And so firm a hold did it have on the Negro, that many generations firmly believed that without this visible manifestation of the God there could be no true communion with the Invisible.
Du Bois highlights the profound and enduring belief among generations of Black people that visible spiritual manifestations were essential for genuine communion with the divine.
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Mother and child are sung, but seldom father; fugitive and weary wanderer call for pity and affection, but there is little of wooing and wedding; the rocks and the mountains are well known, but home is unknown.
Through all the sorrow of the Sorrow Songs there breathes a hope—a faith in the ultimate justice of things.
It has been neglected, it has been, and is, half despised, and above all it has been persistently mistaken and misunderstood; but notwithstanding, it still remains as the singular spiritual heritage of the nation and the greatest gift of…
To me Jubilee Hall seemed ever made of the songs themselves, and its bricks were red with the blood and dust of toil.