African American Religious Leaders

July 1, 2008
Gr 5 Up-Following an excellent introduction describing conditions under which African Americans lived during different time periods, Haskins and Benson present mini-biographies of religious leaders. The book is divided into five chronological sections, beginning with Absalom Jones and Richard Allen, both born into slavery in the Revolutionary Era, and concluding with Al Sharpton, Renita J. Weems, and T. D. Jakes. On average, each section introduces five people, giving information about their lives and their growing involvement with the church/religion. The profiles are three to six pages long, and the writing style is clear and engaging. Of the 27 leaders included, four are women. Several more individuals are briefly mentioned in separate text boxes. The emergence of the Black Church as a separate religious establishment is also documented through these chronologically arranged profiles. Black-and-white photos and reproductions appear throughout, and source notes are appended. This title illuminates the ongoing importance of the Black Church in the African-American community, not only spiritually, but also politically and socially, and highlights the mobilizing and empowering influence of this institution."Mary N. Oluonye, Shaker Heights Public Library, OH"

Copyright 2008 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2008
The late Haskins wrote several other books in the Black Stars series, including ones about military leaders and entrepreneurs. Here, he and Benson look at more than 30 religious leaders who helped shape black spirituality in this country from its earliest days to the present. Some, like Absalom Jones and Peter Williams, a founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, began life as slaves. Other subjects of the biographies, each about a page long, are well known, such as Sojourner Truth, Nat Turner, and, of course, Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. More modern subjects include the controversial Al Sharpton and popular author T. D. Jakes. With its staid format (and one picture per bio), this isnt a book kids will read all the way through, and the amount of information, though interesting, is only enough for the shortest of reports. But its great to have all these figures between two covers, and even a sampling of the entries captures the importance of religion, and its leaders, in African American life.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)