In a country that has historically afforded its citizens from the African diaspora tragically few safe spaces, the Black church has always been more than a sanctuary it's been a place to nourish the deepest human needs and dreams of the African-American community. At road's end, we emerge with a new understanding of the centrality of the Black church to the American story-as a cultural and political force, as the center of resistance to slavery and white supremacy, as an unparalleled incubator of talent, and as a crucible for working through the community's most important issues, down to today. In this book, his tender and magisterial reckoning with the meaning of the Black church in American history, Gates takes us from his own experience onto a journey across more than four hundred years and spanning the entire country. Within those walls, voices were lifted up in song to call forth the best in each other, and to comfort each other when times were at their worst.

The companion book to the upcoming PBS series.įor the young Henry Louis Gates, Jr., growing up in a small, segregated West Virginia town, the church was his family and his community's true center of gravity. 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 new history of the Black church in America as the Black community's abiding rock and its fortress.

The black church henry louis gates