Florence B. Price: My Soul Is Anchored in the Lord

Florence B. Price, an award-winning pianist and songwriter composed one of the most famous songs heard in our churches across the United States called: “My Soul is Anchored in the Lord.” It is a deeply spiritual song with a powerful meaning. When Florence B. Price wrote this song African Americans were experiencing racial injustice and inequality across the country.

She was born Florence Beatrice Smith in Little Rock, Arkansas on April 9, 1887. Her father, James Smith, was a prominent dentist and born to free Black parents in Delaware. He was also a painter whose work was exhibited at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. Her mother, also named Florence, was a music teacher, and she encouraged her daughter to learn how to play the piano. At the age of four Florence gave her first piano performance. Classical music was valued in her home.

Florence’s passion for music composition as she grew older, and she sought more education in her chosen field. In the early years, she pretended to be Mexican, to circumvent the stigma toward African Americans during that time. Florence was very light skinned. She taught briefly in Arkansas and then moved to Atlanta in 1910. She became head of the music department at Clark University in 1912. Florence married an attorney named Thomas J. Price, and they moved back to Arkansas. After a series of racial incidents, especially a lynching in 1927, the family moved to Chicago, Illinois. She continued her career and studies in music.

Florence studied music composition, orchestration, and published some of her work. She enrolled at the Chicago Musical College, Chicago Teacher’s College, Chicago University, and the American Conservatory of Music. This is where she began the study of languages and liberal arts. Financial struggles led to a divorce in 1931. As a result, Florence raised her two daughters as a single mother. To make ends meet she worked as an organist for silent films and composed songs for radio ads under a pen name.

Despite the troubles, her illness, and lack of money she continued to write music. After her divorce she moved into a tenement house where she met talented African Americans, such as the poet Langston Hughes.

Florence never gave up writing songs. She became the most prominent African American composer of the 20th century, along with William Grant Still. She came in contact with Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Dubois, Marian Anderson, and the famous dancer Katherine Dunham. Florence wrote more than 300 songs. She also integrated African American rhythms and style in her music. This became very important to her as she composed her music.

The great singer Marian Anderson sang the song: “My Soul is Anchored in the Lord” in front of 75,000 people on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1939. Florence B. Price left a great legacy in music. Many of today’s composers stand on her shoulders. She was a true pioneer. Unfortunately, she was buried in an unmarked grave when she died on June 3, 1953, in Chicago. It was not until the 1960s that she received the recognition that she deserved.

In 1964, a Chicago school was named in her honor. The great Leontyne Price performed her songs at the White House at the invitation of former President Jimmy Carter. A film of her life was shown on the education channel funded in part by the University of Arkansas. The film is entitled “The Caged Bird: The Life and Music of Florence B. Price.”