Exploring the Revolutionary Legacy of Black River Baptisms

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Join us on this enlightening journey as Tank Ball discovers the origins, significance and lasting legacy of River Baptisms for the Black community, from the music of gospel legend Mahalia Jackson to the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. and beyond.
Through interviews with Scholar of Africana Religions Ambre Dromgoole and Musician and Minister Rev. Joshuah Brian Campbell, we uncover compelling stories of how the sacred waters have profoundly shaped U.S. history, musical traditions and inspired countless artists.
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In Ritual, Grammy-nominated musician Tank Ball journeys through the long-held rituals and traditions of the South. From the widely-shared to the deeply personal, rituals define a community's relationship between the past and present, and their resonance in the collective regional consciousness.
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[@pbsvoices]

Ritual is Webby Nominated! Help us out with a vote! vote.webbyawards.com/PublicVoting#/2024/video/video-series-channels/diversity-equity-inclusion

[@gailclaybrooks9392]

I am beyond proud of my niece's contributions to this series. Yes, Dr. Ambre Dromgoole!

[@HotelTravelGuide101]

I’m proud of her also ❤

[@sheem.2450]

Congrats!!! ❤

[@lhu6971]

Well Good Golly!!! This is a great documentary. Your loved one doing great thing's for the Kingdom of God. Those girl's sure can "sang"

[@JoanCampbell-ev2uu]

That’s my grandson, Joshuah Campbell.

[@lhu6971]

@@JoanCampbell-ev2uu Oooh yes. Your grandson is soooo talented and🎉🎉🎉 accomplished we have to write accomplishment's down to remember😊 So young, he is. Parents/ Grandparents did a great job exposing him to the love of Christ as a youth.

[@imissy2013]

I’m from the Mississippi Delta and my mom,her brothers and sisters were all baptized in the river just like this. I love my roots ! Thanks PBS for this series because this is apart of my life and heritage. And this is the type of gospel I grew up on in church and they still sing these songs in Mississippi church. 🙏🏽

[@AngelaKelson-tm8rq]

Yes very thankful my mom is also from the Mississippi delta 😊

[@mariastewart9820]

I'm from Mississippi as well and I am so proud to be ! ❤

[@mabien11]

Grew up in Alabama baptisms were really important. Didn't do it at a river, though it was at a church. My grandmother would sang hymns in the early morning while the house was quiet. I would lay in bed and just listen. I sensed it was her time with god, so I didn't bother her. I also remember going to big white tents in the woods doing revival season. It was something to see!

[@foxeshowl3112]

African American History at it’s best is absolutely beautiful.. The fact that we rose to make our presence in America this land is our land and we will reclaim it as our own..GLORY B TO GOD I’m omw to GLORY 👏🏽👏🏽

[@karengarrison4237]

Tank: Stop with the beautiful intro with "Wade in the Water" Had me trembling before you started the docu.

[@sydneystewart3244]

Amen! As a proud South Carolina native raised in the Black Church who also graduated Harvard, job well done. This video was incredibly touching and I’m so grateful for this series and the opportunity to see my culture reflected. Thank you. ❤

[@LilJazzzzyyyy]

I love listening to elders tell stories about our history and their experiences

[@CSHallo]

This series is really special. As one who isn’t African American, I feel like I’m being privileged by these glimpses into the types of conversations and ways of speaking that most “code switch” out of.

[@PhDiva02]

We code switch out of the conversations because they arent meant for you.

[@honeybee7855]

This was beautiful and so touching. As a Black woman from the UK I see how much connection there is between African diasporan people. Water is meaningful for Caribbean people as well my Mum used to tell me about Mami Water which is Jamaican folklore about a mermaid like creature that lives in bodies of water. I also used to sing songs like "Take me to the Water' and "The water is troubled my friend step right in" at baptisms growing up in my predominately Caribbean church in London.

[@kinebrembry6224]

Even now, black baptist churches in Okinawa do outdoor baptism at Araha beach. The locals stopped to watch very respectfully. It’s still beautiful.

[@Winniegirl85]

Love this thank you. And we do river baptism in Jamaica too

[@tanyathewildflower5331]

My brother and I were baptizing a river in Alabama. I remember my family and church members singing Take me to the water as we walked through the woods.

[@Juicedude502]

This did not begin in the 1800s but we see in the Book of Acts the Ethiopian being baptized by Phillip and also as 3:32 she stated when Jesus was baptized it was part of our culture when we still knew who we were. Jesus is also one of us.

[@folamiyejide4]

This filled my heart with joy. I was baptized in a river by my father who is a pentecostal minister.

