BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: Spirituals are the folk music first sung by Africans brought to this country as slaves. Arthur Jones is a psychologist at the University of Denver. This summer he was in Washington speaking to the Faith and Politics Institute and also, as part of a Smithsonian Institution program, visiting a Boys and Girls Club, where he taught spirituals to children who may never have heard them. Dr. Jones' book, like the spiritual, is called WADE IN THE WATER.

Dr. ARTHUR JONES (Psychologist, University of Denver and Founder, The Spirituals Project): Spirituals are basically the earliest form of black sacred music, and these spirituals were created by African Americans who were in slavery.

(Speaking to Young Children): The ancestors passed these songs to us. These are songs that are gifts to us today. So even though these songs were created 150 years ago, we can still use them today.

Even before large numbers of slaves converted to Christianity, they brought with them from Africa some very, very long-standing religious traditions, sacred traditions that highlighted the importance of storytelling. So even if you weren't a Christian, you could really get a lot out of a story about a guy named Moses. So you grab that story and you use it as a basis for a song, and then you have a spiritual.