W.E.B. Du Bois & The Gift of Black Folk

In 1916, a crowd of ten to fifteen thousand cheering spectators watched as seventeen-year-old Jesse Washington, a retarded black boy, was publicly tortured, lynched, and burned on the town square of Waco, Texas. He had been accused and convicted in a kangaroo court for the rape and murder of a white woman. The city's officials watched Washington's torture and murder and did nothing. Nearby, a professional photographer took pictures to sell as mementos of that day. The stark story and gory pictures were soon printed in The Crisis, the monthly magazine of the fledgling NAACP, as part of that organization's campaign for anti-lynching legislation. Even in the vast bloodbath of lynchings that washed across the South and Midwest during the late 1800s and early 1900s, the Waco lynching stood out. The NAACP assigned a young white woman, Elisabeth Freeman, to travel to Waco to investigate, and the evidence she gathered and gave to W. E. B. Du Bois provided grist for the efforts of the NAACP to raise national consciousness of the atrocities being committed and to raise funds to lobby anti-lynching legislation. Drawing on extensive research in the national files of the NAACP, local newspapers and archives, and interviews with the descendants of participants in the events of that day, Patricia Bernstein has reconstructed the details of not only the crime but also its aftermath. She has charted the ways the story affected the development of the NAACP and especially the eventual success of its antilynching campaign. She searches for answers to the questions of how participating in such violence affected the lives of the mob leaders, the city officials who stood by passively, and the community that found itself capable of such abject behavior.

God of the Whirlwind demonstrates the power of storytelling traditions to carry memories and shape ways of living by assembling stories from members of the Black Waco community--stories that have been passed on and that have sustained life in Central Texas. In a region deeply shaped by racial injustice and the horrors of lynching, one such story tells of a destructive tornado as the justice of God. This story of the God of the whirlwind has served to communicate the belief that justice is on the way. Based on oral history interviews collected and edited by Tyler B. Davis, God of the Whirlwind invites readers to listen deeply to community stories as they are shared and reflected upon across generations of Black Wacoans, and asks readers to consider the resources for imagination and action these stories make available. In gathering the voices of Black Wacoans, God of the Whirlwind attends to the community that kept the whirlwind story, and many other stories, as part of the long struggle to imagine and build just ways of living. ebook link: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/bayloru/detail.action?pq-origsite=primo&docID=31970440

"A forceful call to recognize the roots of American inequality and a solid starting point for Christians who want to help fix them."--Publishers Weekly Racism is not about hate and ignorance. It's about greed. And it always has been. Black Christian historian Malcolm Foley explores this powerful idea in The Anti-Greed Gospel, showing how the desire for power and money--what some call "racial capitalism"--drives violence and exploitation across American history. In this book, you'll discover - how greed historically gave birth to racial categories and systemic oppression, - the connection between economic exploitation and racial violence, - lessons from historical figures like Ida B. Wells on resistance and truth-telling, - practical steps for building communities of deep economic solidarity, and - biblical foundations for combating racial capitalism through gospel values. Foley reviews the history of racial violence in the United States and connects the killings of modern-day Black Americans to the history of lynching in America. He challenges the contemporary church to wrestle with crucial questions: How can we become communities that show generosity and resist greed? What is the next step in the journey toward racial justice? Readers will gain tools to resist greed that exploits others, love their neighbors more completely, and build communities rooted in deep solidarity, anti-violence, and truth-telling.