Fortune : how race broke my family and the world--and how to repair it all / Lisa Sharon Harper ; [foreword by Otis Moss III].

Author
Harper, Lisa Sharon [Browse]
Format
Book
Language
English
Published/​Created
Grand Rapids, Michigan : Brazos Press, a division of Baker Publishing Group, [2022]
Description
256 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, genealogical table ; 23 cm

Details

Subject(s)
Writer of foreword
Library of Congress genre(s)
Summary note
  • "Drawing on her lifelong journey to know her family's history, a leading Christian activist recovers the beauty of her heritage, exposes the brokenness that race has wrought in America, and casts a vision for collective repair"-- Provided by publisher.
  • "Drawing on her lifelong journey to know her family's history, leading Christian activist Lisa Sharon Harper recovers the beauty of her heritage, exposes the brokenness that race has wrought in America, and casts a vision for collective repair. Harper has spent three decades researching ten generations of her family history through DNA research, oral histories, interviews, and genealogy. Fortune, the name of Harper's first nonindigenous ancestor born on American soil, bore the brunt of the nation's first race, gender, and citizenship laws. As Harper traces her family's story through succeeding generations, she shows how American ideas, customs, and laws robbed her ancestors--and the ancestors of so many others--of their humanity and flourishing. Fortune helps readers understand how America was built upon systems and structures that blessed some and cursed others, allowing Americans of European descent to benefit from the colonization, genocide, enslavement, rape, and exploitation of people of color. As Harper lights a path through national and religious history, she clarifies exactly how and when the world broke and shows the way to redemption for us all. The book culminates with a powerful and compelling vision of truth telling, reparation, and forgiveness that leads to Beloved Community. It includes a foreword by Otis Moss III, illustrations, and a glossy eight-page black-and-white insert featuring photos of Harper's family." -- Amazon.com.
Bibliographic references
Includes bibliographical references (pages 236-248) and index.
Contents
  • Part one: The roots. Fortune: how race became law
  • The Lawrences: fragmented identity
  • Lea: slavery and oblivion
  • Part two: Degradation and resistance. Lizzie: like dust
  • Reinaldo y Anita: bomba
  • Sharon: rebellion
  • Lisa: light
  • Part three: Repair. Truth-telling as reckoning
  • Reparation as repentance
  • Forgiveness and the beloved community.
ISBN
  • 9781587435270 ((hardcover))
  • 1587435276 ((hardcover))
LCCN
2021033221
OCLC
1260340466
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