A Gospel Story

A brief history of Gospel by Jean Buzelin , illustrated by Wozniak with 2 compact discs.

The history of Negro spirituals and Gospels is also the dramatic history of Afro-Americans from the days of slavery to the present: almost four centuries of suffering, endured through rejection, racism and violence, but also four centuries of resistance, struggle, and unshakeable faith. Their community has faith in their hope for a better world that, before Paradise, began here on Earth with recognition of Afro-Americans' rights to dignity and freedom. That struggle has never ended, despite a member of their people presiding over the United States.

The forced encounter between African inheritance and European custom, through Christianity, would give birth to a popular vocal art that was totally original, an art whose beauty, grandeur, emotional charge and power of expression would ensure the consistency and survival of black people, giving it the strength and weapons necessary for emancipation. Served by immense voices -- Mahalia Jackson, Louis Armstrong, Paul Robeson, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Aretha Franklin, the Golden Gate Quartet -- sacred songs would form the basis of all Black music for more than a century; and today the sounds of blues, jazz, rhythm and blues, rock'n'roll, soul music, funk and rap are heard throughout the world.