Susan, thanks for your comments.

With regard to singing in African American spirituals in 19th so-called Black dialect {the "dees, dos, dem" languaging that is referred to on a recent Mudcat thread on minstrelsy}, the first point I would make is that imo, African Americans are not traditionalist. What I mean by this is that ,imo, we are much more interested in innovation than keeping to old traditions. Vernacular words and phrases are constantly being updated, and created by Black Americans, and we discard many slang terms much faster than Anglo-Americans. This is one of the reasons why 19th century so-called Black dialect is rarely used nowadays by Black spiritual singers. It seems to me that fewer spirituals are being sung by church choirs these days, partly for the reason I already cited, but also because these songs are inextricably linked to the still very painful history of slavery, and of mainstream culture's demeaning attitudes toward Black people both during slavery and after slavery's abolishment. This is particularly the case when those songs are sung with what minstrel's called Black dialect. It's difficult enough for Black people to hear spirituals sung in that dialect, but to hear 19th century and earlier slave dance songs and minstrel songs that to a large extent were based on Black songs, well, let me just say it's deeply offensive.

I can say without any doubt that I've never heard those songs sung that way in my church or any other African American church or any Black community program that I've ever attended or heard about.

In my opinion, the language that is used in these songs mirrors the informal language that is in current use now. For instance, instead of singing "Ringa dem Bells", usually the song is given as "Ringa Them Bells". And instead of using the long retired word "gwine", we use "gonna" [as in "Gonna get to heaven in the mornin'} Note the word "heaven" is used instead of "heaben". Also note that the word "mornin' is clipped as Black and non-Black folks still sometimes use that pronunciation in everyday, informal conversations.

The song "Couldn't hear nobody pray" and the phrase "Aint that good news" are two additional examples of how the retention of AAVE might appear to be somewhat arbitrary until you factor in the adherence to the vernacular language that Black folks use today. "Couldn't hear nobody pray" hasn't been changed to "Couldn't hear anybody pray" and
"Aint that good news" hasn't been changed to Isn't that good news.

[See this song and others on http://negrospirituals.com, a site which in my opinion, unfortunately not only continues to use the retired referent Negro, but fails to capitalize it in its comments]
{The Mudcat hyperlink feature isn't working. I'll add the hyperlink when that feature returns.]

I can understand why "Negro" isn't capitalized in that website's URL, but can't understand why it's not capitalized in that website's commentary. After all, for more than 40 years the standard practice in the USA anyway has been to capitalize the word "Negro" {whereas there is some flexibility as to whether the group referent "Black" should be capitolized. I capitolize this word when it is used as a racial referent, and a number of other people do also. But some people, Black and non-Black, do not capitalize it.

While I'm on the subject, the term "African American" is always capitalized. This is the formal referent for those people who were formerly called "Negro". "Black" is an informal referent for these same people, though "Black" refers to more people than "African American.

**

Lastly, Susan, I recall the practice of members of the congregation in my Black Baptist church {women, children} wearing corsages pinned to their dresses or shirts for Mother's Day. The white carnation corsages were for those whose mother had passed on. The red or pink corsages were for those whose mother is still living. Men wore smaller carnations pinned to their suit lapel.

This custom is still being held at my church {in New Jersey}.