Brother Will Hairston (November 22, 1919 – March 17, 1988) was an American gospel singer and preacher in Detroit, Michigan, called "The Hurricane of the Motor City" and known for his "startlingly socially conscious"[1] songs of protest in the 1950s and 1960s during the Civil Rights Movement.
His first record was "My God Don't Like It", subsequently re-titled "The Death of Emmet Teal" [sic], commenting on the lynching of fourteen-year-old Emmett Till in Mississippi in August 1955.
[2][3] On later records, Hairston was credited as "The Hurricane of the Motor City", an epithet deriving from a time when, he said: "I was singing spirituals at a church once where the pews were not stationary.
With Washboard Willie on percussion, the song describes and chronicles the Montgomery bus boycott that followed Rosa Parks' refusal to give up her seat to a white man.
His final recordings in 1972, with a gospel choir, included "Death Knocked At My Door, Jesus Got the Key", "This May Be My Last Time", and "Minny, Your Dress Too Short", a protestation against miniskirts.