Walter R. Strickland II Archives

Cover image of "Swing Low, Volume 2), General Editor: Walter R. Strickland II

Swing Low, Volume 2: An Anthology of Black Christianity in the United States, General Editor, Walter R. Strickland II, Associate Editors, Justin D. Clark, Yana Jenay Conner, and Courtlandt K. Perkins. IVP Academic (ISBN: 9781514004227) 2024.

Summary: An anthology of primary source writings on Black Christianity in America from the 1600’s to the present.

Last month I reviewed a new history of Black Christianity in the United States by Walter R. Strickland II (review at https://bobonbooks.com/2025/07/02/review-swing-low-volume-1/). So, this volume is a companion to that work, providing an anthology of readings to complement the historical narrative of the first volume. In other words, if you’ve studied history, you understand how important primary sources are. Therefore, this collection is a treasure trove, both for what is represented here and the more extensive sources to which they point.

For example, here are some of the readings included:

Frederick Douglass, “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?”
Richard Allen “The Life, Experience, and Gospel Labours of the R. Rev. Richard Allen…”
Francis Grimke, “Christianity and Race Prejudice”
Charles Octavius Boothe “Plain Theology for Plain People”
Martin Luther King, Jr., “Our God is Able”
Howard Thurman, “Jesus and the Disinherited”
Fannie Lou Hamer, “To Praise Our Bridges: An Autobiography”
Tom Skinner, “Black and Free”
William E. Pannell, “My Friend, the Enemy”
James Cone, “A Black Theology of Liberation”
Samuel Proctor, “Samuel Proctor: My Moral Odyssey”

Like other anthologies, many of the readings are excerpts of key passages of longer works. In addition, each of the selections includes a brief biography of the author and the context in which it was written as well as the original source of the reading.

Moreover, the anthology follows the organization of Volume One, the history, in two ways. Firstly, the anthology annotates the readings with symbols for the five theological anchors Strickland elucidates in the first volume:

Anchor 1: Big God
Anchor 2: Jesus
Anchor 3: Conversion and Walking in the Spirit
Anchor 4: The Good Book
Anchor 5: Deliverance

Secondly, the sections follow the historical periods of volume one, making it well-suited for use as a companion volume in courses on Black Christianity. These sections are:

Pre-emancipation: 1619-1865
Reconstruction and Its Aftermath: 1865-1896
Civil Rights Era 1896-1968
Black Evangelicalism: 1963 and Beyond
Black Theology: 1969 and Beyond
Into the Twenty-First Century

Finally, the readings in each section are divided into four categories:

Sermons and Oratory
Theological Treatises
Worship and Liturgy
Personal Correspondence and Autobiography

I especially appreciated the Worship and Liturgy selections which included early spirituals like “Go Down Moses” and “Oh! Peter Go Ring Dem Bells,” Civil Rights protest songs like “We Shall Overcome.” and contemporary hip hop like Sho Baraka’s “Maybe Both, 1865.”

In conclusion, this volume is the ideal complement to the history of volume one. Not only that, the readings allow us to listen to Black Christians in their own words. In particular, I found both great comfort in the faith of these believers and great challenge as they spoke of the sins of slavery and racism. For example, consider this excerpt from William E. Pannell’s “My Friend, The Enemy”, from 1968:

“No, this man is a friend. He’s against the KKK, abhors violence, supports the Constitution and is for Negro voting rights. We read the same version, believe the same doctrines, probably have the same middle class tastes, but all he knows about me–or cares to know–is what he sees on the 6 o’clock news.… I wear a suit as good as his, yet he sees me looting a clothing store in Watts. He knows something of my temperament as its mirrored in the behavior of my sons, yet he identifies me with the muggings in Washington or Buffalo. To him, the cause of brotherhood, the disintegration of human relations–civil rights!–is my problem. Mine, because I created it and I perpetuate it.”

