ABSTRACT
As the millennium draws to a close, many have been led to reflect, assess, and project regarding the status of the arts. The emphasis on budgets, downsizing, and other fiscal matters has adversely affected the arts in their traditional realm, pushing them further onto a tundra of doubt, uncertainty, and need. This predicament yields particularly pressing concerns for certain areas within the musical arts. African-American classical organ music is one such area; problems, however, transcend the fiscal. Among the most significant of these are the perceptions and reactions to the music by blacks and whites alike. These perceptions and reactions, in turn, have resulted in erroneous assumptions, preconceived notions, negativity, and a deleterious neglect that constitutes a great disservice, which the organ literature shares with other genres of classical music produced by African-Americans. There is an ongoing need for concern.
