On this question of “Knowledge”, rooted and transmitted in Bible, I have begun a “Primer’ listing of Books that ‘Light My Way’; and will consider them here in a semi dated order. As a child growing up in the Church I learned the tradition of Choirs singing “An A & B Selection”; and this list is currently at 7 Writers, with and A and B selection.
Earliest in this time frame is the 1899 W. E. B. DuBois, A-“The Philadelphia Negro” & B- 1903 “The Souls of Black Folk”. In 1901 Booker T. Washington published “Up From Slavery; and in 1909 “The Story of The Negro: The Rise of The Race from Slavery”. In 1912, James Weldon Johnson “The Autobiography of An Ex-colored Man.” And in 1920 “Self Determining Haiti.” In 1921 Carter G. Woodson “The History of The Negro Church”; and 1933 “The Mis-Education of The Negro”. In 1939 Howard Thurman wrote “Jesus and The Disinherited”; and in 1979 his autobiography “With Head and Heart.” TextBook is James Hal Cone ”Liberation Theology”. For A/B, 1991 “Martin and Malcolm and America: A Dream or a Nightmare”. 2011 “The Cross and the Lynching Tree”. Then in 1993 Cornel West “Race Matters”; and 2014 “Black Prophetic Fire”.
“And so we have taken our struggle into the streets as the labor movement took its struggle into the streets, as Jesus Christ led the multitude through the streets of Judea. The plain and simple fact is that until we went into the streets the federal government was indifferent to our demands… It was not until the Freedom Riders were brutalized in Alabama that the 1946 Supreme Court decision banning discrimination in interstate travel was enforced and it was not until construction sites were picketed in the North that Negro workers were hired. Those who deplore our militants, who exhort patience in the name of a false peace, are in fact supporting segregation and exploitation. They would have social peace at the expense of social and racial justice.” — Asa Philip Randolph: The 1963 March on Washington from the steps of The Lincoln Monument.
In a Philosophy class, I used as the Textbook “Philosophy: An Introduction to The Art of Wondering” 1989 James L. Christian which, by was already in it’s 4th edition. To consider WONDERING an ART is a most powerful gift for me.
‘Teras’, one of several words used in biblical scripture for the translated ‘wonder’, is most often used in conjunction with ‘signs’— ‘signs and wonders’ so deeply rooted in Truth that it has the affect of causing one to shrink and tremble; to stand in awe. I suspect that ‘wondering’ is required in our times as it relates to the ability to ‘see thru’, to ‘think thru’; to ‘look beyond, and to ‘think beyond’ the constant base of LIES being told. To ‘wonder as I wander’ implies… a way of life.
“Those who deplore our militants…” Contrary to popular belief, ‘our militants’, among whom are those that I have just identified; African born in America Leaders; who ARE the ones that ‘think outside The Box’. The Artists of Wonder — knowing for themselves; knowledge of themselves living FREE— Outside “The Box”. The late Dr. Jonathan Jackson in our “Christian Education” classroom became revered for always saying “You can’t put God in a box”. Mic check: “GOD IS OUTSIDE The Box!
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