Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview: #1 The Christian denomination I grew up in, the Southern Baptist Convention, was founded on the idea that slavery could coexist with Christianity. While northern white Christians were against slavery, they rarely showed any support for black equality. #2 I am the CEO and founder of Public Religion Research Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that conducts...

This book is the first anthology to focus on nature writing by African American poets, a genre that until now has not commonly been counted as one in which African American poets have participated. Black poets have a long tradition of incorporating treatments of the natural world into their work, but it is often read as political, historical, or protest poetry, anything but nature poetry. This is particularly true when the definition of what constitutes...