Born in 1899 in rural Georgia, Dorsey was a musician, composer, and Christian evangelical influencer in the development of early blues and gospel music. He wrote 3,000 songs, a third of them gospel, including "Take My Hand, Precious Lord" and "Peace in the Valley.” Dorsey moved to Chicago and became a composer and arranger of jazz and vaudeville music just as blues was becoming popular. Following a spiritual awakening, Dorsey focused on religious music. Dorsey served as the music director at Chicago's Pilgrim Baptist Church for 50 years, introducing and encouraging personal elements of participation such as clapping, stomping, and shouting when these were widely condemned as unrefined. In 1932, Dorsey co-founded the National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses, an organization that remains active today. The first generation of gospel singers in the 20th century who worked or trained with Dorsey include Mahalia Jackson and James Cleveland. Author and Grammy Award winner Anthony Heilbut summarized Dorsey's influence by saying he "combined the good news of gospel with the bad news of blues". Called the "Father of Gospel Music" and often credited with creating it, Dorsey more accurately spawned a movement that popularized gospel blues throughout black churches in the United States, which in turn influenced American music and society at large.