They circled outside the praise house.

Hips began to swing and feet glided across the red clay road as the lead singer led out

a chilling note.

The shout, a rich spiritual tradition, had begun.

This is Two Minute Black History, what you didn't learn in school.

Sunday service was over, so it was time to shout outside the praise house.

The congregation gathered around and slowly began to circle counterclockwise with a subtle

hum.

Ring shout was a communal spiritual experience that enslaved people regularly practice.

It was a beautiful medley of caller response singing and dancing.

While it was infused with Christianized expressions of worship, the ring shout hid something

in plain sight.

It's Black Root.

Historian Sterling Stucky says that the inherent africaness of the ring shout's religious

expression was above all devoted to the ancestral spirits, to reciprocity between the living

and the dead.

Our people have long been praising God and honoring their ancestors simultaneously because

they acknowledge the interconnectedness of all things.

From the outside looking in, it seemed as if they were praising the Lord, so oppressors

rarely challenge ring shouting because they couldn't stop what they didn't understand.

The shout persisted for generations, even influencing the worship style in many Black churches

today.

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