The Minister With The Million Dollar Voice

Clarence LaVaughn Franklin, often abbreviated to C. L. Franklin (January 22, 1915 – July 27, 1984) was an American Baptist minister and a civil rights activist. He was also the father of Aretha Franklin. At age 16, he became a preacher, initially working the Black itinerant preaching circuit, before settling at New Salem Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee, where he remained until May 1944. From there he moved to the pulpit of the Friendship Baptist Church in Buffalo, New York, where he served until June 1946 when he became pastor of the New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan.

Throughout the late 1940s and 1950s his fame grew, and he preached throughout the country while maintaining his pulpit at New Bethel. Known as the man with the "Million Dollar Voice", Franklin was one of the first ministers to place his sermons on records (which continued into the 1970s), and also to broadcast sermons via radio on Sundays. He commanded high fees for his public appearances, and among his most famous sermons were "The Eagle Stirreth Her Nest" and "Dry Bones in the Valley." In addition to his fame as a preacher, Franklin was known for his fine singing voice. He greatly encouraged his daughter Aretha Franklin in her musical endeavors, and during the 1950s took Aretha with him on speaking tours and musical engagements.

In addition to his ministry, in the 1950s and 1960s as he became involved in the civil rights movement, and worked to end discriminatory practices against black United Auto Workers members in Detroit.

Rev. C.L. Franklin is the "premier" Black Preacher of the 20th century. His style incorporates the Shakespearean orators with the wailing of the African- American slave preachers. Like African-American creative artists here and now; African-Americans takes something foreign and incorporates it with something familiar. Khallil Love

The part of the clip featuring a Morehouse ceremony, probably centering around Dr. Martin Luther King's memorial service, was phenomenal! Especially so, given the fact that the Morehouse Faculty traditionally frowned on preacher's who "celebrated" during the preaching event as Rev. C.L. Franklin does here. Well, it seems that neither the student body nor the Faculty had a problem with "whooping" on that day if the equally exuberant response from the audience is any indication, says one present for the event Morehouse student.