William Herbert Brewster

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

William Herbert Brewster was born in Somerville, Tennessee, in 1897 and was a Baptist minister and an important composer of gospel music. He graduated from Roger Williams College in Nashville in 1922 and settled in Memphis in the 1920s. From 1930 until his death in 1987 he was pastor of the East Trigg Avenue Baptist Church in South Memphis. He was also a poet, playwright, orator and leader in the civil rights movement.

Music and breakthrough

He owes his lasting fame to his music. He published more than two hundred songs. Move On Up a Little Higher became Mahalia Jackson's first hit in 1948, and Surely, God Is Able became a hit for The Ward Singers in 1950. Both records are regarded as the first Black gospel records to sell a million copies. Other songs include Lord I've Tried for The Soul Stirrers, I'm Climbing Higher and Higher for Marion Williams and Let Us Go Back to the Old Landmark, which is a favourite in Black gospel choirs. Brewster also wrote more than fifteen gospel music dramas, including From Auction Block to Glory from 1941, the first nationally staged African American religious play with gospel songs written especially for it.

Influence

The young Elvis Presley also sometimes went to his church and listened to his sermons, which were broadcast on Sunday evenings over Memphis radio under the name Camp Meeting of the Air. Brewster preached that a better day would come when all people would walk as brothers. In 1982 the Smithsonian Institution honoured him. He died in Memphis in 1987. Brewster brought the gospel song to a large audience and left his mark on the world of rock 'n' roll.

Listening