The Antioch Majestic Voices were formed in 1966 by James Samuels, music director of Antioch Missionary Baptist Church and was composed of singers between the ages of fourteen and twenty-eight. The choir sang in Louisville at Sunday programs, church functions between 1966 and 2003 when they were absorbed into the Mass Choir at Antioch. singer Ruth “Bubbles” Graham recalled:
When the choir first started, there were about thirty of us. It’s a family church, and we were a church choir. We had grown up together. We did a lot of programs to sing A and B selections. We also did quite a few full-on programs in which we’d do nine or ten songs. It was controversial to have drums at the time. Not everybody believed in that. Because we were a church group, we had to get approval from the pastor, and when we first started, the drummer didn’t actually have any drums. He had to borrow them from somebody who lived around the corner who wasn’t even a member of the church. We got new robes and outfits every year for our anniversary. When we traveled out of town, we’d rent a bus or just carpool. We would go to Cincinnati, the corrections facility, or other churches.
