Transcript: A Negro Speaks of Rivers

Professor Kate Rushin: I've known rivers. I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins. My soul has grown deep like the rivers, I've bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young, I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep. I looked upon the Nile and raise the pyramid above it. I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans. And I've seen its mighty bosom turn all golden in the sun set. I've known rivers. Ancient dusky rivers. My soul has grown deep like the rivers.