Working with co-editor Dr. Delores Carpenter, pastor of Michigan Park Christian Church in Washington, D.C., the hymnal took nine years to compile.

Noted musicologist, Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker, wrote in the book's foreword that the publication was "the most important addition to Protestant hymnody within the past century.

[7] In 1995, Williams' commentary on the Book of Habakkuk was included in the collection Many Voices: Multicultural Responses to the Minor Prophets written by Howard University School of Divinity students.

[12] In 2014, a recording of We Shall Overcome arranged by Williams and featuring mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves was among several works of art, including the poem A Brave and Startling Truth by Maya Angelou, were sent to space on the first test flight of the spacecraft Orion.

[14] In July 2018, Williams led a group of local choirs in performing the National Anthem at the 2018 Major League Baseball All Star Game at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C.[15] In celebration of composer Leonard Bernstein's 100 birthday, Williams commissioned the re-working of Leonard Bernstein's Mass by four Philadelphia composers – Jay Fluellen, Ruth Naomi Floyd, Rollo Dilworth, and Evelyn Simpson.