Archive
Participant Profile: “Children need to play again”
Keith Johnson grew up just a couple of miles from the park that serves as the training center for the Southern California Falcons Youth Football and Cheer Program, which he founded in …
Passing the Mantle: Faith-based Leadership in a Time of Change
In one of the most electrifying moments in “Eyes on the Prize,” the documentary about the civil rights movement that aired on PBS in 1987, an African-American teenager named Jimmy Webb tries …
Who Takes Up the Mantle Now? Phase IV and Beyond
That imperative sounds far easier than it actually is. The people who live in many of the neighborhoods served by this city’s historically African-American churches are no longer predominantly African-American. In fact, …
Civic Engagement in the Classroom and the Community
“Religion is personal but it isn’t private,” says Rev. Dr. Cecil “Chip” Murray in a typically pithy summary of belief capturing a tension that shapes the lives of individual Christians as well …
Introduction: History and Context
For Rev. Najuma Smith-Pollard, the statistics that describe the plight of many urban AfricanAmerican communities aren’t abstractions— they’re everyday realities. St. James A M E Church, where Smith-Pollard serves as pastor, is …
Passing the Mantle: A New Generation of Leaders in the Black Church
Executive Summary In many urban neighborhoods where African American churches have deep roots, obdurate problems such as homelessness, drug addiction, gang violence and educational underachievement have only grown more acute since the …