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    Standing in the Need of Prayer: A Celebration of Black Prayer
    Standing in the Need of Prayer: A Celebration of Black Prayer
    Standing in the Need of Prayer: A Celebration of Black Prayer
    Ebook294 pages1 hour

    Standing in the Need of Prayer: A Celebration of Black Prayer

    By Schomburg Ctr for Resrch in Black Cultur and Coretta Scott King

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    About this ebook

    Striking photographs and powerful prayers drawn from the collections of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture span the broad spectrum of black religious traditions through the ages.

    From the darkest days on slave ships to the defiant times of the Civil Rights Movement, prayer has embodied the most intense expression of African and African-American spirituality. As Mrs. Coretta Scott King writes in her foreword to Standing in the Need of Prayer, "It is said that every prayer is heard and every prayer is answered in some way [and] I still believe that the millions of prayers spoken by African Americans from the Middle Passage on down to today have been heard by a righteous and loving God." This extraordinary volume reflects the struggle, despair, determination, and triumph of the black experience during the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries. Drawing from faiths as diverse as Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and Vodou, the book also includes prayers from some of history's most powerful voices, among them Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, and Martin Luther King, Jr.

    At once beautiful and evocative, Standing in the Need of Prayer captures the most varied, striking, and powerful photographic and poetic expressions of prayer in a joyous celebration of the rich spiritual roots of a courageous people whose incredible spiritual journey will inspire generations to come.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherFree Press
    Release dateJun 30, 2008
    ISBN9780743253673
    Standing in the Need of Prayer: A Celebration of Black Prayer

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      Book preview

      Standing in the Need of Prayer - Schomburg Ctr for Resrch in Black Cultur

      FREE PRESS

      A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

      1230 Avenue of the Americas

      New York, NY 10020

      www.SimonandSchuster.com

      Copyright © 2003 by The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations

      All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

      FREE PRESS and colophon are trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

      For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales: 1-800-456-6798 or business@simonandschuster.com

      Designed by Joel Avirom and Jason Snyder

      Manufactured in Hong Kong

      10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Standing in the need of prayer : a celebration of Black prayer / by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the New York Public Library ; foreword by Coretta Scott King.

      p. cm.

      Includes index.

      1. African Americans—Prayer-books and devotions—English. I. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

      BL625.2.S73 2003

      291.4 33 08996073—dc21

      2003051618

      ISBN: 0-7432-3466-9

      eISBN-13: 978-0-7432-5367-3

      ISBN-13: 978-0-7432-3466-5

      http://www.Simonspeakers.com

      The names The New York Public Library and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture appearing in this work are registered marks and the property of The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.

      Foreword, pages ix-xiii, copyright Mrs. Coretta Scott King. Permission granted by Intellectual Properties Management, Atlanta, Georgia, Manager of the Estate of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

      TO THE ANCESTORS, WHOSE PRAYERS AND STRUGGLES CREATED OUR ROAD TO VICTORY.

      God of our weary years,

      God of our silent tears,

      Thou who hast brought us thus far on the way;

      Thou who hast by thy might,

      Led us into the light,

      Keep us forever in the path, we pray.

      —JAMES WELDON JOHNSON

      Ain’t my brother or my sister

      but it’s me, oh, Lord,

      Standing in the need of prayer.

      Ain’t my brother or my sister

      but its me, oh, Lord,

      Standing in the need of prayer.

      It’s me, it’s me, oh, Lord,

      Standing in the need of prayer.

      It’s me, it’s me, oh, Lord,

      Standing in the need of prayer.

      —AFRICAN-AMERICAN SPIRITUAL

      FOREWORD

      Coretta Scott King

      Throughout the epic freedom struggle of African Americans, our great sustainer of hope has been the power of prayer. We prayed for deliverance in a dozen African languages, chained to the holds of slave ships, on the auction block, in the fields of oppression, and under the lash. We prayed when we followed the drinking gourd on the Underground Railroad. We prayed when our families were torn asunder by the slave traders. We prayed when our homes and churches were burned and bombed and when our people were lynched by racist mobs. So many times it seemed our prayers went unanswered, but we kept faith that one day our unearned suffering would prove to be redemptive.

      This remarkable collection of prayers, accompanied by moving illustrations, includes many of the most poignant prayers uttered throughout the African diaspora and down through the centuries. It includes the spiritual Precious Lord, Take My Hand, a favorite of my husband, Martin Luther King, Jr. The prayers in these pages come from gospel lyrics and popular song, literature and poetry, and sacred scriptures. There are prayers from myriad traditions, including Haitian Vodou, Buddhism, Yoruba, and Islam, as well as Christianity. And then there are the marvelous photographs of people praying in their homes; in churches, mosques, and temples; in prison and outdoor meetings. There is even a photo of my husband leading a Christian prayer at our dinner table, under a portrait of one of his mentors, Mohandas K. Gandhi, a Hindu.

      As a young child growing up in Marion, Alabama, I remember my pastor at Mt. Tabor Church responding to the racial abuse of one of our congregation by saying, God loves us all, and people will reap what they sow…. So just keep on praying. Don’t worry. God will straighten things out. I believed he was right then, and I believe it still.

      My parents made sure that prayer would be a regular part of my life, and it has been to this very day. Prayer is how we open our hearts to God, how we make that vital connection that empowers us to overcome overwhelming obstacles and become instruments of God’s will. And despite the pain and suffering that I have experienced and that comes to all of our lives, I am more convinced than ever before that prayer gives us strength and hope, a sense of divine companionship, as we struggle for justice and righteousness.

      Prayer was a wellspring of strength and inspiration during the Civil Rights Movement. Throughout the movement, we prayed for greater human understanding. We prayed for the safety of our compatriots in the freedom struggle. We prayed for victory in our nonviolent protests, for brotherhood and sisterhood among people of all races, for reconciliation and the fulfillment of the Beloved Community.

      For my husband, Martin Luther King, Jr., prayer was a daily source of courage and strength that gave him the ability to carry on in even the darkest hours of our struggle. I remember one very difficult day when he came home bone-weary from the stress that came with his leadership of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. In the middle of that night, he was awakened by a threatening and abusive phone call, one of many we received throughout the movement. On this particular occasion, however, Martin had had enough.

      After the call, he got up from bed and made himself some coffee. He began to worry about his family, and all of the burdens that came

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