The Hum: Call and Response in African American Preaching

In The Hum: Call and Response in African Preaching, Evans E. Crawford, with Thomas H. Troeger, relates his analysis of African American folk preaching by relying upon an indigenous scheme for evaluation. The call/response tension in black preaching (derived from a West African tradition) is what drives the musicality of speech in black churches. Crawford refers to this musicality as "hum thoughts" and one can imagine the choir responding with a low rumbling hum to the musical intonations of...