In the Spring of 1970, Henrietta Yurchenco, an ethnomusicologist at the City Univeristy of New York, and her course in American Folk Music, made the 14-hour train ride down to John’s Island, South Carolina. In the liner notes of the Smithsonian Folkways documentary recording, Johns Island, South Carolina: Its People and Songs, Yurchenco describes the journey: We were housed in modest quarters in the Progressive Club building, a community facility which included a gyn, and a grocery store. My students talked with many people, when to church with them, visited their homes and played with children. On John’s Island they came to understand the importance and the meaning of music in a folk community, as they heard it performed in their natural surroundings. Of particular interest were the role of the church in the community and the changes that have occurred since the early 1960’s at the beginning of the civil rights’ struggle. In many discussions with the young and dynamic minister of Wesley Methodist Church, Rev. Willis Goodwin, and chief laymen and director of the John’s Island Credit Union, Esau Jenkins, and others, students were able to understand the vital role of the Church both past and present, as it serves both spiritual needs and as a center for social action. The accompanying recording, still available for purchase today from the Smithsonian Institution, summarizes the highlights of the recordings: the famed 1970 Easter sermon from Rev. Goodwin, children’s songs from Janie and John Hunter’s children, and spirituals from the Wesley United Methodist Church. In the 1960s, Johns Island served as an early model for other southern states in the use of Citizenship Schools to increase black voter registration and literacy, led by Septima Clark and Esau Jenkins. Martin Luther King, Jr. proclaimed Clark “grandmother of the Civil Rights Movement.” The Yurchenco collection includes information on Janie Hunter, National Endowment of the Arts Heritage Fellow and lead singer of the Moving Star Hall Singers, who introduced “You Got to Move,” “We Shall Overcome,” and “Keep Your Eyes on the Prize.” These spirituals became the greatest tools for non-violent protest in America in the 1960s as civil rights leaders and college students endured physical sufferings in their quest for equality.