John Robert Lee Bradley was born in Memphis, Tennessee on October 5, 1919. He was raised by his mother and grew up with not much money but with a great deal of love. “Born in an alley, reared in an alley,” Bradley left school after the third grade. In the book, “ A Wealth of Wisdom: Legendary African American Elders Speak,” he recounted the following experience: As a 12-year old, he stood outside the city auditorium in Memphis, at a National Baptist Convention Christmas Eve program where poor children singing in a church choir would be given clothes and Christmas stockings. “I sang my way in there,” he said. He started singing outside the door, and a policeman brought out the convention’s music director, Lucie Campbell, a pioneering gospel songwriter who would become Mr. Bradley’s mentor. He recalled that the policeman asked her, “What do you hear?” and she replied, “I hear an angel singing.” Read More

National Public Radio Commentary
by jeff obafemi carr