Composed by Edgar Redmond in 1961, and Produced/Rearranged by Ray Chew in 2019, this four-movement composition is an ethnology in music, dramatizing the climatic phases of the existence of the Afro-American. Africa depicts the pre-American era through the use of montuna (repeated rhythmic pattern) and a chanting theme. Slavery begins with a dramatic and melancholy oboe solo that represents the traumatizing era for enslaved Africans after the middle passage.

The Civil War presents the feeling of the tension. A main theme introduced by the French horns is orchestrally developed throughout the length of this movement.

The Transition is introduced by the strings playing a chorale-style section, followed by another that is harmonically more developed. The last part of the movement (the Grandioso) is a climatic sectional ending intensified by the use of the full orchestra with the oboes playing a single directional melodic line. The flutes and clarinets play intermingling melodic fragments in answer to the oboes. (Cover artwork is by Roscoe Lee Owens)