Eight Habits of the Heart: Embracing the Values that Build Strong Families and Communities (African American History (Penguin))

The acclaimed speaker and author of Once Upon a Time We Were Colored shares his timeless "front porch wisdom" of his youth

"A beautiful and gentle book... a healing work."—Jonathan Kozol, New York Times bestselling author

Clifton L. Taulbert is renowned for his poignant memoirs about growing up in the segregated South and for his lectures and programs in schools, businesses, and communities throughout the world. In Eight Habits of the Heart, this inspiring handbook, filled with moving stories and memorable lessons, he lays out eight basic principles he learned from his elders: a nurturing attitude, dependability, responsibility, friendship, brotherhood, high expectations, courage, and hope.

With exercises for reflection and practice, Taulbert shows how the Eight Habits of the Heart can be utilized today to help strengthen relationships, families, and communities everywhere. Here is a refreshing and meaningful guide to the spiritual core we, as a society, always seem to be seeking.

Clifton Taulbert is the author of three memoirs: Once Upon A Time When We Were Colored, the basis for the critically acclaimed feature film by the same name; The Last Train North, Watching Our Crops Come In, and most recently, Little Cliff and the Porch People. He was the recipient of the 27th annual NAACP Image Award for Literature, and was also one of the first African-American writers to win the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award for Nonfiction.

Time magazine named him one of America's outstanding black entrepreneurs. He is an acclaimed speaker who lectures around the world to schools, educators, businesses, and professional groups on the subject of the Eight Habits of the Heart.