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Quotation from The Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. Du Bois
“the Negro folk-song—the rhythmic cry of the slave—stands to-day not simply as the sole American music, but as the most beautiful expression of human experience born this side the seas.”
The Souls of Black Folk, Chapter XIV, Of the Sorrow Songs (Project Gutenberg text)
The claim for the spirituals as the nation's great artistic inheritance, made near the start of the final chapter.
Citation: "the Negro folk-song—the rhythmic cry of the slave—stands to-day not simply as the sole American music, but as the most beautiful expression of human experience born this side the seas." — W. E. B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk, Chapter XIV, Of the Sorrow Songs (Project Gutenberg text). (id the-souls-of-black-folk-q8)
Portrait: W.E.B. Du Bois by James E. Purdy, 1907 (cropped), James E. Purdy / Adam Cuerden, CC0.
