For African Americans who have experienced the trauma of colonization, displacement, enslavement, and race-based violence, lament has long been a form of cultural expression that creates space to process these experiences. Lament and Justice in African American History: By the Rivers of Babylon explores the theme of lament in African American history from a theological perspective. In part one of this edited volume, scholars examine historical examples of African Americans’ use of lament a...

For many, the struggle over civil rights was not just about lunch counters, waiting rooms, or even access to the vote; it was also about Christian theology. Since both activists and segregationists ardently claimed that God was on their side, racial issues were imbued with religious meanings from all sides. Whether in the traditional sanctuaries of the major white Protestant denominations, in the mass meetings in black churches, or in Christian expressions of interracialism, southerners re...