The Welcome Table (also known as the I'm Gonna Sit at the Welcome Table, or River of Jordan, or I'm A-Gonna Climb Up Jacob's Ladder or God's Going to Set This World on Fire) is a traditional American

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words a ...

and

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

folk song by an anonymous author, who was likely enslaved. In 1874 a version of the song was collected and published by the

Hampton Institute Hampton University is a private, historically black, research university in Hampton, Virginia. Founded in 1868 as Hampton Agricultural and Industrial School, it was established by Black and White leaders of the American Missionary Association aft ...

indicating that it was sung by a child in slavery who was being separated from his mother. The song describes

"the marriage feast of the Lamb referred to in the
New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chri ...

Book of Revelation The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament (and consequently the final book of the Christian Bible). Its title is derived from the first word of the Koine Greek text: , meaning "unveiling" or "revelation". The Book of ...
. This event takes place when those who put their trust in the
Jesus Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...
are joined with him in heaven. African-Americans bound in
slavery Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
were never welcome to their master’s table and this song echoed their hope of the tables turning in future glory."

In 1922 the Florida Normal Quartet first recorded the song as "The Welcome Table." In 1936 the

Carter Family Carter Family was a traditional American folk music group that recorded between 1927 and 1956. Their music had a profound impact on bluegrass, country, Southern Gospel, pop and rock musicians as well as on the U.S. folk revival of the 1960s. ...

recorded a variation of the song as the "River of Jordan." In the 1950s and 1960s the song was modified (and known as the "Freedom Table") and served as an anthem of the

Civil Rights Movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the Unite ...

as one of the

Freedom Songs Freedom songs were songs which were sung by participants in the civil rights movement. They are also called "civil rights anthems" or, in the case of songs which are more hymn-like, they are called "civil rights hymns." Freedom songs were an impo ...

. American novelist

Alice Walker Alice Malsenior Tallulah-Kate Walker (born February 9, 1944) is an American novelist, short story writer, poet, and social activist. In 1982, she became the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, which she was awa ...

wrote a short story of the same name.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Welcome Table Gospel songs Bluegrass songs American Christian hymns Songs against racism and xenophobia Songs about freedom Public domain music African-American spiritual songs 1874 songs