The National Sacred Harp Singing Convention was founded in Birmingham in 1980 by Hugh McGraw and Claude H. Rhea, dean of the school of music at Samford University. From the first, this convention was seen as transcending region, race, and choice of editions: singers were invited from all regions of the United States, including African American singers, as well as others in Alabama, Florida and Texas who usually sang from the Cooper Revision of the Sacred Harp.
The first session took place in the Leslie S. Wright Fine Arts Center at Samford University on June 26-29, 1980 (a fifth weekend) and lasted four days. There were 761 persons registered, representing 10 states, 167 leaders and 344 songs. On Thursday, only twenty selected male singers and teachers led for twenty minutes each, in imitation of the practice at 19th-century singing conventions. Those leading were Hugh McGraw, Bob Denson, W.A. Parker, Raymond Hamrick, Leonard Lacy, Loyd Redding, M.F. McWhorter, Roy Avery, Chester Wootten, J.H. Ballinger, Toney Smith, John Hocutt, Dewey Williams, Kelley Beard, George Woodard, Warren Steel, Donald Ross, H.J. Jackson, E.E. Pipkin and E.J. Akin.
Saturday was "ladies' day": a slate of female officers, chaired by Ruth Brown, called exclusively female leaders. Before the afternoon break a quartet performed six songs: Joyce Walton, Beverley Coates, Jane Peppler and Charlene Wallace, accompanied by Martha Woodard on banjo. On Friday and Sunday leaders were called promiscuously as is usual today. A booklet published after the convention included the names and addresses of all registrants, photographs and minutes; a boxed set of eight audio cassettes documented the entire proceedings. The Sacred Harp Publishing Company has posted an online exhibition of documents, images and recordings from the first National Sacred Harp Convention.
Beginning with the second session in 1981, the convention met for three days, the Thursday, Friday and Saturday before the Third Sunday in June. Although the convention was intended to attract singers nationwide, and there were singers from outside the South from the very beginning, it was not until the late 1980s that Hugh McGraw's dream began to be fulfilled, as increasing numbers of new singers attended, at first from New England and Illinois, later from nearly every state and several foreign countries, notably Canada and the United Kingdom. After a two-year hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the convention resumed on a two-day schedule, Thursday and Friday before the Third Sunday in June. In April 2024 it was announced that the convention would be discontinued.
While many other conventions move from year to year, the National Convention has so far remained in the Birmingham area. A list of the locations and chairmen of this convention follows, based on minute books and the recollections of participants:
2023 BSDA Friendship Hall, Fultondale Glenn Keeton
2022 BSDA Friendship Hall, Fultondale Glenn Keeton
2021 Not held due to pandemic
2020 Not held due to pandemic
2019 BSDA Friendship Hall, Fultondale Glenn Keeton
2018 BSDA Friendship Hall, Fultondale Mark Davis
2017 BSDA Friendship Hall, Fultondale Mark Davis
2016 First Christian Church Mark Davis
2015 First Christian Church Mark Davis
2014 First Christian Church Mark Davis
2013 First Christian Church Mark Davis
2012 First Christian Church Mark Davis
2011 First Christian Church Mark Davis
2010 First Christian Church Mark Davis
2009 First Christian Church Mark Davis
2008 First Christian Church Mark Davis
2007 Trinity United Methodist Church Buell Cobb
2006 Unitarian Universalist Church Buell Cobb
2005 Unitarian Universalist Church Buell Cobb
2004 Trinity United Methodist Church Buell Cobb
2003 Trinity United Methodist Church Buell Cobb
2002 Trinity United Methodist Church Buell Cobb
2001 Trinity United Methodist Church Buell Cobb
2000 Trinity United Methodist Church Buell Cobb
1999 Trinity United Methodist Church Buell Cobb
1998 Trinity United Methodist Church Buell Cobb
1997 Trinity United Methodist Church Buell Cobb
1996 Trinity United Methodist Church Buell Cobb
1995 Trinity United Methodist Church Buell Cobb
1994 Trinity United Methodist Church Buell Cobb
1993 Briarwood Presbyterian Church Buell Cobb
1992 Recital Hall Samford University Virgil Phillips
1991 Wright Auditorium Samford University Hugh McGraw
1990 Wright Auditorium Samford University Hugh McGraw
1989 Wright Auditorium Samford University Hugh McGraw
1988 Wright Auditorium Samford University Hugh McGraw
1987 Gymnasium Homewood High School Hugh McGraw
1986 Wright Auditorium Samford University Hugh McGraw
1986 Wright Auditorium Samford University Hugh McGraw
1985 Wright Auditorium Samford University Hugh McGraw
1984 Wright Auditorium Samford University Hugh McGraw
1983 Wright Auditorium Samford University Hugh McGraw
1982 Wright Auditorium Samford University Hugh McGraw
1981 Wright Auditorium Samford University Hugh McGraw
1980 Wright Auditorium Samford University Hugh McGraw
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