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.ÿþNoble Sissle, and a number of civil right leaders were also invited, and itwas an occasion as special as any inaugural event I d played there.I hadthe invitation framed and put up on display in our living room.Lookingback, I believe it was President Kennedy s assassination that spurred meto start working on the administration, doing whatever I could to helpPresident Johnson.I may be a Republican, but I m first of all an American,and I thought that what President Johnson was doing was good for thecountry.So in 1964, when he ran for election as president, I jumped partylines to support him.I had nothing personally against Barry Goldwaterin fact, we were good friends but Johnson had signed the 1964 CivilRights Act and said,  We shall overcome, and he was the man I wanted tosupport.91The introduction of the 33 r.p.m.long-play (LP) album in 1948 byColumbia Records afforded the opportunity to record full sermons usingboth sides of the record.Hitherto sermons had necessarily been truncatedor divided into several parts to fit the limited space of the 78 record.Inthe 1960s many of these were reissued on LPs, and newer recordings ofsermons profited from the new medium.In the 1960s, with political con-sciousness rising among African Americans, many sometimes quite mili-tant sermons were recorded on LP.Except for a fine study of Rev.C.L.Franklin s sermons by Jeff Todd Titon,92 little work has been done on thetranscription of these fascinating sermons, which give a vivid insight intothe effect of the political process on African-American churchgoers.Rev.Omie L.Holliday (1924 1987), from Houston, recorded a ser-mon called  The Assassination of President Kennedy and the Crucifixionof Jesus in the Greater New Pleasant Grove Baptist Church in Houston in1966 or 1967.Many of the themes already discussed return in this sermon.Again Kennedy s assassination is compared to the crucifixion of Christ.Kennedy was  Christ-like, Holliday clearly states.He paints a picture oftwentieth-century man: armed with scientific knowledge, but lonely andconfused.The Reverend was convinced that Kennedy was  a friend of theNegro, as he had placed himself  at the head of  the civil rights revolu-tion.Many comparisons were made between Christ and Kennedy and themost important question for both remained:  Why did they have to die?According to Holliday, Kennedy died so that the Americans could see  theThe Day the Worl d Stood Stil l [ 155 ] [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ]