Why gospel music?
Gospel's African roots
The rise of spirituals in North America
What spirituals are, what spirituals mean
The American Civil War
Reconstruction, the jubilee singers, and minstrelsy
The foundations of gospel: the Black exodus, barbershop quartets, the Pentecostals, and jack-leg preachers
The fathers of gospel: William H. Sherwood, Charles A. Tindley, and Thomas A. Dorsey
Chicago and the rise of gospel music
Three divas: Rosetta Tharpe, Clara Ward, and Mahalia Jackson
The great gospel groups: six unforgettable voices
Gospel on the freedom highway
Gospel's evolution: from Alex Bradford to James Cleveland to Andrae Crouch
The last great male quartets
Contemporary gospel: six defining voices.