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Letters of an Abiding Faith
Legacy of a Slave’s GrandDaughter to her Son
written by Ella Lewis to her Son (Rudolph Lewis)
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Family Origins
Church, Family, & Place
I call Jerusalem my home. I was born, however, in South Baltimore at University of Maryland Hospital. Jerusalem remains a place of refuge and spiritual comfort. It is where Mama lives, where Daddy is buried. It was and continues to be a village, a hamlet of about ten families, spread out around a church, named Jerusalem Baptist, founded by freed Christian slaves in the late 1860s. There are some who believe it was named, not merely for the ancient and holy city of Judea, but also for the former county seat of Southampton, Virginia, that the Christian prophet and apostle Nathaniel Turner intended to seize in his holy war in August 1831.
The first sixteen years of my life were conditioned by this place and when I was twelve I was immersed, along with others my age, in Jerusalems baptismal pool by the then new pastor Reverend John Boone.
Table of Contents
Family Stories
A Response to “Black Mama, White Son” by Lewis Lawson
The Confessions of Walter Cotton
Driving the Blues Away: Or Dying by Degrees Responses to Driving the Blues Away
Letters of An Abiding Faith ( Table of Contents)
TeeJays Song: Shadows at Midnight
Letter 1 February 19, 1976
Letter 2 February 26, 1976
Letter 3 May 11, 1976
Letter 4 March 7, 1977
Letter 5 January 30, 1978
Letter 6 March 16, 1978
Letter 7 June 3, 1978
Letter 8 July 21, 1978
Letter 9 October 4, 1978
Letter 10 January 24, 1979
Letter 11 February 2, 1979
Letter 12 September 30, 1979
Letter 13 June 17, 1980
Letter 14 July 14, 1980
Letter 15 January 5, 1981
Letter 16 June 19, 1981
Letter 17 January 15, 1982
Letter 18 January 7, 1983
Letter 19 April 22, 1983
Letter 20 May 9, 1983
Letter 21 September 9, 1983
Letter 22 September 14, 1983
Letter 23 September 30, 1983
Letter 24 November 23, 1983
Letter 25 December 8, 1983
Letter 26 August 4, 1984
Letter 27 October 2, 1984
Letter 28 October 16, 1984
Letter 29 October 26, 1984
Letter 30 December 1, 1984
Letter 31 January 21, 1985
Letter 32 February 25, 1985
Letter 33 May 13, 1985
Letter 34 October 23, 1985
Letter 35 December 6, 1985
Letter 36 January 13, 1986
Letter 37 February 24, 1986
Letter 38 March 6, 1986
Letter 39 May 24, 1986
Letter 40 July 11, 1986
Letter 41 August 11, 1986
Letter 42 September 5, 1986
Letter 43 October 2, 1986
Letter 44 January 5, 1987
Letter 45 January 17, 1987
Letter 46 April 19, 1987
Letter 47 May 23, 1987
Letter 48 December 4, 1989
Letter 49 December 20, 1989
Letter 50 February 12, 1990
Letter 51 March 2, 1990
Letter 52 May 11, 1990
Letter 53 May 20, 1990
Letter 54 June 2, 1990
Letter 55 September 27, 1990
Letter 56 March 16, 1991
Letter 57 January 31, 1992
Letter 58 September 23, 1994
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Related files
The Confessions of Walter Cotton
Driving the Blues Away: Or Dying by Degrees
The Education of Black Folks in the South: 1860-1935
Mama’s Letters from Jerusalem (review)
The Official History of Jerusalem Baptist Church
Public Education in Sussex County
A Response to “Black Mama, White Son”
Responses to Driving the Blues Away
Sussex County A Tale of Three Centuries
TeeJays Song: Shadows at Midnight
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(August 11, 1910–December 28, 2009)
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AALBC.com’s 25 Best Selling Books
For July 1st through August 31st 2011
Fiction
#1 – Justify My Thug by Wahida Clark #2 – Flyy Girl by Omar Tyree #3 – Head Bangers: An APF Sexcapade by Zane #4 – Life Is Short But Wide by J. California Cooper #5 – Stackin’ Paper 2 Genesis’ Payback by Joy King #6 – Thug Lovin’ (Thug 4) by Wahida Clark #7 – When I Get Where I’m Going by Cheryl Robinson #8 – Casting the First Stone by Kimberla Lawson Roby #9 – The Sex Chronicles: Shattering the Myth by Zane
#10 – Covenant: A Thriller by Brandon Massey
#11 – Diary Of A Street Diva by Ashley and JaQuavis
#12 – Don’t Ever Tell by Brandon Massey
#13 – For colored girls who have considered suicide by Ntozake Shange
#14 – For the Love of Money : A Novel by Omar Tyree
#15 – Homemade Loves by J. California Cooper
#16 – The Future Has a Past: Stories by J. California Cooper
#17 – Player Haters by Carl Weber
#18 – Purple Panties: An Eroticanoir.com Anthology by Sidney Molare
#19 – Stackin’ Paper by Joy King
#20 – Children of the Street: An Inspector Darko Dawson Mystery by Kwei Quartey
#21 – The Upper Room by Mary Monroe
#22 Thug Matrimony by Wahida Clark
#23 – Thugs And The Women Who Love Them by Wahida Clark
#24 – Married Men by Carl Weber
#25 – I Dreamt I Was in Heaven – The Rampage of the Rufus Buck Gang by Leonce Gaiter
