C. L. Franklin

Clarence LaVaughn Franklin (né Walker; January 22, 1915 – July 27, 1984) was an American Baptist minister and civil rights activist. Known as the man with the "Million-Dollar Voice", Franklin served as the pastor of New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit from 1946 until 1979, when in a suspected robbery attempt he was shot twice and spent his remaining five years in a coma. Franklin was the father of the American singer and songwriter Aretha Franklin. He was also the father of five other children, including Vaughn Franklin, Erma Franklin, Cecil Franklin, Carolyn Franklin and Carol Ellan.

Life

Franklin was born Clarence LaVaughn Walker in Bolivar County, Mississippi, United States, to sharecroppers Willie and Rachel (née Pittman) Walker (1897–1988). C. L. Franklin would recall that the only thing his father did for him was to teach him to salute when he returned from service in World War I in 1919. Willie Walker abandoned the family when Clarence was four years old. The next year, Rachel married Henry Franklin, whose surname the family adopted.

Franklin became a preacher at age 16, 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. Throughout the late 1940s and 1950s his fame grew. He preached throughout the country, while maintaining his pulpit at New Bethel. Known as the man with the "Million Dollar Voice", Franklin had many of his sermons recorded into the 1970s (many of them issued by Joe Von Battle's JVB label), and broadcast sermons via radio on Sundays. He commanded up to $4,000 per appearance for his public appearances, high fees for the time.