Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;
 Ephesians 5:19 King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)

February is set aside as Black History Month. Americans have recognized black history annually since 1926, first as "Negro History Week" and later as "Black History Month." We owe the celebration of Black History Month, and more importantly, the study of black history, to Dr. Carter G. Woodson. He was disturbed to find in his studies that history books largely ignored the black American population. Likewise the church has ignored the importance of Black Africans who were a part of Christianity from its very beginning and played a spiritual role in spreading the Word. Black Americans have been part of the American church since colonial times and have long sought to express their spirituality and their African identity through their faith and their songs. Among our hymns this week are “It's A Highway To Heaven ” and “ Leave it There” by Thomas A. Dorsey and C. A. Tindley. C. A. Tindley is often called a founding father of American gospel music. A host of musicians owe a debt to Charles Tindley—including, by his own admission, Thomas A. Dorsey. One Tindley song, “I’ll Overcome Some Day,” written in 1901, gave rise to the popular civil rights song “We Shall Overcome.

In the fall of 1945 in Charleston, South Carolina, members of the Food and Tobacco Workers Union (who were mostly female and African American), began a five-month strike against the American Tobacco Company. To keep up their spirits during the cold, wet winter of 1945-46, one of the strikers, a woman named Lucille Simmons, led a slow "long meter style" version of the gospel hymn, "We'll Overcome" (I'll Be All Right") to end each day's picketing. Union organizer, Zilphia Horton, who was the wife of the co-founder of the Highlander Folk School (later Highlander Research and Education Center), learned it from Lucille Simmons. Horton was (1935–56) Highlander's music director, and it became her custom to end group meetings each evening by leading this, her favorite song. During the Presidential Campaign of Henry A. Wallace, "We Will Overcome" was printed in Bulletin No. 3 (Sept., 1948), 8, of People's Songs with an introduction by Horton saying that she had learned it from the interracial Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) Food and Tobacco Workers' Union workers and had found it to be extremely powerful. Pete Seeger, a founding member, and for three years Director of People's Songs, learned it from Horton's version in 1947. Seeger writes: "I changed it to 'We shall'... I think I liked a more open sound; 'We will' has alliteration to it, but 'We shall' opens the mouth wider; the 'i' in 'will' is not an easy vowel to sing well [...]." Seeger also added some verses ("We'll walk hand in hand" and "The whole wide world around").

This type of adaptation testifies to the black church and its style of worship. The freedom to improvise and innovate motivated Richard Allen to form "The Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church". This movement allowed black Americans the opportunity to worship without the constraints and restrictions of the white church. The emergence of the African American Church has been identified as one of the first acts of protest against racial discrimination and segregation in America. In 1794 Richard Allen rejected an offer to become the pastor of the Saint Thomas African Episcopal Church a position ultimately accepted by Absalom Jones.

Latter Richard Allen became Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and published it's first hymnal (Universally acknowledged as the source book for some "Negro Spirituals"). The preface to the AMEC 1984 hymnal says it was the first book of songs published by the Children of Oppression, and the very first to give expression in their own selected language telling of the Christian hope of the race.

The origin of the Spiritual “My Lord, What a Morning” among other Spirituals can be traced to Richard Allen’s hymnal.  “My Lord what a Morning” owes it imagery to the following hymn that was popular among black slaves as far back as 1801, when it was published in Richard Allen's hymnal, and through the years of slavery it was cited several times as a favorite among black singers. "Behold the awful trumpet sounds, The sleeping dead to raise, And calls the nations underground: O how the saints will praise!"  The Africans used many of the hymns that were sung in church and integrated them into their songs. The result is an entirely new song with its own form and music. "My Lord, what a morning, My Lord, what a morning, My Lord, what a morning, When the stars begin to fall. You'll hear the trumpet sound, To wake the nations underground, Looking to my God's right hand, When the stars begin to fall."

The Words to “My Jesus I love thee, I know thou art mine” share the sentiment and even the meter with "O Jesus, my Savior, to thee I submit" Which is first found in Richard Allen's COLLECTION OF SPIRITUAL SONGS AND HYMNS SELECTED FROM VARIOUS AUTHORS (Philadelphia: 1801) which he compiled for his African Methodist Episcopal Church. Where it is attributed to Mrs. Sarah Jones. 'Because of the variants of this hymn as published in the various collections, ranging from New Hampshire to Virginia, it is apparent that it circulated in oral tradition before it was published.' (Dictionary of American Hymnology, Oberlin College Library.) The text next appears as “O Jesus, my Savior, I know thou art mine” Attributed to Caleb Jarvis Taylor, Sacred Harp 1803. The version we now sing is attributed to William R. Featherston (a Canadian), 1864; Featherston was only 16 years old at the time.

The Southern Harmony provides 7 verses for this 1803 version.

1. O Jesus, my Savior, I know thou art mine,

   For thee all the pleasures of sin I resign;

   Of objects most pleasing, I love thee the best,

   Without thee I'm wretched, but with thee I'm blest.

2. Thy Spirit first taught me to know I was blind,

   Then taught me the way of salvation to find;

   And when I was sinking in gloomy despair,

   Thy mercy relieved me, and bid me not fear.

3. In vain I attempt to describe what I feel,

   The language of mortals or angels would fail;

   My Jesus is precious, my soul's in a flame,

   I'm raised to a rapture while praising his name.

4. I find him in singing, I find him in prayer,

   In sweet meditation he always is near;

   My constant companion, O may we ne'er part!

   All glory to Jesus, he dwells in my heart.

5. I love thee, my Savior, I love thee, my Lord,

   I love thy dear people, thy ways, and thy word;

   With tender emotion I love sinners too,

   Since Jesus has died to redeem them from woe.

6. My Jesus is precious--I cannot forbear,

   Though sinners despise me, his love to declare;

   His love overwhelms me; had I wings I'd fly

   To praise him in mansions prepared in the sky.

7. Then millions of ages my soul would employ

   In praising my Jesus, my love and my joy

   Without interruption, when all the glad throng

   With pleasures unceasing unite in the song.

These are just two examples, other songs and hymns and Spiritual songs can be traced to Richard Allen's COLLECTION OF SPIRITUAL SONGS AND HYMNS SELECTED FROM VARIOUS AUTHORS (Philadelphia: 1801).