I have decided to use this thread to periodically post lyrics of the songs that I listed above as well as other folk songs that I believe should be in that list.

I intend to also provide links to online articles and excerpts from printed works that I believe directly or indirectly relate to that this topic.

See for example this quote from a website that I just found abou the song 'Stagger Lee':

"The black writer and folk tale collector Zora Neale Hurston has stated that every African-American folk tale has had a point to make. All of them have had something to teach black Americans about themselves and the world they lived in. So what was the point or meaning of the story of Stagger Lee? What did it teach? James Baldwin would probably answer these questions with one word: survival.

Baldwin thought that survival was a main ingredient which African-Americans put into their folk tales (Note 1). And the story of Stagger Lee can certainly be understood as carrying a message of survival--Stagger Lee was killed by the white man as punishment for the killing of Billy, but he triumphed in the end as he defeated the devil and turned hell into his own version of paradise. This story offered hope for survival to black men who knew that they could suffer, at the hands of whites, a fate similar to Stagger Lee's--whether it would be by execution, by lynching, or by having their lives slowly sucked out of them bit by bit in any number of ways.

And there may have been a second way that the legend of Stagger Lee dealt with survival. It may have made the point that directly challenging the white man's authority would pose a threat to the black man's survival. After all, if a man as powerful and "bad" as Stagger Lee lost his life by placing himself at odds with the white man's authority, the average black man would not stand a chance challenging the white man. Therefore, the message of the folk tale may have been that blacks would have to bide their time before they could directly challenge their white oppressors. They would have to work indirectly to improve their lot, and use their wits to survive until they could take a chance at defying the white man's discriminatory laws."
source: The AKA Blues Connection*

-snip-

* I believe that 'AKA' here refers to 'Alpha Kappa Alpha,Inc.'. Alpha Kappa Alpha is the first African American Greek letter University sorority. [BTW, I'm a member of that sorority though have been inactive for decades].

For the entire article, click Essay on Stagger Lee

Needless to say, I very much welcome comments on the subject of African American secular folk songs from other 'Catters and from Guests.