pibWinner of the 2022 Gustave O. Arlt Award in the Humanities, award by by the Council of Graduate Schoolsbi pbExplores the role of jazz celebrities like Ella Fitzgerald, Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, and Mary Lou Williams as representatives of African American religion in the twentieth centuryb pBeginning in the 1920s, the Jazz Age propelled Black swing artists into national celebrity. Many took on the role of race representatives, and were able to leverage their popularity toward achieving social progress for other African Americans. pIn iLift Every Voice and Swingi, Vaughn A. Booker argues that with the emergence of these popular jazz figures, who came from a culture shaped by Black Protestantism, religious authority for African Americans found a place and spokespeople outside of traditional Afro-Protestant institutions and religious life. Popular Black jazz professionals--such as Ella Fitzgerald, Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, and Mary Lou Williams--inherited religious authority tho