Funny thing is, Susan, it's mostly white folkses who are singing black spirituals. If you check the thread, Singing in Dialect, I asked how people felt about singing in a dialect, not their own. As the discussion has evolved, it's focused almost exclusively on Scots/Irish dialects. Probably because other than white blues singers, most white folkses don't sing a lot of black folk music or gospel. The same principle applies, whether you're from New York City and are affecting a southern white dialect, or you're Chinese, trying to imitate Frank Sinatra. I periodically check out two communities: Black Gospel and Jazz, and Black Gospel Musicians. One of the please made there is that black gospel singers include spirituals in their performances, as most young blacks have never heard spirituals. As far as singing black spirituals in dialect, everyone has to find their own comfort level. I sing what I feel, and part of that is a love of the music, so I may subconsciously pronounce certain words slightly differently when singing a black spiritual, or black gospel. I never try to imitate... anything... But, we carry out influences in our hearts and voices, and that's good. There are also certain mannerisms and phrases in black gospel... sometimes lifting the end note of a word at the end of a phrase, or humming between verses, that have slowly become more natural to me. Not as imitation, but because the music is part of me. I don't sing the songs for historical reasons. I sing them because they speak to me.. an upper Midwestern White guy. The yearning of the heart knows no color.