journey from Oklahoma, which prior to joining the union was a sanctuary for former slaves escaping Jim Crow laws that imposed "separate but equal" status for blacks. "They owned property [in Oklahoma], and had more human rights than what was offered in other southern states," Foggo explains.
But after Oklahoma became a state in 1907, blacks became the target of heinous racism, including attacks by lynch mobs. About that time, newspaper ads highlighting cheap land in northern Alberta were circulating in Oklahoma, and many African-Americans seized the opportunity to immigrate. Some came to Edmonton, but most went to rural Alberta to become farmers in communities such as Amber Valley, Campsie, Wildwood (formerly Junkins) and Breton (formerly Keystone).
The transition to Canadian life was not always easy. Discrimination, harsh climate and inferior farmland made the initial move difficult. But the struggle was eased by a strong faith in their Christian beliefs - and music.
When Brown thinks back to her life growing up in Amber Valley, she remembers the sounds of powerful vocals, rhythmic clapping and lively instruments in her house, school and church. She began singing when she was seven and by the time she was 13, Brown, her mother and three sisters formed a gospel group called the Sneed Family Singers.
The performances were so energetic, Brown recalls, that the singers would sometimes kick off their shoes in a burst of inspiration and passion. Even if the shoes landed on the audience, they would respond with enthusiasm. "It really sparked them," she remembers.
"Quite a few bands cropped up in the '30s, '40s and '50s, when [black] people were more affluent and could afford instruments," says Foggo.
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