NEGRO SPIRITUAL A NATIONAL TREASURE
United States Senate unanimously approved a resolution introduced
by Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) honoring the African American
spiritual. Menendez originally introduced the measure last
year, and has since gained Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)
and Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) as co-sponsors. The House
of Representatives also passed a resolution with language
identical to the one drafted by Menendez.”
7, 2007, The House of Representatives passed a Bill # H. Res.
120 recognizing the Negro Spiritual as a National Treasure.
This body of music, which “sprang” into existence
out of Africans expressing their dissatisfaction with their
enslavement and the horrific conditions under which they were
surviving, became powerful tools with which they were able
to negotiate and endure everyday life situations.
than 6000 of these quaint and poignant melodies were collected
and preserved, detailing the accounts and reflections, in
music on this unfortunate period of American History.
music has become one of the most respected and beloved genres
of American music the world over having sustained its longevity
and popularity for more than one hundred and thirty years
once it came to publics awareness. Credit for bringing this
genre of music to the publics attention is given to the Fisk
Jubilee Singers and rightly so. However, the sustaining of
this music tradition is certainly due to the continued performances
of choirs in Historically Black Colleges and Universities
across America, since the Fisk Jubilee Singers first brought
these songs to the attention of America. Because of one valiant
student who after a prayer was prayed, in a conference at
Oberlin College, softly began to sing the spiritual, “Steal
Away.” Since that one spontaneous moment these songs
quickly became some of Americas most beloved music.
7, 2007 the 110th Congress passed bill #H. Res. 120. without
amendment making this music, “The Negro Spiritual,”
a National Treasure.
2/7/2007--Passed House without amendment.
that the House of Representatives: (1) recognizes that African
American spirituals are a poignant and powerful genre of music
that have become one of the most significant segments of American
music in existence; (2) expresses the deepest gratitude, recognition,
and honor to the former enslaved Africans in the United States
for their gifts to our nation, including their original music
and oral history; and (3) requests that the President issue
a proclamation that reflects on the important contribution
of African American spirituals to American history, and naming
the African American spiritual a national treasure.”
a group of students from Fisk University and their white Choral
Conductor, George L. White left Fisk University with a repertory
of western European songs and Arias traveling to sing concerts
in hopes of raising money to keep the doors of their school
open. They call themselves, The Fisk Jubilee Singers. One
of their concerts brought them to Oberlin College and it is
here where the students, just by chance, began to sing the
spiritual, “Steal Away,” as a prayer response.
Before that time these quaint American slave songs had never
been given a formal public hearing. Word quickly spread across
America about this group of young students from Fisk University
singing these slave songs. With the great popularity of the
Fisk Singers singing these “New Songs,” others
began to imitate them such as the Hampton Singers and pretty
soon many others all calling themselves some kind of, “Jubilee
Singer.” This began a frenzy of African American Singers
all across America singing these songs of enslaved Africans
detailing the plight of their horrific existence of American
these songs maintained their longevity?
African American concert singer, Harry T. Burleigh, as a student
at the National Conservatory sang many of these songs for
the visiting composer Antonin Dvorak of Czechoslovakia who
declared these songs to be the “true” American
folk music. Burleigh arranged many of these songs and added
them to his repertory as a classical Artist and began to close
each of his concerts with, “Negro Spirituals.”
He set a standard which became a tradition of African American
Classical singers and which is still a tradition of African
American recitalists today.
ask the question, how have these quaint little gems of American
culture survived for more than a hundred years and still maintain
such a strong popularity? One answer surly is because of the
long-standing oral traditions that is so characteristic of
the music of Africa and the truth these songs speak. They
tell of real faith, confidence, hope defiance and struggle
and finally an enduring determination to overcome every obstacle
to get back home. Another answer would certainly be through
the long-standing tradition of the singing of Negro Spirituals
at Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
is a tradition that was started by the student group, The
Fisk Jubilee Singers of Fisk University and spread to other
HBCU. These schools have been the keepers of this tradition
which has been nurtured and honored for more than a hundred
years. They have become a bedrock or the backbone of the tradition
of keeping Negro Spirituals as a major part of their choral
University followed this tradition with its students quartet
groups as well as it’s great music scholar R. Nathaniel
Dett who contributed early scholarly writings and arrangements
on the spiritual. Other schools like Howard University, Tuskegee,
Morehouse College among many others all contributed significantly
to development and maintain these gems of early African singing
traditions in America.
significant in this growing tradition was, of course, Choral
Conductors. These hard-core task Masters developed a tradition
of singing the Negro Spiritual that to this day is still emulated
the world over. The standards set by such great names as,
William Dawson at Howard University and Tuskegee, John W.
Work II at Fisk University, Hall Johnson and the Hall Johnson
Choir, Jester Hairston, Roland Carter at Hampton University,
Nathan Carter at Morgan State University, Kempel Harral at
Morehouse, Willis James at Spelman College, Undine Smith-Moore
at Virginia State, Alma Blackman at Oakwood College, all became
great names at America’s Historically Black Colleges
and Universities for setting and maintaining the long-standing
American Choral tradition of singing the negro spiritual.
of the Negro Spiritual has largely rested upon the shoulders
of Choral Conductors and students of these American Institutions
of higher learning and have brought many of these HBCUs to
National and International recognition and fame for their
unique arrangements and performances. They have maintained
the struggle of keeping the negro spiritual in the Black Community
and on the Concert Stages of some of the most prestigious
Concert Halls in the World. They have fought the academic
challenges of the, “Art Song purest,” who felt
that these songs of struggles were not worthy to stand alongside
the great Western European Art Songs of Franz Schubert, Johannes
Brahms, Robert Schumann, Claude Debussy, Francis Poulenc or
even American composers such as Samuel Barber and Ned Rorem.
such opposition the Negro Spiritual has withstood these challenges
on its own in being music that is powerful, sensitive, heart-felt
and pleasing to the ear.
and the United States Senate has honored the Negro Spiritual
in making it one of the most respected genres of music in
the American Music patchwork, and a National Treasure.
“A NATIONAL TREASURE”
In the House of Representatives, U. S.,
February 7, 2007.
therefore, be it resolved, that the House of Representatives—
recognizes that African American spirituals are a poignant
and powerful genre of music that have be- come one of
the most significant segments of American music in existence;
expresses the deepest gratitude, recognition, and honor
to the former enslaved Africans in the United States for
their gifts to our Nation, including their original music
and oral history; and
requests that the President issue a proclamation that
reflects on the important contribution of African American
spirituals to American history, and naming the African
American spiritual a national treasure.
to American Folklore: An Encyclopedia, the African
American spiritual oftentimes took many forms and the lyrics
appealed to a variety of emotions and sentiment, including:
"sorrow, alienation and desolation"; "consolation
and faith"; "resistance and defiance"; "deliverance";
"jubilation and triumph"; "judgment and reckoning";
"regeneration"; "spiritual progress";
Robert: Menendez’s African American Spirituals Resolution
Passes Congress, Press Release of Senator Menendez, United
States Senator, New Jersey.
H. Res. 120—110th Congress (2007): Recognizing the
African American Spiritual as a national treasure, GovTrack.us
(database of federal legislation)