Denver Group Works To Preserve African-American 'Spirituals'

(CBS NEWS) - In honor of Black History Month, CBS News met a group on a mission to preserve and revive a rich musical treasure. The Denver choir is unique: the historic songs they sing are called "spirituals" created by enslaved African Americans to express virtue in the face of suffering.

Alice Rasberry, 86, has been in the group, The Spirituals Project, for a decade.

"History is so important," Raspberry told CBS News. "We sang them all the time. We learned spirituals when I was in grade school."

Some of the songs are known to have double-meaning.

"(The slaves) were able to encode these messages — within the music such that they could communicate — right under the noses of their slave masters," M. Roger Holland II, director of The Spirituals Project, said.

Holland directs the multicultural choir and said it's "absolutely" important to him that the group reaches beyond the African American community.

The choir is based at the University of Denver and stages several concerts a year. They're remembering those deprived of freedom and families, but who never lost their soul.

LINK: The Spirituals Project