Music has sustained him. And for 25 years, he has sustained the Harvard-Radcliffe Kuumba Singers.

Robert Winfrey, director of the Kuumba Singers, will step down this June after a quarter-century of dedicated service.

For 27 years, his troupe's members have lifted their voices in songs of African-American community and spirituality.

They often have trekked across the American landscape during College breaks--garnering distinctions from Cambridge to Detroit to Georgia.

Winfrey has made his own journey--which has taken him from a poor home in Atlanta to the richest university in the nation.

We Shall Overcome

Winfrey vividly remembers the days of hurtful discrimination against blacks in the South, but he recounts a strong support network which guided him.

"You couldn't be a black and not experience discrimination," Winfrey says. "Everything was so obvious--not a day went by when you didn't feel it. It was a worst part of growing up in the South."

Yet black teachers in elementary and secondary school served as "surrogate parents--making you think--fertilizing your thinking."

A self-described "proud product of Atlanta public schools," Winfrey says--despite the challenges of a "fiercely segregated" system of racially-designated water fountains and seats on public transportation--his childhood was a happy one.

"I feel very blessed by the guidance provided by my home and church life," Winfrey says.

Winfrey's mother took on a second job so her precocious son could explore his penchant for music, taking piano and later organ lessons. Winfrey went on to play for the Liberty Baptist Church, a neighbor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Ebenezer Baptist Church.

Winfrey "got to know [Dr. King] very well," and found the Reverend's sermons and speeches "truly uplifting."

From College to Choirs

Winfrey has always followed the music--of a band or a choir.