SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - 'Somebody Touched Me' by Washington Temple Camp Meeting Choir

In the early 1900s, the new Church of God in Christ denomination sent a host of extraordinarily talented musical missionaries out to evangelize the country. One of the most memorable was Sister Ernestine Washington. Born in poverty in rural Arkansas in 1914, Sister Ernestine married Bishop F.D. Washington in 1934 and his church, Washington Temple, soon became one of the biggest in Brooklyn.

 Now as Madame Washington, her recordings are now mostly out of print and her duties with the COGIC denomination and as a pastor’s wife meant that only the lucky few at COGIC meetings in Memphis ever heard her sing. Fortunately, we have this recording of “Somebody Touched Me” with the Washington Temple Camp Meeting Choir from the 1950s... which lets us hear just why she was called “The Songbird of the East.”

I’m Robert Darden … “Shout! Black Gospel Music Moments” is produced by KWBU and the Black Gospel Music Preservation Program at Baylor University Libraries.

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