cover image Coming Through the Fire-CL

Coming Through the Fire-CL

C. Eric Lincoln, C. Ericlincoln, Lincoln. Duke University Press, $27.95 (168pp) ISBN 978-0-8223-1736-4

Noted scholar Lincoln (The Black Church in the African-American Experience) mixes reminiscence with commentary in a textured, wise meditation on race. He learned lifelong lessons in Jim Crow Alabama, beaten at 13 by a white cotton gin owner. He reflects on his stimulating high school education, thanks to Yankee schoolmarms and how W. J. Cash's famous The Mind of the South insultingly left out black folk. He attempts to untangle the tensions between blacks and Jews and muses on the evolution of the black church and group identity. Lincoln warns that black violence is part of historical American violence; only a reclamation of values and a recognition of Americans' joint future will solve our racial dilemmas. Some of his prescription may be vague, but he also includes savvy advice, suggesting that transracial adoption offers the chance to ""start undoing the racial mischief at its source."" (Apr.)