Jessye Norman. Singer - ACE163.4

Photographs with commentary on Norman’s early life. Children singing in school. Norman talking being asked to take a solo role at the age of six, and about reading the part of Lady Macbeth. Dr Silas Norman, Elder Brother, on their local church’s encouragement of any kind of talent; film of church meeting. Both Normans on her singing in church. Norman singing the spiritual, Oh, Freedom. She talks about the "commitment and urgency" to be conveyed in such songs, and says that, though they always have a religious context, they bring her peace when she sings them to herself. Anti- segregation demonstration. Dr Norman talks about Jessye Norman’s experience of segregation and demonstrations. Newsreel footage of sit-in in a restaurant. Norman talks about her participation in civil rights activity. Ku-Klux Klan demonstration in Georgia. Norman says that she wasn’t deeply affected by segregation as she realised early on that "it was just so stupid". Martin Luther King’s "I have a dream" speech. Norman on train; her VO talking about the impact of King’s speech and her arrival in Washington. Norman in the Grand Arrivals Hall at Union Station. She remembers thinking of the March on Washington (news-film) and believing that everything would change.