Delbridge says he remembers being told of students who would take out loans in the early years to fund spring tours.

Many of the Kuumba Singers' first performances took place in House dining halls and community churches. And although the group was founded at Harvard, students at other Boston colleges and some non-students from the area were also involved, Wiley says.

"The original drive [of the Kuumba Singers] was to cut across the traditional lines of class, age and gender which kept black people from being one," he adds.

And although Wiley says he did not realize how long the Kuumba Singers would endure, on the night of their first practice session he felt as if they were creating something unique and special.

"When we said our closing prayer and left the old Freshman Union on that fateful night in 1970, we had no idea how amply God would bless the Kuumba Singers, nor did we in any way imagine that we had just laid the cornerstone of a Harvard institution," he wrote.

"What we did realize, however, was that we had just enjoyed an unforgettable, spirit-filled evening," he continues. "Maybe, just maybe, we vaguely sensed that we had just discovered a way to express the rich creativity of our black spirituality in a strange land."

A Transitional Time

Membership in the Kuumba Singers continued to grow throughout the 1970s, but the 1980s were a transitional time, says former Presidents Diane Johnson '84 and Curtis M. Hairston, Jr. '84.