Prophetic Voices
"In 2006, Rev. Dr. Marvin McMickle, published a sacred text posing one of the most poignant questions of our day, “Where have all the prophets gone?” From careful observation of the religious and sociopolitical landscape of America, McMickle points to the startling decline of consciousness-raising, justice-seeking, and truth-telling prophetic voice and action emerging from pulpits and public platforms in the last 25 years. Could it be that prophetic voices are crying aloud, but, we, the people, are not listening? This gathered resource list probes the timeless witness of Black thinkers and writers whose works rightly define the “signs of the time” in a white supremacist world and point America toward liberation and justice for all."
- The Rev. Melanie Jones, Director of Katie Geneva Cannon Center for Womanist Leadership.
Print books
Between the World and Me by Call Number: E185.615 .C6335 2015ISBN: 9780812993547Publication Date: 2015-07-14
I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Call Number: E185.615 .B7335 2018ISBN: 9781524760854Publication Date: 2018-05-15
Joy Unspeakable: Contemplative Practices of the Black Church by Call Number: BR563.N4 H6536 2017ISBN: 9781506421612Publication Date: 2017-10-15
Passionate for Justice: Ida B. Wells as Prophet for Our Time by Call Number: E185.97.W55 M44 2019ISBN: 9781640651609Publication Date: 2019-09-17
Said I Wasn't Gonna Tell Nobody: The Making of a Black Theologian by Call Number: BX4827.C65 A3 2018ISBN: 9781626983021Publication Date: 2018-10-18
e-books
African American Readings of Paul: Reception, Resistance, and Transformation by ISBN: 9780802876768Publication Date: 2020-10-01
Following the Way of Jesus: Church's Teachings in a Changing World by ISBN: 9780898699692Publication Date: 2017-05-30
Keeping Hope Alive: Sermons and Speeches of Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr. by ISBN: 9781626983595Publication Date: 2019-12-16
With Head and Heart: The Autobiography of Howard Thurman by ISBN: 9780156976480Publication Date: 1981-10-14
Web Resources
The Absalom Jones Center for Racial Healing
This website is a wealth of resources for teaching about race.
It also frequently offers events and other ways to get involved.
“True Community is based upon equality, mutuality, and reciprocity. It affirms the richness of individual diversity as well as the common human ties that bind us together.”
-Pauli Murray
Martin Luther King Jr.
The gospel at its best deals with the whole man, not only his soul but also his body, not only his spiritual well-being, but also his material well-being. Any religion that professes to be concerned about the souls of men and is not concerned about the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them and the social conditions that cripple them is a spiritually moribund religion awaiting burial.
– Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (Pilgrimage to Non-Violence, 1960)
Martin Luther King Jr. is the most recognized name of the Civil Rights Movement. He moved into the national spotlight when he became the leader of the bus boycott began in December 1955 and carried through 382 days until the Supreme Court struck down bus segregation as unconstitutional. From that beginning, King traveled over six million miles to speak up and protest wherever inequality and injustice were found. On April 4, 1968, he was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.
Samuel DeWitt Proctor
Samuel Dewitt Proctor was a pastor and academic, who befriended and advised Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Meakin, Kate. "Samuel Dewitt Proctor (1921-1997)." Blackpast. 19 Jun 2011. Web. 18 Nov 2019.
"The mission of the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference, Inc. (SDPC) is to nurture, sustain, and mobilize the African American faith community in collaboration with civic, corporate, and philanthropic leaders to address critical needs of human rights and social justice within local, national, and global communities."
Willie Jennings
Dr. Willie Jennings, Associate Professor of Systematic Theology and Africana Studies at Yale Divinity School, gives the Black History Month Keynote Lecture at Southwest on February 21, 2018.
The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race by Call Number: BT734.2 .J46 2010ISBN: 9780300152111Publication Date: 2010-05-25
Frederick Douglass
Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.
- West India Emancipation Speech delivered on August 3, 1857
Frederick Douglass was an abolitionist who lived to see the emancipation proclamation and continued to fight for full freedom under the law. He was person who was enslaved and won his freedom after his third escape attempt. He later had to flee to England to avoid being returned to his so-called master. In order to return, his friends helped him raise the money to purchase his freedom. Frederick Douglass was a famous orator who would not allow Americans or Christians to rest in the hypocrisy of their oppressive actions.
Adam Clayton Powell Jr
Adam Clayton Powell Jr. represented Harlem in the House of Representatives from 1945 to 1971. He was the first person of African-American descent to be elected to Congress from New York. He was a social activist and Baptist pastor and fought against racial discrimination.
Powell Jr., Adam Clayton. "Speech on Civil Rights." Blackpast. 7 Jun 2010. Web. 18 Nov 2019.
Adam Clayton Powell Sr
Adam Clayton Powell Sr. was the pastor of Abyssinian Baptist Church which grew to 14,000 members by the 1930s. He encouraged and participated in protests against racial discrimination, and worked for better employment opportunities for African Americans and campaigns to feed the poor.
Mack, Dwayne. "Adam Clayton Powell Sr. (1865-1953)." Blackpast. 6 Feb 2008. Web. 18 Nov 2019.