groups and artists, while popular in the Black community, largely escaped the notice of White America. On the other hand, many Black Christians during this time (especially those in the North) had adopted a much milder form of Christian worship than their enslaved predecessors, reflecting more influence from Europe than from Africa. Thomas Dorsey era (1920s) Thomas Dorsey, a longtime secular artist, went gospel in the 1920s and revolutionized the genre by fusing it with his former style. With biblical knowledge from his father, who was a Baptist minister, and taught to play the piano by his mother, he had started out working with blues musicians when the family moved to Atlanta. He went north to Chicago in 1916 and, after receiving his union card, became a notable artist in the area and also joined Pilgrim Baptist Church. He dropped secular music after a second conversion experience in 1921 at the National Baptist Convention, but quickly returned to the work for economic reasons, performing with artists like Ma Rainey. He left secular music behind for good after the sudden death of his wife and newborn son. After his crossover, he began introducing it to the more Europeanized Black churches in the North, but for a time saw no real success. However, the tide turned in . It has been said that 1930 was the year traditional black gospel music began, as the National Baptist Convention first publicly endorsed the music at its 1930 meeting. Dorsey was responsible for developing the musical careers of many African-American artists, such as Mahalia Jackson. In 1942, the gospel group the Sensational Nightingales was founded, joined in 1946 by another gospel singer Julius Cheeks. Wilson Pickett and James Brown were influenced by Julius Cheeks. Following World War II, gospel music moved into major auditoriums, and gospel music concerts became quite elaborate. In 1950, black gospel was featured at Carnegie Hall when Joe Bostic produced the Negro Gospel and Religious Music Festival. He repeated it the next year with an expanded list of performing artists, and in 1959 moved to Madison Square Garden. In 1964, the Gospel Music Association was established, which in turn began the Dove Awards (in 1969) and the Gospel Music Hall of Fame (in 1972). Both of the latter two groups began primarily for Southern gospel performers, but in the late-1970s, began including artists of other sub-genres. Also in 1969, James Cleveland