This dissertation is structured as a handbook and guide. It provides selected published materials in Afro-American vocal music. These materials include music for solo voice, including the art sang, arrangements of spirituals and choral music. Emphasis is placed on composers of record whose works are in print. This handbook and guide will serve as a reference guide for musicians, choral directors or persons who simply want sane general sense of the composers and major compositions. Chapter One, "Introduction," gives the purpose of the handbook and guide. Chapter .Two, entitled "Four Pioneers," includes Harry Thacker Burleigh (1866-1949), Robert Nathaniel Dett (1882-1943), John Rosamond Johnson (1873-1954) and Hall Johnson (1888-1970). Chapter Three, "Second Generation," includes four selected composers - - Edward Hanmond Boatner (1898-1981), Frederick "Fred" Douglas Hall (1898-1981), William Levi Dawson (1899-) and John Wesley Work III (1901-1967). Chapter Four concerns "In The Contemporary Idiom: The Art Composers." The art composers selected for this period are Howard Swanson (1907-1985), Margaret Allison Bonds (1913-1972), and Undine Moore (1906-1989). "Four Avant-Garde Composers: The New Generation," Chapter Five, are composers who shared much in common with their predecessors. However, these Black composers felt the strong need and demand for the expression of "self," a heritage and a national acceptance. They used the musical tools contributed by Black people of this country. Their inclusion of the blues, spirituals and jazz as inspirations for compositions further implants nationalism into their music. The composers selected are Ulysses Sinpson Kay (1917-), Hale Smith (1925-), Arthur Cunningham (1934-), and Dorothy Rudd Moore (1940-). In addition to the bibliography, there are three appendices. Appendix I - Selected Vocal Music by Fifteen Composers; Appendix II- Selected Discography of Vocal Music by Composers; and Appendix III-Selected Publishers