The Spirituals Project
Fairmount is launching a social justice initiative of reparations to our enslaved siblings. Historically, Negro Spirituals were orally passed through the generations. Since that time countless composers/arrangers have taken these pieces to create their own arrangements which have been sold to churches, schools, and community organizations. These arrangers receive royalties from every copy of music sold. Since there were no copyrights on these original spirituals, the arrangers collect the royalties in full.
The Spirituals Project aims to increase awareness about this music that is an important part of our American heritage. We will collect funds each quarter as a reparation, and will share those funds to local organizations supporting black musicians.
For the first quarter (January-March), funds collected will go to the A. Grace Lee Mims Fund held within the Cleveland Foundation which supports graduate students pursuing a degree in voice with a concentration on preserving the Negro Spiritual. A. Grace Lee Mims served as soprano soloist at Fairmount for twenty years and hosted the program “Black Arts” for forty-three years on WCLV. Frederick Taylor, Music Director at Shiloh Baptist, was one of A. Grace Mims’ voice students, and the current section leader at Shiloh, Matthew Jones, was a scholarship recipient in 2021.
If you are interested in participating in this project, click here to make a donation. Or, you can make a check payable to Fairmount Presbyterian Church. Be sure to include Spiritual Project in the memo. You can also donate through your online Realm account by selecting the fund, Spirituals Project. A display in the hallway outside the sanctuary will contain information about each quarter as to how many spirituals have been sung/played, the selected organization, and the amount of money raised.
