For the young Henry Louis Gates, Jr., growing up in a small, residentially segregated West Virginia town, the church was a centre of gravity - an intimate place where voices rose up in song and neighbours 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.