Ada Perlman, Contributing Photographer

Around 40 members of the Yale and New Haven communities gathered at First and Summerfield United Methodist Church on Monday night to join in prayer and song in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. 

The two-hour event featured prayers led by Reverend Joshua Williams ’08 DIV ’11 and a music workshop led by Christoph McFadden MUS ’27. In his presentation, McFadden emphasized the significance of music in the Civil Rights movement.

“When we reflect on the life and legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr, we have to mention that the freedom movement has been characterized and supported and advanced by music, and that’s fun for me to be able to talk about because I’ve always been a singer and always studied music,” McFadden said.

McFadden shared the stories of the Freedom Singers, a group founded in 1962. The group originated songs like “We Shall Not Be Moved,” which became famous chants during the Civil Rights era. 

Throughout the presentation, McFadden alternated between presenting the history and significance of each song and then also led the group in singing. He first taught the melody and then encouraged the group to harmonize into a more sophisticated tune. Participants also stomped their feet singing songs such as “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around.”

“When I hear the soundscape of the movement, even though it is of a time in which I was not born, I am still transported to this kind of spiritual place, because those sounds did not die in 1968, those sounds continue to pervade African American churches,” McFadden told the audience before singing Amazing Grace. 

Joshua Williams, lead pastor of Elm City Vineyard Church, which rents space in First and Summerfield United Methodist Church, reflected on the church’s importance during the Civil Rights movement. 

“It’s about ordinary people that had faith and faith in something bigger, and then they changed the world because of it,” Williams said. “Dr King is a figure of that, but it’s really the people, and people in church, like regular worshipers, that made a big difference. This event connects us back to that.”

Tina Colón Williams ’09, worship pastor at Elm City Vineyard Church and an attorney in New Haven, spoke of the importance of remaining connected to a vision despite the “hard world.” Spaces like church are supposed to help people “reconnect both to the vision and the source,” which is “really motivating and powerful,” she said.

Elm City Vineyard Church meets Sundays at 4 p.m. at 425 College St.

ADA PERLMAN
Ada Perlman covers religious life at Yale. She is a sophomore in Pierson College.