This detailed history of the famous Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, New York City, begins with its organization in 1809 and continues through its relocations, its famous senior pastors, and its many crises and triumphs, up to the present. Considered the largest Protestant congregation in the United States during the pre-megachurch 1930s, this church plays a very important part in the history of New York City.

Genna Rae McNeil is a professor at the University of North Carolina; she specializes in African-American history and twentieth-century social movements in the United States. Her other books include Groundwork: Charles Hamilton Houston and the Struggle for Civil Rights.

Houston Bryan Roberson is author of Fighting the Good Fight: The Story of the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, 1865-1977.

Quinton Hosford Dixie is coauthor (with Peter Eisenstadt) of Visions of a Better World: Howard Thurman's Pilgrimage to India and the Origins of African American Nonviolence and coeditor of Courage to Hope: From Black Suffering to Human Redemption.

Kevin McGruder is a professor of African and African-American studies at Lehman College in New York City.