Certainly, it does not take a great deal of imagination to draw parallels to our own day. For this reason, this anthology is so valuable. Because the writers are believing Christians who speak biblically into their situation, they offer us a chance to shed our blinders. But will we?

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Cover image of "Swing Low, Volume 1" by Walter R. Strickland II

Swing Low, Volume 1: A History of Black Christianity in the United States, Walter R. Strickland II. IVP Academic (ISBN: 9781514009369) 2024.

Summary: A history of African-American Christianity tracing stories of social uplift and the lives of faithful Black Christians.

A number of writers and scholars have written about African-American history. The Black church has always played an important part in that history as a source of comfort and hope during slavery and reconstruction, a center of community and cultural life, and a pivotal place of resistance and social uplift.

This new history by Walter R. Strickland II goes deeper in two ways. Along with others, he traces a historical narrative from 1620 up to the present. Distinctive among narratives, he introduces us to numerous faithful Christians in each period of this history. Furthermore, he argues for five theological commitments which he terms “Anchors” that he traces through the historical narrative. They are:

Anchor 1: Big God
Anchor 2: Jesus
Anchor 3: Conversion and Walking in the Spirit
Anchor 4: The Good Book
Anchor 5: Deliverance

The Anchors are not theological abstractions. Instead, Strickland shows the outworking in praxis of the anchors throughout his history.

The first four chapters show the early spread and adaptation of Christianity among African-Americans. One noteworthy contribution of this history is to establish that there were Christians among the Africans imported to the United States. Slavery didn’t introduce Christianity to Africans! Strickland then traces the spread of Christianity through American revivals, the distortion of slave-master faith, and the move from Blacks in White churches to their own, sometimes illegal, gatherings. At this time, the church was an ‘invisible institution,” albeit one with its own distinctive worship practices, such as the “ring shout.”

Chapters Five and Six trace the emergence of Black churches following Emancipation and how it became the central institution in Black communities. This includes educational opportunities and it was during this period when many of the great Black colleges got their start.

Chapters Seven to Nine cover the period from the rise of Jim Crow through the beginning of the Civil Rights movement. Jim Crow led to the Great Migration north and west. Strickland traces the new church bodies formed during this period including distinctive churches like Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church, which played a formative role in Bonhoeffer’s faith. He also features figures liker W.E.B. DuBois and Ida B. Wells and their influence in the beginnings of the NAACP. Then Chapter 8 focuses on Black Pentecostalism and Black Fundamentalism. For example, we are reminded that William Seymour, a catalytic preacher and Black was at the heart of the Azusa Street revival, marking the beginning of American Pentecostalism. Chapter Nine traces the intellectual beginnings from Mordecai Wyatt Johnson through Howard Thurman and Martin Luther King, Jr. Along with these leaders, we learn of the foot soldiers engage in non-violent direct action.

Strickland pauses his narrative at this point to consider the rise of Black consciousness and the two distinctive responses to it within Black Christianity. One was Black evangelicalism, which is then elaborated in Chapters Ten through Twelve, including key figures like Tom Skinner and efforts at racial reconciliation through parachurch ministries. The other was Black liberationism, discussed in Chapters Thirteen and Fourteen. He concludes with a short account of twenty-first century developments, ending more hopefully than I might have.

I think the “Anchors” play a key role in his optimism. Amid the challenges of slavery, Jim Crow, and persistent racism, he traces persisting belief in a big God, a saving Jesus, a Good Book that relevantly speaks, a transforming Spirit, and the promise of deliverance. Strickland concludes with the words of an old spiritual. “There is a balm in Gilead.”

I so appreciated the profiles of so many key leaders, organizations, and movements during this history. A number were familiar but many were new. I began reading this book on Juneteenth. It indeed emancipated my understanding of African-American Christianity. And I discovered there is more. Volume Two features primary source readings from sermons to contemporary podcast transcripts. Look for my review of that volume later this summer!

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

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