Family of Faith: Ole Miss Gospel Choir Offers More Than Joyful Praise

As palms hammered tambourines and audience members raised their hands in worship inside Clear Creek Missionary Baptist Church, the moment felt like more than a performance for the 40-plus students in the 2024-25 choir. Their show was a culmination of months of rehearsals, shared prayers, laughs and late-night encouragement with peers who became a family rooted in faith.

The choir eclipses its 50th anniversary this fall, and its legacy of uniting generations of students through faith, support and music remain intact, choir director Honesty Shaw said.

"The Gospel Choir made Ole Miss home for me," said Shaw, a Taylor native who graduated in May with a master's degree in social work.

"After a long day of classes and work, I feel like UMGC is what I need to just calm down. It's my time to do what I love: singing. Every time I see the people that are in the choir, I get a big smile on my face. They literally became my family."

Raised in the church by a musician father and choir director mother, Shaw transferred to the university in the fall 2022 semester from a Mississippi community college. She wanted to add the choir to her extracurricular activities. Joining its harmony, she saw branches forming on her campus family tree.

Aaliyah Bishop, also from Taylor and a 2022 transfer student, served as the choir's business manager this past year. She graduated last December with a bachelor's degree in psychology, completed the 2024-25 season with the choir and begins graduate school at Ole Miss this fall.

When she first arrived in Oxford, Bishop shared the same intention as Shaw: finding a space that felt like home.

The choir offered them that and forged bonds as thick as blood.

"It's definitely provided a sense of community for me," Bishop said.

"This choir has pulled so many great things out of me that I never would have been able to achieve had I not been with this group of beautiful people."

Founded by students Otis Sanford, Jerry Christian and Linda Redmond in 1974, the UM Gospel Choir began as an extension of Black Student Union, a longtime student organization. Even then, the purpose of the group, formerly known as Black Student Union Choir, was to create an atmosphere of fellowship and spiritual nourishment.

The choir's name changed in 1991 and grew to consistently attract dozens of students from all parts of campus.

No audition is required to join, and despite varying singing experience, the group is known for its excellence. That includes the group's 2000 Grammy Award nomination for Best Gospel Performance by a Duo or Group.

The ensemble received nominations for Sound Awards and the Golden Triangle Gospel Awards during the 2024-25 academic year.

"It's definitely an honor to be a part of this legacy and to see how the choir has gone through different transitions," Bishop said.

"This year has been one of the greatest years for me since I have been in the choir. I'm really honored to be a part of this specific set of choir members and to experience the wonderful things that we're experiencing."

The choir honored all three founders with awards of recognition at the anniversary concert in April. The attendance of Ole Miss alumni who were active members over the choir's five-decade existence provided clarity of how special this nationally recognized group is to so many people, Bishop said.

"Now that I'm getting closer to graduating, I realize why it had such a big impact on our alumni," she said. "Once you come to UMGC and create that bond, that's your family.

"I can't see my life without always having UMGC in it."

For identical twin sisters Nyla and Nyja Wilson, of Madison, Gospel Choir membership offers a space where faith meets friendship and where the pressures of college life are softened by the support of fellow members.

Nyja, a soprano and the group's treasurer, said spending time with choir members and rehearsing gave her a necessary break as she balanced a packed academic schedule of 17 credit hours.

"College can feel like nonstop work," she said. "But choir is the part that makes me feel like I belong. I laugh, I relax, I reset."

Daughters of a pastor and University of Mississippi Medical Center staff member, the twins are exercise science majors in Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College pursuing a pre-med track. But they each bring a different energy to the choir.

Nyla is the self-proclaimed "more reserved twin" and jokes about avoiding eye contact or the spotlight. However, the gentle push of her choir family and a few encouraging FaceTime calls helped her step out of her comfort zone to audition for a solo.

"I didn't get it, but I did it," she said. "That was huge for me. They were all texting me afterwards and cheering me on like sisters would. That's what this choir is.

"I've never had friendships as deep as I've made in the choir. My entrance to college was so much more comfortable because I had people I could call on or come to if I needed."

Whether sharing laughs or addressing life's obstacles together, Gospel Choir members feel a hard-to-describe balance of fun, discipline and understanding, Nyla said.

As they enter their sophomore year this fall, the Wilsons feel confident that the bonds they're building in the choir will last far longer than their college experience. The choir has turned members into something more like "cousins," Nyja said.

"It's not just a performance group; it's definitely a ministry 100%," she said. "I might have been worried when I first started classes that I may not find my community, but I get both the Christ part and the family part all in one."

As the choir eyes its next 50 years, its members have faith that the group will continue to be a blessing on campus and beyond.

"It's hard to accurately describe because it feels like a community was established just from being this choir," Nyla said. "You have a family. It's not just friends. Really, we're family."

Top: The family of UM Gospel Choir students delivers a showstopping performance at the 50th anniversary concert at Clear Creek Missionary Baptist Church. There, the choir also performed alongside gospel recording artists Darell Petties and Strength in Praise. Photo by Srijita Chattopadhyay/Ole Miss Digital Imaging Services