[@adriand1181]

They sang “take me to the water” in my childhood I really miss those days

[@tonyamercado9013]

They still sing that today in a lot of churches

[@ashleybcookin]

Tank gave me chills with her intro. My sis is anointed 😆… real talk, I always enjoy her energy. She has such a powerful presence. ❤🙏🏽

[@bnast6849]

I'm Serbian- Orthodox Christian but this gives me goosebumps...

[@TheThirtyJourney]

This brought back so many memories of the church I grew up in, the hymns and and even my own baptism. So beautiful to have memories and moments like this and to see this highlighted. Beautiful episode 💛

[@me0101001000]

I sang so many of these spirituals in my choir days. Moses Hogan was something else.

[@anthonydixon4636]

Same

[@me0101001000]

@@anthonydixon4636 what parts did you sing? I'm a tenor 1, but I absolutely loved the bass parts

[@noreneal7252]

12:32 was everything! The highlight of this video 💯 Our culture is so beautiful and unique! It must be upheld, sustained, and cultivated ❤️💯🙌🏾 Another reason why both our elders and youth are in a sense our lifeblood! This series is very important because many blacks today have no identity and culture. We mustn’t forget and we must carry the baton 🙏🏾

[@ebsssizzle4730]

This series is very important ! I am a black women from the uk but this teaching me so much about African Americans

[@ksfaith87]

This is such a beautiful series. Please consider a part two regarding the power of water in spiritual traditions - perhaps a discussion of the blue bottle trees in the south and the color blue worn by the Gullah Geechee, Hilton Head for example - how they believe that water keeps out evil. Consider perhaps a brief historical discussion of Igbo Landing and a water so powerful that the Nigerian Igbo African captives had rather face being unalive and transported as spirit back to their homeland by water than face enslavement. Please keep up the fabulous work!

[@jboepro1]

I am enjoying this series so much!

[@khaleelahi.l.harris7492]

So proud of Ambre and Josh!!! Such amazing human beings, friends, and scholars 🥹🤍

[@queenmitchell8657]

I had a spiritual shift when I went to the water. It gave me so much knowledge. ❤❤❤

[@politicaljunkie1967]

Was baptized in the James River August 1978

[@Xixi1991]

I absolutely love this series. Our ancestors connection is so strong in us. Made me emotional that now I stand in freedom because they survived the worst so I could experience the best. Ase Amen. 😭🙌

[@Qu33n]

When Deacon Bradley got emotional at 12:33, you can tell he has such blessed memories

[@rue1284]

These are awesome keep them coming sis!!! We must educate ourselves!!!

[@ShadowSelf999]

Water is our Rememory.

[@quartercomicsart6610]

Thank you for sharing this part of the American culture that not all of us have heard, keep sharing and I'll keep learning. Thank you.

[@jessicam.4777]

I love my culture…& I was also baptized in a river (Perquimans Co, NC).

[@scottlypuff]

i love these segments so much!

[@nwadi6408]

Beautiful. Thank you.

[@ZiMiLa49]

I hope you guys all know that this song was used as a code for the slaves to get off the trail and into the water. Slavers used dogs to find escaped slaves, and the water helped hide their scent. If you didn't know, now you do.

[@rosequartz7939]

Yes I cry every time I hear the song I feel the emotions of the ancestors!

[@skyelark5511]

Now, that's a Truth to be told!!

[@barbaralucas2713]

I Love This series, I Love The Old Songs, They Had A Purpose, for The Soul, They Brought US Though It All, I Love Learning About Our History, Thank YOU ALL, Please Keep Teaching Us, AMEN🙏🙏🙏

[@victoriadavis5157]

Yasssss my sis is doing the dang thing!!!

[@quise1975]

I loved this series.. and then I saw her in concert last weekend.! This girl is MAGIC!!

[@ms.drenay621]

This also gives me a sense that part of it is to symbolize surviving the journey from the homeland across all that water. From one way of life (into the boat) and then having to adjust to another (foreign lands &languages)

[@russelladams6517]

Y'all should do an episode on Capoeira it's historically a black ritual from our Afro Brazillian brothers and sisters and there's plenty of black American practitioners you could talk to like Mestre Malandro in Atlanta or Mestre Amen and Afro Brazillian in Los Angeles

[@MapleDaze]

Brought to tears again by this beautiful video. Thank you for sharing it with the world. I have been one of those obnoxious atheists beating a drum of the oppression of religion and completely overlooking the truth that it is a tool and in the hands of a person can heal as equality as harm. Can protect as strongly as it attacks. Empower just as effectively as it can oppress. this series is a gift

[@transfigurationyah4193]

HalleluYah!

[@mascadadelpantion8018]

All traditions have some beginning and i'm glad this one has such a beautiful one

[@karim_wafa]

I’m a historian of African American history and African diasporic cosmology and mythology and this was wonderfully explained. Would love to do an episode with you guys.

