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 others, remained true to the Soul Wisdom of the race and transmitted it to generations of the young, as poet, as scholar, as consummate teacher. For those of us who were not privileged to study directly under him, there are his brilliant articles, his books, the reminiscences of his students and colleagues; but, above all, the archetypical figures of manhood with which he peopled his poems. (pp. 6-7)

[What] we call Soul is caught up and focused in [Brown]—in his robust humor, his sheer joy in living, his fair-mindedness. All of us can learn from him—especially the young who are to lead us. But his influence has already been great, sometimes direct, sometimes indirect and subtle, yet altogether pervasive enough to defy definition. He is, in a word, a Strong Man, who has enlarged our vision of ourselves. (p. 10)