Conversations with God: Two Centuries of Prayers by African Americans

Conversations with God – now in its twentieth anniversary edition – is a collection of prayers by African Americans that, as author James Washington states, “reflect the central crisis out of which and to which these prayers come.” This book covers two centuries of African American history – from slavery, emancipation, and reconstruction to Jim Crow, the Civil Rights Movement, and the postmodern African American world of the 1980s and 1990s.

James Washington’s epic anthology includes a wide range of contributors who include musicians, writers, spiritual leaders, community organizers, scholars, educators, abolitionists, and most importantly, fugitive slaves. While each visceral prayer varies one from the other depending on the circumstances and time periods, they are joined together by one common thread: a heartfelt cry for freedom and justice from a people whose generational history has been (and continues to be) marred by racial persecution. Although Washington did not live to see the reprinting of his project, this collection would not have come to fruition if it were not for the painstaking archival research that he embraced as a work of love. Unquestionably, Conversations with God is a must read by all, both at home and in the classroom.