Another Third Baptist church member approached a reporter before the Sunday morning service, as the choir rehearsed the hymn one last time, and reverently repeated his favorite part, “No toil ...

Walk into most black churches Sunday morning and you're more likely to hear the choir sing from the gospel top 40 list than sing old-time "Negro spirituals" or hymns from traditional hymnbooks.

Down in Williamsburg, Va., a bell rests behind the First Baptist Church. It’s been decades since churchgoers and passersby have heard it peal. Come February, it will ring once more. “The bell ...

The sound of hymns drifted from the country church. ... Kelley returned to the church, this time dressed in all black, ... and the First Baptist Church just a couple hundred feet off U.S. 87, ...

Both churches were led by white overseers from the late 1830s until 1865. Even under the watch of the white man, Black clergymen and worshippers at First Baptist were able to develop a code system to ...

In black churches, slaves selected songs, heard sermons, danced, ... First Baptist's pipe organ provides music as hymns are sung. “When you sing 'Holy, Holy, ...