Mending Broken Relationships
by John Paul Eddy with Curtis May and Neil Earle

To order the book, click here.

A treasury of quotes on the past, present and future of the color line in America by Ella Mazel

In this treasury of over 1,000 quotes, you will find-- in the voices of Langston Hughes and the Delany sisters, for example-- some of the bitter sweet humor that has helped sustain blacks in this country through their long, oppressive history. But, in the words of both blacks and whites, you will also find the start contrast between the "incalculable" advantages of being born white and the "all-consuming burden" of being born black. In these pages:

Apologists for slavery extol the social and economic "harmony and good will" that they claim the system made possible-- and Frederick Douglass cries out about its "crimes against God and man."

Lillian Smith describes how, growing up white in the South, she learned "the twisting turning dance of segregation"-- and Arthur Ashe explains why for him race was "a more onerous burden than AIDS."

James Baldwin and others convey in brilliant prose the pain and despair of being black in white America-- and "ordinary" people discuss with Studs Terkel their feelings about race in more simple, but nonetheless eloquent, language.

Martin Luther King, Jr., lays the moral foundation for the Civil Rights Movement-- and Cornel West articulates the "passionate pessimism regarding America's will to justice" that exists among many blacks today.

Melba Patillo Beals-- almost forty years after she risked death as a teenager to integrate Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas-- writes in her heart-wrenching memoir of that experience: "The task that remains is to cope with our interdependence-- to see ourselves reflected in every other human being and to respect and honor our differences."

This groundbreaking book is about the transformation of Asian Americans from a few small, disconnected, and largely invisible ethnic groups into a self-identified racial group that is influencing every aspect of American society. It explores the junctures that shocked Asian Americans into motion and shaped a new consciousness, including the murder of Vincent Chin, a Chinese American, by tow white autoworkers who believed he was Japanese; the apartheid-like working conditions of Filipinos in the Alaska salmon canneries; the boycott of Korean American greengrocers in Brooklyn; the L.A. riots; and the casting of non-Asians in the Broadway musical Miss Saigon. The book examines the rampant stereotyping of Asian Americans, which has an impact on key issues concerning all Americans, from affirmative action and campaign finance to popular culture and national security.

Helen Zia, the daughter of Chinese immigrants, was born in 1952, when there were only 150,000 Chinese Americans in the entire country, and she writes as a personal witness to the dramatic changes involving Asian Americans.

 

Racism has reemerged, dramatically and forcefully. All of us-- people of color and white people alike-- are damaged by its debilitating effects. In this book, the author addresses the "majority," the white race in the United States. Racism permeates the individual attitudes and behavior of white people, but even more seriously, it permeates public systems, institutions, and culture.

This book does not intend to attack or to produce guilt, but its message is tough and demanding. It begins by analyzing racism as it is today and the ways it has changed or not changed over the past few decades. Most important, the book focuses on the task of dismantling racism, how we can work to bring it to an end and build a racially just, multiracial society.

Churches are not strangers to the task of combating racism, but so much of what we have done is too little, too late. We have yet to make a serious impact on the racism that surrounds us and is within us. This book calls us to begin our next assault on the demonic evil of racism. The result that it seeks is freedom for all races, all people.

Joseph Barndt is a pastor in the Bronx in New York City and codirector of Crossroads, a ministry working to dismantle racism and build a multicultural church and society. Pastor Barndt previously served congregations in California and Arizona. He is the author of Why Black Power?, Liberating Our White Ghetto, and Beyond Brokenness.

In recent years, the leaders of the American evangelical movement have brought their characteristic passion to the problem of race, notably in the Promise Keepers movement and in reconciliation theology. But the authors of this provocative new study reveal that, despite their good intentions, evangelicals may actually be preserving America's racial chasm.

In Divided by Faith, Michael O. Emerson and Christian Smith probe the grassroots of white evangelical America, through a nationwide telephone survey of 2,000 people, along with 200 face-to-face interviews. The results of their research are surprising. They learned that most white evangelicals see no systematic discrimination against blacks; indeed, they deny the existence of any ongoing racial problem in the United States. Many of their subjects blamed the continuing talk of racial conflict on the media, unscrupulous black leaders, and the inability of African Americas to forget the past. What lies behind this perception? Evangelicals, Emerson and Smith write, are not so much actively racist as committed to a theological view of the world. Therefore, it is difficult for them to see systematic injustice. The evangelical emphasis on individualism, free will, and personal relationships makes invisible the pervasive injustice that perpetuates inequality between the races. Most racial problems, they told the authors, can be solved by the repentance and conversion of the sinful individuals at fault.

Combining a substantial body of evidence with sophisticated analysis and interpretation, Emerson and Smith throw sharp light on the oldest American dilemma. Despite the best intentions of evangelical leaders and some positive trends, the authors conclude that real racial reconciliation remains far over the horizon.

In the spring of 1947, Jackie Robinson played his first game with the Brooklyn dodgers, breaking down baseball's decades-old color line and changing the face of the game forever. Now, in this intimate portrait, Robinson's widow, Rachel, tells her husband's story-- and that of her life with him-- from her unique perspective.

But the tale of Jackie Robinson doesn't begin and end with baseball. It includes family, friends, and-- after retirement-- the business world and the civil rights movement. Confronted by challenges at every turn, together the Robinson's struggled to live to the fullest in every way. Rachel Robinson describes the trials the family faced as carefully as she relates her husband's thrilling triumphs on the diamond.

