Robert F. Darden of the Overby Center panel of experts writes that, when freedom of speech was restricted, protest spirituals were an effective means of communication that also became foundational messages for the Civil Rights Movement. 

There’s a story behind how Baylor University in Waco, Texas, became the center of a significant project to preserve and store Black gospel music. Robert Darden, a member of the Overby Center panel of experts and professor emeritus at Baylor, tells the story.

Country music icon Marty Stuart along with the Philadelphia Arts Council restored the Ellis Theater in Philadelphia, Miss., to establish the Marty Stuart’s Congress of Country Music.