“[Black folk music] still remains as the singular spiritual heritage of the nation and the greatest gift of the Negro people.”

“Ever since I was a child these songs have stirred me strangely. They came out of the South unknown to me, one by one, and yet at once I knew them as of me and of mine.”

“Caricature has sought again to spoil the quaint beauty of the music, and has filled the air with many debased melodies which vulgar ears scarce know from the real. But the true Negro folk-song still lives in the hearts of those who have heard them truly sung and in the hearts of the Negro people.”

“The songs are indeed the siftings of centuries; the music is far more ancient than the words, and in it we can trace here and there signs of development.”