In an evocative, humorous, and personal style, the author reveals Jackie Robinson as a sensitive and committed individual. Her keen observations and sharp memories are enhanced by a unique collection of photographs-- many never before published-- that allow the reader into the Robinsons' life. Here is Jackie Robinson first as a child and then as a talented young man in college and in the army. In a story-book romance, the couple meets, courts, marries, and raises a family. Readers will get to know the man whose fierce determination and stubborn focus were as critical to his career with the Dodgers as they were later in the world beyond. And Rachel Robinson doesn't hesitate to share the couple's pain as they are wrenched through a series of tragedies, including the death of their first child.

With a compelling foreword by noted historian Roger Wilkins and epilogues by the Robinsons' two living children, Jackie Robinson: An Intimate Portrait presents a new and revealing picture of a man who is a hero to so many-- black and white, old and young, male and female. All will be moved by the story of a remarkable man seen through the eyes of an equally remarkable woman.

Rachel Robinson, a graduate of the University of California at Los Angeles and New York University, is the founder and chairperson of the Jackie Robinson Foundation. This is her first book. She lives in Salem, Connecticut.

The establishment of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission was a pioneering international event. Never had any country sought to move forward from despotism to democracy both by exposing the atrocities committed in the past and achieving reconciliation with its former oppressors. At the center of this unprecedented attempt at healing a nation has been Archbishop Desmond Tutu, whom President Nelson Mandela named as Chariman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. With the final report of the Commission just published, Archbishop Tutu offers his reflections on the profound wisdom he has gained by helping usher South Africa through this painful experience. In No Future Without Forgiveness, Tutu argues that true reconciliation cannot be achieved by denying the past. But nor is it easy to reconcile when a nation "looks the beast in the eye." Rather that repeat platitudes about forgiveness, he presents a bold spirituality that recognizes the horrors people can inflict upon one another, and yet retains a sense of idealism about reconciliation. With a clarity of pitch born out of decades of experience, Tutu shows readers how to move forward with honesty and compassion to build a newer and more humane world.

Desmond Tutu, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize is 1984, retired as Archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa, in 1996. He is active as a lecturer throughout the world and currently is a visiting professor at Emory University in Atlanta.

Keith Phillips began sharing Christ's love in the inner city in Los Angeles shortly before the 1965-Watts riots startled the world. For three years World Impact missionaries have shared God's love in the inner cities of America.

The alienation that caused the 1992 Los Angeles riots forced World Impact to reevaluate its efforts and refocus its energies. Keith explains, "A sinister demon could hardly have designed a more defeating scenario; the urban poor trapped in racial and cultural strife, watching their families dissolve, alienated from the middle and upper classes and yet yearning for the 'Fresh Prince of Bel Air' lifestyle, and wondering if God or His church even care."

In the midst of the despair caused by the riots, it became hopefully obvious to Keith that the Church of Jesus Christ was the only group ordained by God to be His healing agent in a broken world, the only organization that would certainly be here when Christ returned-- the only institution that ever empowered the urban poor.

Out of Ashes chronicles the history of the urban poor in American, and explores their present needs and future hope. Drawing strength and vision from the first century Church, which spread like a wildfire through North Africa, Asia Minor and Europe, World Impact believes that the Word of God and the Holy Spirit can still empower the urban poor to become a significant part of the Bride of Christ.

Exciting testimonies of new churches being planted and reproducing themselves reaffirm the power of the gospel to liberate the urban poor and to give them a hope and a future. Out of Ashes practically explains how poor, middle- and upper-class Christians from all races can cross the barriers of race, class and culture to walk in the footsteps of Jesus.

Keith Phillips is President of World Impact, a nationwide, interdenominational discipling and church-planting ministry in the inner cities of America. A graduate of UCLA, he holds a Master of Divinity and a Doctorate of Ministries from Fuller Theological Seminary and a Doctorate of Humane Letters from John Brown University.

Hailed as the most masterful story ever told of the American civil rights movement, Parting the Waters is destined to endure for generations.

Moving from the fiery political baptism of Martin Luther King, Jr., to the corridors of Camelot where the Kennedy brothers weighed demands for justice against the deceptions of J. Edgar Hoover, here is a vivid tapestry of America, torn and finally transformed by a revolutionary struggle unequaled since the Civil War.

Taylor Branch provides an unsurpassed portrait of King's rise to greatness and illuminates the stunning courage and private conflict, the deals, maneuvers, betrayals, and rivalries that determined history behind closed doors, at boycotts, sit-ins, on bloody freedom rides, and through siege and murder.

Epic in scope and impact, Branch's chronicle definitely captures one of the nation's most crucial passages.

Many are beginning to look to the churches to once again provide moral and spiritual leadership in the fight against racism. Promise Keepers, prayer breakfasts, pastors, retreats, Jesus marches--these are all beginning to focus on racial healing and reconciliation.

Christians in the majority culture are beginning to reach across denominational boundaries to embrace the cause of racial reconciliation. At present, all of this is a cloud no bigger than a man's hand, but it can grow. May God give us all the courage to stand in the gap against racism!

Unlike most other immigrants, the majority of Africans were brought to America against their will. But despite these harsh beginnings, they have established strong communities and a rich culture. Through a fascinating collection or primary documents-- including slave songs, memoirs and diaries, and speeches from the civil rights movement-- Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler revisit African American history.

Here, African Americans tell their story in their own words. Well-known figures such as Frederick Douglass, Jackie Robinson, Langston Hughes, Ralph Abernathy, and Spike Lee-- as well as many who are unknown contribute their voices to this collection. Like any family album or scrapbook, the pages also contain period photographs, illustrations, and reproductions of other memorabilia.

This book is not for sale at Amazon.com, but can be purchased by clicking on the image above.