Links and Resources
Contains some of Carter's comments on the songs discussed in this onBeing program, his performances of these songs, and performances by various artists.
A comprehensive multimedia Web site at the University of Denver that outlines the cultural and historical influences of the spirituals. It includes selected samples of interviews conducted with performing artists, community workers and composers along with information about its origins in literary and cultural forums.
An essay by Phil Petrie focusing its attention on the music that sprung from the early African-American church and modern urban music.
A site from PBS' The American Experience documenting a group of ex-slaves quest to save their school by introducing American and European audiences to the spiritual.
Provides a historical backdrop and lists of spiritual singers, composers, and songs.
An essay "Negro Spirituals" written by Thomas Wentworth Higginson published in June 1867.
Chapter from W.E.B. Du Bois 1903 book The Souls of Black Folk dealing with "the rhythmic cry of the slave, the most beautiful expression of human experience, the siftings of centuries, the voice of exile."
An excerpt from the book "Standing in the Need of Prayer" in which Corretta Scott King writes about how prayer and song of African-American slaves became a spiritual lifeline for her and other civil rights advocates in the 1960s and on.
A site from the University of South Carolina dedicated to the great African-American writer and statesman who first compiled and published The Book of American Negro Spirituals in 1925.
listen
Voices on the Radio
(1949—2006)
Carter was a celebrated performer, educator, and traveling humanitarian who took the Negro Spiritual to audiences around the world, from Novosibirsk to Nigeria.
