In a time when many Black people were equating a superficial respectability with real dignity, [Sterling Brown]—scholar, teacher, and poet—was demonstrating in his life and his work the profound dignity which the common man embodied in his everyday life—in his work, his struggles, his tragedies and his joys. He did it by making that life his own—by making his identification with the roots of the Black Experience in his deep and sensitive knowledge of Black folklore,—the proverbs, the dozens, the tales, the sermons, the spirituals and the blues. (p. 5)

It is this reordering of the Soul Experience of Black folks which is especially appealing about the work of Sterling Brown. It is this which makes him vital not only to this present time but to Black generations yet unborn…. (p. 6)

It is to Sterling Brown's eternal credit that he, with a handful of...