[@bignetate5799]

Deacon Bradley looks very native to this land. He looks so much like my great gma. I am also from the south. Memphis TN

[@ellefont3813]

I love Tank.

[@FeliciaQueen17]

My grandmama is from the Mississippi Delta and she was baptized in the Mississippi river.

[@maryburrell3948]

I really like Tank from Tank and The Bangas.

[@rogerepennjr7972]

So thankful for this! Love, admiration, and respect to Tank and Dray from East Texas!!!

[@brianacherry776]

River- Leon Bridges

[@Therootdoctress]

Yes indeed!!

[@lorrainegartrell1907]

Sing!!!! Wonderful tone!!!

[@hiztoricalvp]

Beautifully Done!

[@tyrosebush]

Wow this blew my mind. Great job.

[@user-ek3em6qx2d]

I am proud of her. Beautiful 🎉

[@torrencec5337]

Tank!!!! Yes.

[@bookyboo]

Beautiful!!! This is wonderful ❤

[@QuizzicalLeo]

This was so good!

[@ashlovestoshop]

This series is outstanding! I’m never not moved!

[@thelab4326]

So insightful ! Thank you!

[@phonophesile]

I hear you very clearly..thank you for sharing this with us

[@historybeforeus]

This is beautiful work!

[@mauriceevans6546]

Just awesome

[@JZidor]

This is so good

[@dr.jennapetersonap3874]

Grew up singing this . Yes, even as a alabaster, cinnamon redhead. How can I support, be an ally?

[@PhDiva02]

You can’t 😐

[@dr.jennapetersonap3874]

@@PhDiva02 respect your response 🙏🧡

[@Jay.B.2046]

🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽

[@donovandawkins2608]

PASTOR GINO JENNINGS IS SAVING LIFES EVERY TIME HE SPEAKS BY GOD PERMISSION

[@miraclesblessings5044]

Oh my goodness... this makes me want to be re-baptized...re-dedicated. ..."there is room at the cross"

[@ubiej]

D.RAY! U Ballin 🙏🏿

[@dwighthoward3415]

Well people say when they were baptized their sins were washed away! But in reality, it's the mind that needs to be baptized because the body is innocent and it only did what the mind told it to do.

[@KingAshleys]

God will always trouble the water

[@tiffhawthorne]

BAPTISM GIVING YOUR LIFE TO JESUS FORGIVENESS OF SINS UNDER THE BLOOD OF JESUS IS AMAZING

[@kowanikaharrington6036]

🤎🤎

[@meander112]

Engagement for the engagement god! Subs for the sub throne!

[@glassofwater-tx1iq]

going to the river and doing the ritual dressed in white could also be from ancestral yoruba initiation ceremonies

[@atomicflash1753]

The ritual comes from John the Baptist

[@allyiahwatley9956]

The Legacy is the fact that they came up a new man! This is about Jesus not spirituality

[@skyelark5511]

I'm sorry but by no stretch of the imagination can Black Americans claim water baptism as their own. All those historical references to water are all fine and good but even if they never existed, we would still be doing water baptisms. Why? John the Baptist and Elisha and Naaman.

[@PhDiva02]

We can and we have. Stay mad mf

[@Gullahbae-xm6ms]

This documentary doesn’t state nor assume that Black Americans claim that river baptisms are something that they invented. This video discusses the meaning and importance river baptisms have in Black churches. Listening (and comprehension) is fundamental…

[@skyelark5511]

​​​​​​@@Gullahbae-xm6ms@2:30-2:52 "So, what is a River Baptism?" "A River Baptism is a ritual that began in the late nineteen, early twentieth Century. . . . " In the Old Testament (B.C. era) baptisms (washings) were talking place in the River Jordan long before John the Baptist started baptising there in the New Testament. Yet we are being told here that such rituals began in the late 19th Century. If I knew nothing about the Bible, I'd have no objections. From one scholar to another: It truly behooves you to correct your errors rather than defend untenable positions caused by inadvertence. Go back and re-listen to your presentation for surely what you meant is not what was presented. I, a member of the audience, have a right to my opinion about what I heard and what I heard was so patently inaccurate that although I was truly inspired by your beauty and the beautiful presentation, I could not watch the entire video because I considered it to be false information.

[@nwadi6408]

Just stop. Please.

[@skyelark5511]

​​​@@Gullahbae-xm6ms know what I heard @2:32

[@SmaiTauiProductions]

The Power of the Water! Good episode. Keep them coming. @smaitauiproductions

[@queena_]

“let’s go doooown byyy the riverrrr, let’s go doooooo-ah-oown byyy thr riverrrr “ 🤎