![]() Born in Africa and kidnapped into slavery, Johnson bought his freedom and that of his wife Mary and eventually became a slaveowner. One chapter tells the story of Anthony Johnson, a Black Catholic in Virginia. What better analogy for the individual people, countries and cultures brought together in the body of Christ than a choir, brought together in glorifying song? Themes of death and rebirth, struggle and solidarity, community and diversity are part of the history of Black America, just as in the history of the Catholic Church.įaith is a consistent anchor point throughout Black American history, and Black Catholics are not absent from Four Hundred Souls. Their voices are a choir, the poems rising like solos, a hymn to Black American life.Ĭatholics should find the universality of the work familiar. We read about Black American history from a group as diverse and unique as our ancestors themselves. ![]() ![]() ![]() Eighty Black writers and 10 Black poets participated in the venture, with each writer covering a specific five years in history and poems punctuating each of the 10 sections of the book. ![]()
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