Charles H. Pace
Musician · 1886–1963 · Atlanta, Georgia
Best known for
Songwriter
Charles Henry Pace was an Atlanta-born, Pittsburgh-based African-American gospel composer, publisher, and choral director whose Old Ship of Zion Music Company and its successor, Charles H. Pace Music Publishers, were among the largest Black-owned gospel publishing houses in mid-century America. Many of his roughly 130 sacred and secular compositions — “If I Be Lifted Up” among them — circulated so widely that they are now often filed as traditional.
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- Born August 4, 1886, in Atlanta, Georgia.
- Moved with his family to Chicago at age thirteen; continued piano study there and composed gospel songs and arrangements for Beth Eden Baptist and Liberty Baptist churches.
- Founded the Pace Jubilee Singers in 1925; the group recorded his songs, along with material by Charles Albert Tindley, for Victor and Brunswick between 1926 and 1929.
- Settled in Pittsburgh, where he established the Old Ship of Zion Music Company (1936–1951) and its successor, Charles H. Pace Music Publishers (1952–1963).
- Wrote roughly 104 sacred compositions and arrangements and 26 secular songs across his career.
- Between 1941 and 1945 Old Ship of Zion had 301 traveling agents and more than 2,500 direct-mail customers, making it one of the largest gospel publishers in America.
- “If I Be Lifted Up” passed into the country and bluegrass-gospel repertoire and is often listed in modern hymnals as traditional rather than under Pace’s name.
- His archive is preserved at the University of Pittsburgh.
- Died December 16, 1963, in Pittsburgh.
