Richard Smallwood Barred from White House’s Black Music Month

Written by Christopher J. Anderson

Gospel legend and six time Grammy nominee Richard Smallwood, a pillar within the Gospel community for such anthems as “Total Praise” and “Center of My Joy”, was recently barred from the Bush Administration’s Black Music Month Celebration.

Speaking from the Democratic National Convention in Denver, where Smallwood was an invited performer, the artist bestows with candor both his disdain for the Bush Administration and the incident which left him without a spot on what has become a celebrated event amongst the music elite and the White House.

Smallwood indicates that he received an invite from the White House in June to perform at their Black Music Month Celebration. “The White House called initially and said they were getting ready to celebrate Gospel Music in the month of September and would I be available to come and minister. I graciously said yes,” he recalls. Smallwood states he has been invited before however has turned the Administration down for what he calls the atrocities of the Administration on the lives of African Americans, especially the middle and lower class. Smallwood further states that not long after, his assistant Kelvin Leach received a call from the White house stating that because he had ministered at the retirement celebration of Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright in March of this year, the White House thought it best that he not participate in the Black Music Month Celebration and the invitation was withdrawn. Smallwood says that the fact that he was black listed hurts and goes on to say, “So many of us are tired of politics as usual. The crisis that our country is in is because of this [George W. Bush] Administration. The hypocrisy, the untruths have put a blotch on the very principals this country was founded upon.” Asked if he would accept a Bush Administration invite if they were to have a change of heart, the mild mannered artist proclaims, “no way”.