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University Daily Kansan Friday, March 8. 1963
KU Professor Emphasizes Negro Oratory at Poetry Hour
The Negro's significant, but often neglected art of oratory was dramatized at the Poetry Hour yesterday afternoon, by William Kuhkle, instructor of speech and drama.
He said despite many years o slavesy and 100 years of so-called emancipation, the American Negro has made significant contributions to American culture. Among these are jazz and spirituals. He said the field of public address and oratory is often overlooked, however.
The emotional frustration of the American Negro citizen is considerable. Kuhlke said. His history is a vivid example of this. One of the principal outlets of the Negro's frustrations was an emotional brand of religion.
THE NEGRO considered the church a place and his faith a vehicle for the release of frustrations, the frustrations of a people in bondage.
According to sociologists, Kuhklke said, the Negro preacher was much more than the deliverer of the Sunday sermon. He was also the Negro's political and religious leader. Kuhklke explained that the "oldtime Negro shoutin' preacher" was usually of above average intelligence. He often possessed a "positive genius," even though he may
have lacked formal "book learnin.'"
AMONG THE NEGRO preacher's accomplishments was the power of oratory. Quoting James Weldon Johnson, Negro poet, Kuhllke said the preacher was the "master of all modes of eloquence."
As an example of this high level of emotionalism in Negro sermons, Kuhlike read Vachel Lindsay's "Daniel Sermon." Kuhlike explained that Lindsay had been inspired by the hypnotic elements of Negro preaching of the 1920's.
Kuhike then read Johnson's funeral poem "Go Down, Death" as an example of the more solemn, subdued elements found in the preachers' sermons.
KUHLKE SAID that Johnson, as a Negro, was highly sensitive about putting too much rhythm in his poetry, fearing the Negro stereotype.
Lindsay, said Kuhlke, was not under such social and racial pressure, and as a result, his poetry is highly rhythmical.
Kuhike read Lindsay's poem "How Samson Bore Away the Gates of Gaza." The poem's repetitive phrase "Let Samson be coming into yo' minds," Kuhike said, was an example of how the shoutin' preacher often paused in his sermons and
"chastised his audience, to get his audience to ride the horse of rhythm."
"THE OLD-time shoutin' preacher was completely uninhibited by biblical text," Kuhike said. "He treated it like an outline, feeling that God didn't have time to tell the whole story."
Kuhike said the preacher felt obligated to fill in the gaps and employed a vivid imagination in doing so. As an example of the license that the old-time preachers often took with the Bible, Kuhike read James Weldon Johnson' "Creation."
Music Sorority Plans American Program
Sigma Alpha Iota, professional music sorority, will present "Music Through the Years," a history of American music at the International Club meeting at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow in the Kansas Union Ballroom.
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