Non-fiction
#1 – Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention by Manning Marable #2 – Confessions of a Video Vixen by Karrine Steffans #3 – Dear G-Spot: Straight Talk About Sex and Love by Zane #4 – Letters to a Young Brother: MANifest Your Destiny by Hill Harper #5 – Peace from Broken Pieces: How to Get Through What You’re Going Through by Iyanla Vanzant #6 – Selected Writings and Speeches of Marcus Garvey by Marcus Garvey #7 – The Ebony Cookbook: A Date with a Dish by Freda DeKnight #8 – The Isis Papers: The Keys to the Colors by Frances Cress Welsing #9 – The Mis-Education of the Negro by Carter Godwin Woodson
#10 – John Henrik Clarke and the Power of Africana History by Ahati N. N. Toure
#11 – Fail Up: 20 Lessons on Building Success from Failure by Tavis Smiley
#12 –The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
#13 – The Black Male Handbook: A Blueprint for Life by Kevin Powell
#14 – The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates by Wes Moore
#15 – Why Men Fear Marriage: The Surprising Truth Behind Why So Many Men Can’t Commit by RM Johnson
#16 – Black Titan: A.G. Gaston and the Making of a Black American Millionaire by Carol Jenkins
#17 – Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority by Tom Burrell
#18 – A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose by Eckhart Tolle
#19 – John Oliver Killens: A Life of Black Literary Activism by Keith Gilyard
#20 – Alain L. Locke: The Biography of a Philosopher by Leonard Harris
#21 – Age Ain’t Nothing but a Number: Black Women Explore Midlife by Carleen Brice
#22 – 2012 Guide to Literary Agents by Chuck Sambuchino #23 – Chicken Soup for the Prisoner’s Soul by Tom Lagana #24 – 101 Things Every Boy/Young Man of Color Should Know by LaMarr Darnell Shields
#25 – Beyond the Black Lady: Sexuality and the New African American Middle Class by Lisa B. Thompson
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Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America
By Melissa V. Harris-Perry
According to the author, this society has historically exerted considerable pressure on black females to fit into one of a handful of stereotypes, primarily, the Mammy, the Matriarch or the Jezebel. The selfless Mammys behavior is marked by a slavish devotion to white folks domestic concerns, often at the expense of those of her own familys needs. By contrast, the relatively-hedonistic Jezebel is a sexually-insatiable temptress. And the Matriarch is generally thought of as an emasculating figure who denigrates black men, ala the characters Sapphire and Aunt Esther on the television shows Amos and Andy and Sanford and Son, respectively.
Professor Perry points out how the propagation of these harmful myths have served the mainstream culture well. For instance, the Mammy suggests that it is almost second nature for black females to feel a maternal instinct towards Caucasian babies.
As for the source of the Jezebel, black women had no control over their own bodies during slavery given that they were being auctioned off and bred to maximize profits. Nonetheless, it was in the interest of plantation owners to propagate the lie that sisters were sluts inclined to mate indiscriminately.
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By Ngugi wa Thiong’o
This is a powerful, moving story that details the effects of the infamous Mau Mau war, the African nationalist revolt against colonial oppression in Kenya, on the lives of ordinary men and women, and on one family in particular. Two brothers, Njoroge and Kamau, stand on a rubbish heap and look into their futures. Njoroge is excited; his family has decided that he will attend school, while Kamau will train to be a carpenter. Together they will serve their countrythe teacher and the craftsman. But this is Kenya and the times are against them. In the forests, the Mau Mau is waging war against the white government, and the two brothers and their family need to decide where their loyalties lie. For the practical Kamau the choice is simple, but for Njoroge the scholar, the dream of progress through learning is a hard one to give up.Penguin
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The White Masters of the World
From The World and Africa, 1965
W. E. B. Du Bois Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization (Fletcher)
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan / The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll / Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for Slavery /
George Jackson / Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804 / January 1, 1804 — The Founding of Haiti
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update 1 January 2011
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