p. 29

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St. George's Church
in the City of New York

Address by the Rev. Elmore M. McKee in honor of Mr. Harry T. Burleigh at the
service of Negro Spirituals, May 21st, 1939

Three points are relatively clear about the music to which we have just listened,
and which has made us feel so keenly the pathos and deep meaning of human existence.

First: the colored race has enriched the culture of mankind by the gift of the "spiritual". We rejoice that St. George's choir has been a pioneer in bringing this
music into the heart of the church's worship. The music of the spiritual and the
deep faith behind it form a primary bond of unity between human brothers separated by secondary, external factors. This great unifying power of the arts must be explored to the full. When in the national capital recently the use of a public auditorium was denied, on quite inadequate technical grounds, to a great artist,
the majority of the people of our free land rose up, I believe, to proclaim from thier very hearts: "Such things shall not be". The open air tribute before the beautiful Lincoln Memorial was out answer to Marian Anderson.

So, let us all pray our way together, and sing our way together, into a greater
realization of the brotherhood of man. For we all, from every race and nation, being to one God.

Secondly: this great art grows out of suffering used creatively. A reace enslaved
first, and when so-called freedom came, denied equality of opportunity in franchise, employment, education, and many other means of full living, -this people has used it's suffering not as stimulus to complaint or rebellion or escape, but to urge toward creation. People react to suffering in different ways: As a Hebrew writer put it: "There are three ways in which a man expresses his deep sorrow: the man on the lowest level cries; the man on the second level is silent, but the man on the highest level knows how to turn his sorrow into song." To translate suffering into song, under the compulsion of simple, child-like faith, such as that expressed in Deep River, -this is the gift of the colored people to a human race searching for light in it's darkness.

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