Books
Faith After Ferguson
NEW BOOK!
Five years after the events that led to the Ferguson, Missouri, uprising, Ferguson and Faith author Leah Gunning Francis reconnects with the faith leaders who took to the streets to protest the police shooting of an unarmed 17- year-old black man and the racially tinged events in St. Louis and across the United States. In Faith After Ferguson, Francis weaves these first-person accounts with her own journey of activism in hopes of encouraging the reader to consider racial justice not just as an intellectual exercise, but to be awakened to the multiplicity of ways that racism shows up in the world and be inspired to act. Francis also reflects on the traumatic impact of the four years under the Trump administration, and the more recent events of racism and white supremacy in the killing of George Floyd, the presidential election, and the Capitol riots in early January 2021.
“I deeply appreciate the fresh, engaging ways in which Leah Gunning Francis calls us to regain a taste for racial justice and consider how to move from what is to what ought to be."
– Michael B. Curry, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church and author of Love is the Way
“This book is a cry in the desert for a justice that is too long in coming.”
-Kerry Connelly, author of Good White Racist?
“An essential text for all who seek in earnest to help bend the moral arc of the universe towards justice.”
– Michael W. Waters, pastor, author, and activist
“Leah Gunning Francis has written that rare book that is at once prophetic, pastoral and powerful. “
- Philip Gulley, Quaker pastor and author of If the Church Were Christian
Ferguson & Faith
Leah Gunning Francis was among the activists, and her interviews with more than two dozen faith leaders and with the movement’s new organizerstake us behind the scenes of the movement for racial justice.
The shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, re-ignited a long-smoldering movement for justice, with many St. Louis area clergy stepping up to support the emerging young leaders of today’s Civil Rights Movement. Dr. Leah Gunning Francis was among the activists, and her interviews with more than two dozen faith leaders and with the movement’s new organizers take us behind the scenes of the continuing protests. Ferguson and Faith demonstrates that being called to lead a faithful life can take us to places we never expected to go, with people who never expected us to join hands with them.
“This book is a powerful collection of stories of clergy and young activists who were visible and vocal in the struggle for racial justice in Ferguson. They embodied the best of the human spirit that resonated with many around the globe and challenged this nation to live up to its ideal of liberty and justice for all.”
— U.S. Representative Emanuel Cleaver, D. Missouri
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“Dr. Gunning Francis paints a compelling picture of theology in action as people of faith joined together not only to express their outrage but ultimately in the hopes of confronting and transforming racism in America.”
— Dr. Joyce Mercer, Yale Divinity School
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“This is a very important book. Leah Gunning Francis has penned a theological memoir of a movement. It is an invitation to see the spirituality at the heart of this movement…One of the most important things this book does is celebrate a new generation of activists and faith-rooted organizers, without forgetting the freedom fighters of old.”
—Shane Claiborne, Author, Speaker, Activist
“This book is required reading for clergypersons serving in congregations and social agencies regardless of their social location as well as required reading for students preparing for leadership in faith-based communities. Lastly, this book is essential reading for all those seeking to weave together a spiritual, political, and social life that is sacred and consistent with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
—Dr. Evelyn Parker, Perkins School of Theology