RALEIGH, N.C. -- When Wake County school board members refer to attempts to reach consensus "singing Kumbaya," they're following a long practice of mocking the campfire favorite.
The most widely known version of the song may deserve its limp reputation - the chorus only has four different words and the music is numbingly repetitive.
But a University of North Carolina folklorist who has reluctantly become the go-to guy on "Kumbaya" says critics are missing out on the strengths of a decades-old song that has traveled from America to Africa and back, played a key role in the civil rights movement and survived decades of bad renditions to remain a staple of the African-American church.
Folk singer Joan Baez sings Sept. 22, 1967, in San Francisco. Baez is one out of more than 150 musicians who have published versions of the song, "Kumbaya."
A century and a half after the Civil War, a group of African-Americans gathered Saturday to remember the progress their ancestors made as a result of the war.
"It's more than just a good song, it's an important song," said Glenn Hinson, an associate professor of folklore and anthropology at UNC-Chapel Hill.
First appearing in print in a 1931 book by white women who had learned African-American songs from their nannies in South Carolina and Georgia, "Kumbaya" has been mercilessly mocked since emerging in a far blander form as a favorite of the late '50 and '60 folk music revival.
The song has increasingly become a word to belittle the concept of compromise.
During the 2008 presidential election, candidate Barack Obama said, "The politics of hope is not about holding hands and singing, 'Kumbaya.'"
The song title became derisive shorthand last fall for a collaborative process that Wake County minority board member Kevin Hill wanted the entire board to go through together.
"I thought the direction of the board was to work together and find consensus on student assignment," said Hill, a Democratic board member.
But Republican Chris Malone, disagreed, maintaining that Hill wanted them all to join hands and sing - guess what?
UNC's Hinson, 57, knew the mild campfire version of "Kumbaya" as a child growing up in the 1960s. But he cites a riveting version recorded in an Alabama church in 1965 by civil rights activists following a bloody march on Selma, Ala. Instead of lyrics about laughing and crying, the protesters sang "Someone's dying Lord, come by here." Other verses referred to suffering and hurting.
During the civil rights years, when group singing became a prime means of lifting spirits and expressing solidarity, "Come By Here" found its place alongside "Don't You Let Nobody Turn You 'Round" and "We Shall Overcome."
In North Carolina, Hinson has come to love the song black churches and gospel groups still sing as "Come By Here."
For example, when Sister Lina Mae Perry joins her congregation in "Come By Here" at Long Branch Disciples of Church at Newton Grove, the song expresses spiritual needs more deeply than the typical campfire version of "Kumbaya."
"As I was growing up back in the day, when people in the country needed something, if they asked everybody to help and people refused, they would sing, 'Come by here, Lord, come by here,' " said Perry, 71, a Johnston County native who now lives in Wake.
"It's when they are depressed and down, and as we always do, we try everything else before we try God."
From its first publication in South Carolina, the song likely made its way north through special events at Southern resorts such as St. Simons Island, where guests were treated to concerts of local African-Americans singing tunes including "Come By Here." Hinson thinks the "Kumbaya" title arose from later efforts to link the song to African origins, which have never been verified.
Gospel singers, some recorded in prison, have sung "Come By Here" from at least the 1920s to the present day. It wasn't until the late '50s and early '60s that it was released by Pete Seeger, the Weavers, Joan Baez and other folksingers.
"I think one of the critical things is that in African-American communities, 'Come By Here' kept its foundation in faith," Hinson said.
"When the song started being sung in the folk singing community, it was not a song associated with faith.
"The song became a simple call for togetherness, for community."
Posted By: Siebra Muhammad
Sunday, March 20th 2011 at 3:41PM
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