At the turn of the twentieth century, a new dynasty of leadership was emerging over Fisk University's Jubilee Singers and its practice, dating to the 1870s, of publishing spirituals. In just over a decade (1902–1915), brothers Frederick J. Work (1879–1942) and John W. Work II (1873–1925) collected and published three sets of spirituals and one narrative book. Folk Songs of the American Negro, with a preface dated May 15, 1907, was the second of these. This volume was an expansion of their 1902 collection New Jubilee Songs, sharing many of the same songs, but newly typeset. It also featured the curious heading "New Jubilee Songs" on every page; absent from the 1902 collection, the heading perhaps indicated a last-minute attempt at rebranding this title. A second volume was also published in 1907. Some of the versions of spirituals collected in these three volumes would go on to become the standard settings in other songbooks.

—Chris Fenner