(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Chicago Historian Sherman “Dilla” Thomas shared the history of Sister Rosetta Tharpe and the impact she had on a small Bronzeville church community and the world after arriving in Chicago during the great migration.
“That period of time between 1915 and 1970, the 6 million African Americans leave the South and come to northern cities for a better opportunity and to escape Jim Crowism,” Thomas said.
A small storefront church had been founded by a family member about the same time as her arrival in Chicago.
“They had a small storefront church, but you know, they had this prodigy that could play and sing in Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and so the people that came out to see her perform gospel music is how the church got the revenue to build.”
Tharpe ultimately served the church with her energetic brand of electric guitar and gospel.
“Little Richard, Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Meat Loaf, Eric Clapton, they all say that they developed their style, the licks that they played on the guitar, and so many things – it comes from the inventions of Sister Rosetta Tharpe's.
“Chuck Berry, who's credited as being one of the inventors of rock and roll. He said his whole entire career was just a Sister Rosetta Tharpe imitation.”
Sister Rosetta Tharpe would travel the world as a rockstar. Her small church would move a few times, a final upgrade landing it at 40th and South State streets, where it was named Roberts Temple in 1953.
Two years later it would serve as a backdrop to a pivotal moment in the civil rights movement, with the funeral for a 14-year-old boy within Roberts Temple, one that was witnessed across the globe. The 1955 funeral of Emmett Till.
“We know that the life and death and funeral of the 14-year-old from Chicago really sparks the modern civil rights era for this country.
“We know that Rosa Parks was inspired to refuse to give up her seat because of the photos of his mutilated body as she saw in Jet magazine and Chicago Defender Magazine, and those photos unfortunately were taken inside of Robert's Temple.”
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