Educational Media Reviews Online

One part of a six part series studying the religious experience of the African American community throughout history, Guide My Feet focuses on the activities of two notable African Americans who have played a major role in changing religion both within the African American community and the United States as a whole.

Cecil Williams is the minister of Glide Memorial United Methodist Church, located within the heart of the Tenderloin District of San Francisco, known as a place where the down and out survive. Thomas Dorsey started out as a performer with Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith and ended up creating gospel music that helped change or influence the church to move in a different direction. Though this film focuses on the lives of both of these men, it frames their experiences by looking at the migration of African Americans to the North at the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Both Williams and Dorsey moved North, Williams from Texas and Dorsey from Georgia. They, like others, found a North that was not welcoming - where African American churches did not embrace the musical and expressive services of the South, preferring music by Brahms and Handel and services that were much more staid where participants wore their best clothes and were less expressive. Many transplants from the South tried to fit in with the "silk stocking" northern church format but others created new religious traditions including embracing Islam, encouraging leadership from women in the community, and embracing Hebrew, Baptist and Pentecostal traditions. Williams and Dorsey also had to face communities that were not willing to accept change.

Williams came to Glide in the 1960's and found a primarily white church with 35 members. He decided to step away from the pulpit and speak to his members in the center aisle. When his membership rebelled and left, he went out into the community and began to approach the homeless and the down and out. He decided to play jazz music on Sundays, to help change the emphasis on the building as being the most important part of the church to the people being the most important part of the church. He also brought in local activists, like Angela Davis, to speak during services. At the time of this film Glide had over 7,000 members and embraced a large and diverse community including the homeless, lesbians and gays and people who were not Methodist.

Dorsey followed a different path. After facing an unexplained illness he began to combine the blues that he played for Smith and Rainey with religious poems he composed. He tried to take his gospel music to churches and had doors closed in his face. But the death of his wife led him to write the song "Precious Lord", a song that has been translated into over 50 languages, opened church doors to gospel music and helped establish Dorsey as a composer and as the creator of gospel music. Dorsey eventually composed over 500 songs and helped train performers such as Mahalia Jackson and James Cleveland.

Guide My Feet includes a current interview with Williams, a historic interview with Dorsey who died in 1993, interviews with family members of both men, and historians to provide a detailed portrait of these men and the culture they helped to change. The film also uses extensive collections of photographic materials and archival films to illustrate this story. Though the filmmakers do an excellent job, one problem is that they hop from storyline to storyline and it can sometimes be difficult to see how items link together or why they do. In spite of this one problem this video should find a home in school, academic and public libraries especially those with African American, American Studies or religion collections.

A companion web site is available at PBS, and an online facilitator’s guide from California Newsreel.