Wisdom for the Soul of Black Folk

Another book of quotations? Indeed there are numerous excellent extant anthologies of quotations, but these tend to be very broad, with a bias toward canonical and well-known authors; those works which document the contributions of Black authors have tended to focus on African-Americans, considerable as their output is. Undeniable recognition of this prevalence is reflected in the title of the present volume which pays homage to W. E. B. Du Bois’ classic work and in the preponderance of entries from American sources. Nevertheless, effort has been made to cast a wider net to capture under-represented and unfamiliar voices.Khemetic texts preserved in papyri and stelae are the earliest literature to have survived, followed by the writings of North African Romans and Ethiopian philosophers and clerics, and the lately recovered Timbuktu manuscripts from their repositories in the desert sands of Mali. The Transatlantic slave experience gave rise to the slave narratives and abolitionist literature from both sides of the Atlantic, which remained predominant right up to the 20th century. Post-Emancipation under colonial rule and white domination, Black poetry and prose emerged, adhering to prevailing standards, evidenced typically in the work of Phillis Wheatley and the sonnets of Claude McKay. With the Civil Rights and Black Power movements would come iconoclastic expressions of protest and identity.There is a sizeable body of literature by Black authors from Africa and the diaspora who speak to universal values and eternal verities. This anthology of their work focuses on the inner life, on personal development and self-actualization. 3000 quotations have been selected to inspire, enlighten and encourage; they have been arranged in 200 psycho-spiritual categories and in chronological order. The resulting time-line of thought in itself is useful and instructive as it demonstrates very clearly the evolution of consciousness evident in the contemporary thinking on particular subjects.Like its predecessor, Wisdom for the Soul: Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing, this volume contains a full biographical index and bibliographical references. Much of the material is anthologized here for the first time.

Larry Chang is a life counselor and teacher of I-sight, a synthesis of the perennial philosophy, the dharma and transpersonal psychology. He has collected and uses many quotations in his work, which he shares in this and a previous anthology, Wisdom for the Soul: Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing. Roderick Terry is an attorney, author and photographer, currently resident in Washington, D.C. His previous publications are Brother’s Keeper: Words of Inspiration for African-American Men and One Million Strong: A Photographic Tribute of the Million Man March.