The Spirituals And The Blues Analysis

The Spirituals and the Blues by James H. Cone depicts the facts of how slave spirituals and the blues shows how Blacks stayed strong doing the harsh reality of slavery and the real-life situations of segregation. Spirituals in the book are defined as historical songs that speak out about black lives in a very interesting gospel way. Its shows the fight and struggle of black people and how they had the will to fight back to stay strong during the hardest times of their lives. Its gives you a view of how they stayed united to overcome obstacles in life. The blues was very different in a sense of oppression and the survival in this time. Singing and playing blues was a starting point of trying to get rid of depression. James H. Cones examined …show more content…
He attended three small colleges, including a theological seminary. He received his masters and Ph. D from Northwestern University. Cone has held many prominent memberships on boards and organizations that played a big role in shaping the black community. He was member of the National Committee of Black Churchman, American Academy of Religion, Black Methodists for Church renewal just to name a few. After college, Cone began his career as a professor at Philander Smith College, Adrian College, and Union Theological Seminary teaching religion and theology. He now spends his time as a clergyman and author. Cone claimed his fame when he wrote Black Theology and Black Power in 1969. This book was written during the black power movement and achieved a lot of attention. Other books written by Cone included, The Cross and the Lynching Tree, God of the Oppressed. Spirituals and Blues, and many others. The Spirituals and Blues is split into two sections, one discusses the spirituals and the other the blues. The book starts out talking about the harsh reality blacks faced during this time. He describes the black experience in America as a “history of servitude and resistance, of survival in the land of