This double CD draws upon the collection at the Smithsonian Folkways archive to create a history of African American life and culture in sound- an aural history. Encompassing both the African American oral and literary traditions, these 59 tracks feature an unparalleled assembly of voices in music, oratory, poetry, and prose by historically renowned African American musicians, writers, and activists. The sounds collected here are testimony to the power, creativity, and resilience of Black expressive forms that have received recognition throughout the world.

Tracklist:

Struggle, The - Langston Hughes
Field Call - Annie Grace Horn Dodson
Complaint Call - Enoch Brown
Intro and Kneebone Bend - Lawrencs McKiver/Doretha Skipper
Brother Terrapin, Slow Train to Arkansas - Rich Manuel "Rich" Am
Jack and Mary and Three Dogs - Mrs. Janie Hunter
Buck Dance - Joe Tucker
I'm Goin' up North - Children Of East York School
Pharaoh's Host Got Lost - Lawrencs McKiver
Bars Fight - Lucy Terry
Earl of Datrmouth - Phillis Wheatley
I Wonder Where My Brother Gone - Annie Grace Horn Dodson
Narrative - Harriet Tubman
Speech at Akron Convention - Sojourner Truth
Singing Slaves - Frederick Douglass
Steal Away to Jesus - Kinsey West
What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? - Frederick Douglass
Why Slavery Is Still Rampant? - Sarah Parker
Free at Last - Dock Read & Vera Hall Ward
When Malindy Sings - Paul Laurence Dunbar
There's a Great Camp Meeting - Fisk University Jubilee Singers
Atlanta Exposition Address - Booker T. Washington
John Henry - Brownie McGhee/Sonny Terry
Banjo Player - Fenton Johnson
Boatman Dance - Elizabeth Cotten
Shine - Percy Randolph
Chopping in the New Ground - Inmates Of Ramsey
Lynching, Our National Crime - Ida B Wells-Barnett
Recorded Autobiography, A - W.E.B. Du Bois
Listen Lord, A Prayer - James Weldon Johnson
My Heart Is Fixed - Rev. Gary Davis
Titanic, The - Leadbelly
Heritage - Countee Cullen
Jungle Drums - James P. Johnson
No More Auction Block - Paul Robeson
Negro Speaks of Rivers, The - Langston Hughes
If We Must Die - Claude McKay
Ma Rainey - Sterling A. Brown
Backwater Blues - Big Bill Broonzy
Married Man Blues - Billie & De De Pierce
For My People - Margaret Walker
Children of the Poor, Sonnet 2, The - Gwendolyn Brooks
Body and Soul - George Big Nick Nicholas
How He Delivered Me - Juanita Johnson & The Gospel Tones
Long Distance Call - Muddy Waters
Cry to Me - Solomon Burke
Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around - The SNCC Freedom Singers
Brimingham 1963 (Keep Moving) - Martin Luther King, Jr.
Black Panther Party Platform - Bobby Seale
Interview (Excerpt) - Angela Davis
Together to the Tune of Coltrane's Equinox - Sarah Webster Fabio
Nikki-Rosa - Nikki Giovanni
Liberation / Poem - Sonia Sanchez
Dope - Amiri Baraka
Village of Brooklyn, Illinois 62059, The - Hamiet Bluiett
For the Poets - Jayne Cortez
Shotgun Joe - Golden Eagels
St. Louis Woman - Ishmael Reed
People Everday - Arrested Development

UPC: 093074700327
Label: Smithsonian Folkways
Release Date: 2.27.01
Format: CD

Every Tone A Testimony - Every Tone A Testimony (2 CD)