Teaching to Live: Black Religion, Activist-Educators, and Radical Social Change

Teaching to Live: Black Religion, Activist-Educators, and Radical Social Change interrogates the stories of African American activist-educators whose faith convictions inspired them to educate in radical and transformative ways. Many of these educators are known only or primarily for their educational theory or activism, and their religious convictions have often been obscured or outright ignored. Almeda M. Wright seeks to rectify this omission, exploring the connections between religion, education, and struggles for freedom within twentieth-century African American communities by telling the stories of key African American teachers.Wright brings together the lives and work of three related subgroups of activist-educators: those who worked in public or secular education but were religiously inspired; radical scholars who transformed the ways that Black religion and Black religious life are studied and valued; and radical religious educators, or those educators who were involved more formally with the religious formation of Black people but who regarded this work of spiritual development as part of the struggle for freedom and liberation of all people. She begins with the reflections of Anna Julia Cooper, W. E. B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells, and Nannie Helen Burroughs, who attempted to transform American society by expanding the involvement of African Americans as contributors to all aspects of American life, especially the religious, intellectual, and cultural spheres. Wright also examines the activist-educators at the center of the mid-twentieth-century Civil Rights Movement, such as the religious and lay leaders Septima Clark and James Lawson, and the cadre of student leaders and teachers they trained. Finally, she investigates how the models of religious activist-educators Olivia Pearl Stokes and Albert Cleage emerged in the last quarter of the twentieth century at the same time that questions about the centrality of Black Christianity in the African American community and Black activism began to take shape. The rich and complex narratives of these educators show how religion, education, and radical social change can intersect. This book invites readers to continue exploring how these concepts will evolve for future generations of activist-educators.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: Religion, Education and Radical Social Change Section I: Telling our own Stories 1. Anna Julia Cooper 2. W. E. B. Du Bois Section II: Teaching to Live 3. Ida B. Wells 4. Nannie Helen Burroughs Section III: Radical Love, Citizenship and Education 5. Septima Poinsett Clark 6. James Lawson Section IV: Radical Black Religious Education, Post Civil Rights 7. Olivia Pearl Stokes 8. Albert Cleage, Jr. Conclusion: Looking Backward to Move Forward Bibliography

About the Author :
Almeda M. Wright is Associate Professor of Religious Education at Yale Divinity School. Her research focuses on African American religion, Womanist spirituality, adolescent spiritual development, and the intersections of religion, education, and public life. She is the author of The Spiritual Lives of Young African Americans and editor of Children, Youth, and Spirituality in a Troubling World (with Mary Elizabeth Moore).

Review :
Wright provides the most important work on religious education in a generation. The religious activist educator grounded in the lives and histories of Black faith and justice leaders is an identity and vocation that will be taught, shared, and lived by future generations of religious educators. Teaching to Live convenes a gathering of heroic and prophetic educators across the boundaries of history and ideology. Wright's selection of people such as Baptist Burroughs, Congregational Cleage, Episcopal Cooper, and Methodist Lawson also underscores the ecumenical undercurrent that has nurtured the Black Church as a force for social change. This book is a rich exploration of the intersections of biography, history, and social structure in the lives of these African American Christian educators, all of whom provide models for engaging current struggles involving faith and social justice. It is not overly dramatic to say that teaching can be a matter of life and death when it is done in the face of endangerment and affliction to thwart debilitating injustice. The Black activist­educators profiled in Teaching to Live lived to teach as a way toward freedom. A book about them is warranted not simply as a tribute to their accomplishments but as a formative text for educators of all backgrounds-one that teaches how urgent it is to follow in the footsteps of these venerable leaders. This impeccably researched work is driven by Almeda Wright's passion to inspire in young people a grander sense of the impact they can have.