Do, Lord, do Lord, do remember me … Did you know that this song, which many of us learned way back in Sunday School, is a Negro Spiritual? There are many more like this that we learned as hymns or camp songs, all the while being unaware of the tradition from which they came. Modeled on an initiative of the United Parish Church in Brookline, Massachusetts, a program intended to make restitution for unattributed use of this body of music by historically White churches has recently been launched by Westminster Presbyterian Church in Charlottesville.
Here’s how the program works: whenever Negro spirituals are sung or played in worship, congregants are invited to place an offering in a special envelope (or use the QR code supplied) as they feel moved by the music. The offerings are then used to support music education by a local nonprofit, the City of Promise, that serves underprivileged African American youth and their families, and the gospel choir of Voices of Jubilee, a Presbyterian worshiping community housed at the Bon Air Juvenile Correction Center. The program is also supported with church endowment funds.
A word about language: we defer to the preference of many contemporary African American musicians in the field for the term “Negro Spirituals,” rather than “African American/Black Spirituals” or simply “Spirituals,” for this body of music. Their choice is made out of respect for the historical context in which this music arose. We can all agree that by whatever name, these beautiful songs speak directly to the soul, and their creators should be honored and remembered.
