Thomas A. Dorsey

• As the son of a minister and the composer of famous gospel songs such as "There Will Be Peace in the Valley," Thomas A. Dorsey (1899-1993) is known as the "Father of Gospel Music." Growing up as a musician, he accompanied popular blues vocalists, including Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey. After attending the National Baptist Convention in Philadelphia in his young years, he was inspired by Charles A. Tindley's "We'll Understand It Better By and By" and "Leave It There" to write "rockin' " blues and rhythmic style religious music that was better known as gospel.
  
  

Social Changes

• According to essortment.com, social changes were taking place in the United States between 1900 and the 1930s. African Americans from the South had their form of gospel music (which was considered "worldly" in the Christian church at the time) and were moving to other parts of the country. Gospel music was a form of expression for the blacks and they took this form wherever they went.
  
  

Gospel Quartets

• In the 1940s, gospel music began to change as gospel ensembles and quartets emerged. Vocal groups such as The Swan Silvertones and The Sensational Nightingales started touring the states in hopes of publicizing their music and gospel music in general. Soon after World War II, blacks started to buy gospel albums in record-breaking numbers, creating a mass public appeal for the genre.
  
  

In the 1950s

• The 1950s featured the addition of more talented gospel groups and soloists. There were the Clara Ward Singers of Philadelphia, Albertina Walker of Atlanta and The Caravans, Walker's group that helped launch the career of famous composer and conductor James Cleveland. A four-time Grammy award winner with a rough and raspy voice, Cleveland became known as "The King of Gospel."
  
  

Still Influential

• From the 1960s through the mid-1980s, gospel music continued to flow and experienced small amounts of change until it turned into a hip-hop style. After turning their lives to God, multiple rap artists such as Run-DMC turned their music from secular to religious. In the 1990s, other rap gospel groups such as Kirk Franklin and the Family projected their style of gospel music that was considered "loud and close to worldly."