Old-Time Black Gospel Quartet Contests

Quartet singers claim that anytime two quartets appeared on the same program, there was automatically a contest, each group intent upon stealing the house from the other. More formal competitions, however, appeared during the 1920s and 1930s, complete with judges, cash prizes, and a standard method of point scoring. It is reported that on one occasion twenty-three quartets performed at a high school in Laurel, Mississippi, competing for a total of $550 in prize money. Generally, contest purses were far more nominal; yet, the fact that such an amount was offered during the lean years of the mid1930s attests to the popularity of the competitions. Without question, the two most fertile breeding grounds for quartet singing were Jefferson County, Alabama (which encompasses Birmingham, Bessemer, Fairfield, and their rural suburbs), and the Tidewater region of Virginia (whose cultural center was the city of Norfolk). It is difficult to appreciate the role quartet singing played in these places; but it was the prevailing form of musical expression for the time as well as the general pastime of black church-going youth for at least two generations. In some cities, every neighborhood had at least one active quartet. The quartet contests provided a medium through which a group could distinguish itself from numerous local contemporaries. They were a source of community pride. On February 25, 1922, the Norfolk Journal and Guide, the Tidewater area's longstanding black community newspaper, reported

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