Month: November 2019

JAMES H. CONE

A landmark in the conversation about race and religion in AMERICA.

“One of the Top 11 Religion Books of the Year,” The Huffington Post

First Place Award in Theology, Catholic Press Association

Gold Medal Winner, Independent Book Publishers Book Awards

Nautilus Book Award (Silver)

“No one has explored the spiritual world of African Americans with the depth or breadth of Cone. Here he turns his attention to two symbols that dominated not only the spiritual world but also the daily life of African Americans in the twentieth century. In their inextricable tie, he finds both the terror and hope that governed life under violent racism as well as potent symbols of the African American past and present in the United States.”

— HENRY LOUIS GATES, JR., Harvard University

“Once again James Cone demonstrates why he is indispensable as an interpreter of faith, race, and the American experience.”

–BILL MOYERS, Journalist

“James Cone is a world-historical figure in twentieth-century Christian theology. The Cross and the Lynching Tree is a powerful and painful song for hope in our dance with mortality — a song Cone courageously has led for over forty years!”

–CORNEL WEST, Princeton University

JAMES H. CONE, Charles A. Briggs Distinguished Professor of Systematic Theology at Union Theological Seminary, NY, is widely regarded as one of the most influential theologians in America. His books include A Black Theology of Liberation, The Spirituals & the Blues, and Martin & Malcolm & America: A Dream or a Nightmare (all from Orbis Books).

PAUL ROBESON

preface by Lloyd L. Brown

Here I Stand was first published in 1958 and promptly ignored by the white press. Lloyd L. Brown in his preface to this edition reports that “with one insignificant exception, no white commercial newspaper or magazine in the entire country so much as mentioned Robeson’s book.” The black press of the nation, however, recognized the importance of the work and the authentic, passionate tone of one of the great black Americans of the twentieth century.

“Here I Stand is a program of action for colored Americans. But no American of whatever color can really quarrel with Robeson’s principles and his program. . . . It is a challenge to fulfill the American dream.”—Saunders Redding in the Afro-American

“Love is really the theme of this book. For Paul Robeson deeply loves people. He loves his native land—‘the America of the common people’. . . . It is a book to read and pass on and on.” —Shirley Graham Du Bois in Mainstream

As Paul Robeson writes in his foreword, “I speak as an American Negro whose life is dedicated, first and foremost, to the winning of full freedom—and nothing less than full freedom—for my people in America. In these pages I have discussed what the fight for Negro freedom means in the crisis of today; how it is related to the cause of peace and liberation throughout the world. In presenting my views on this subject, I have sought to explain how I came to my viewpoint and to take the stand I have taken.”

from the back cover of the 1958 Beacon Press edition