One of the highlights of my career as a singer songwriter was in July 2014 when I was invited to support Mavis Staples at the ABC 02 Glasgow. I had been an admirer of the Staple Singers and the father of the group, Roebuck "Pops" Staples for over fifty years since the 1960s. Pops (December 28, 1914 – December 19, 2000) was an American Gospel and R&B musician, a pivotal figure in gospel in the 1960s and 1970s and patriarch and member of singing group, the Staple Singers, which included his son Pervis and daughters Mavis, Yvonne, and Cleotha. For me to meet Mavis Staples was an honour and a privilege that I had not expected.
I was fortunate enough to have a conversation with Mavis Staples in the green room after the concert and it was an experience I will never forget. She was aware of my interest in her father and his involvement with the civil rights movement and we spoke about Rosa Parks whose actions led to the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott in 1955 – a turning point in the history of the plight of black Americans. I was simultaneously elated and humbled when Mavis Staples made a positive comment about my song describing the event. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKRbBWuPpxQ.
Mavis recalled that, after hearing Martin Luther King preaching in Montgomery Alabama in 1963, her father wanted to sing what Rev. King was preaching about and after a meeting with King later in 1963, Pops began writing freedom songs in support of the American civil rights movement.
It is no accident or coincidence that Pops Staples and Martin Luther King sang from the same hymn sheet regarding social justice. Both men were steeped in gospel values, King from his ministry as a Baptist preacher and Pop Staples from his gospel singing tradition and this was inextricably linked to their shared values concerning social justice and human dignity.
In King’s Sermon at Temple Israel of Hollywood delivered 26 February 1965 Rev. King, Jr. focused on the question “Who are the least of these? ” (St. Matthew 25). I used this quote from St. Matthew in a song entitled ‘What did we ever learn from history?’ which refers to the rhetoric of Rev. King. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z49ZIjzgY7Q
In this tribute to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, may I conclude by quoting a section of that speech and sermon, which related so closely to today’s issues of justice and peace:
“Who are the least of these? The least of these are those who still find themselves smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in an affluent society. Who are the least of these? They are the thousands of individuals who see life as a long and desolate corridor with no exit sign. Who are the least of these? They are the little boys and little girls who grow up with clouds of inferiority floating in their little mental skies because they know that they are caught in conditions of economic deprivation. Who are the least of these? They are the individuals who are caught in the fatigue of despair. And somehow if we are to be a great nation, we must be concerned about the least of these, our brothers.
“And we’ve been in the mountain of indifference too long and ultimately we must be concerned about the least of these; we must be concerned about the poverty-stricken because our destinies are tied together. And somehow in the final analysis, as long as there is poverty in the world, nobody can be totally rich.”