The idea for this project developed in a doctoral seminar taught by Caroline Helton, a white faculty member in voice at the University of Michigan. In a presentation on the performance practice of singing spirituals, Emery Stephens, an African American graduate student in the seminar, concluded by encouraging everyone in the room (all white with the exception of one Asian student) to program spirituals on their recitals. The halting reply was "We can't because we are not black," to which Emery replied, "Why not?" Thus began the journey toward investigating the barriers singers face when they attempt to perform spirituals and art songs by African American composers. However, finding out about the barriers is useless unless ways can be found to break them down and allow all students to benefit musically, artistically, and socially from the experience of singing this repertoire.