Conversations with God: Two Centuries of Prayers by African Americans

In celebration of its twentieth anniversary, the classic collection of the most poignant and profound African-American prayers, redesigned and repackaged in a beautiful keepsake leather-bound edition with a stitched-in ribbon bookmark.

A profound reflection of the spirit spanning 235 years of African-American faith—from the beginnings of slavery through Reconstruction and the Civil Rights movement to today—Conversations with God brings together words of suffering, of hope, of love, of commitment, of the strength of God to heal and to lift us up.

Collected from the letters and writings of common men as well as the works of prominent literary figures—W.E.B. Du Bois, Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, and Alice Walker—these warm and earnest prayers provide a glimpse into the struggles and strengths of people throughout history, and their passionate belief in the comforting and transformative power of faith.

James Melvin Washington, Ph.D. was Professor of Church History at Union Theological Seminary and Adjunct Professor of Religion at Columbia University. He is the editor of A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings of Martin Luther King, Jr. and I Have a Dream: Writings and Speeches That Changed the World, and the author of Frustrated Fellowship: The Black Baptist Quest for Social Power.