From the New York Times bestselling author of Stony the Road and one of our most important voices on the African American experience, a powerful history of the Black church as a foundation of Black life and a driving force in the larger freedom struggle in America.For the young Henry Louis Gates, Jr., growing up in a small, residentially segregated West Virginia town, the church was a center of gravity―an intimate place where voices rose up in song and neighbors gathered to celebrate life’s blessings and offer comfort amid its trials. In this tender and expansive reckoning with the Black Church in America, Gates takes us on a journey spanning more than five centuries, from the intersection of Christianity and the transatlantic slave trade to the modern political landscape. We emerge with a new understanding of the importance of African American religion to the larger national narrative―as a center of resistance to slavery and white supremacy, as a magnet for political mobilization, as
