Five Blind Boys of Alabama

Five Blind Boys of Alabama The group was formed at the Talladega (Alabama) Institute for the Deaf and Blind in 1937. Like many such institutions spread throughout the South, this school encouraged its handicapped students to study music as a means of supporting themselves. Founder/lead vocalist Clarence Fountain was inspired to form the group after hearing the popular gospel group the Dixie Hummingbirds on the radio. The group went professional by the early 1940s, sometimes billing themselves…