February 12, 2026 · 11:29 am

Christianity, African American Intellectual History and Scholarship

Christianity, African American Intellectual History & Scholarship

“No doubt the beggar’s joy was not true joy; but it was a great deal truer than the joy which I, with my ambition, was seeking. And undoubtedly he was happy while I was worried; he was carefree while I was full of fears. And if I were asked which I would prefer, to be merry or to be frightened, I should reply, ‘to be merry.’ But if I were asked next whether I would prefer to be a man like the beggar or a man like I then was myself, I should choose to be myself, worn out as I was with my cares and my fears. Was not this absurd? Was there any good reason for making such a choice? For I had no right to put myself in front of the beggar on the grounds that I was more learned than he, since I got no joy out of my learning. Instead I used it to give pleasure to men—not teach them, only to please them.” —St. Augustine, The Confessions of Saint Augustine, Book VI, Ch. VII

Mark Noll’s (1994) The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind argues, in relation to the larger European American evangelical tradition, that the “scandal” of the evangelical community is the lack of attention paid to its rich intellectual heritage in the Protestant tradition. In explaining his sense of intellectual tradition, Noll writes, “By an evangelical ‘life of the mind’ I mean the effort to think like a Christian—to think within a specifically Christian framework—across the whole spectrum of modern learning, including economics and political science, literary criticism and imaginative writing, historical inquiry and philosophical studies, linguistics and the history of science, social theory and the arts…failure to exercise the mind for Christ in these areas has become acute in the twentieth century. That failure is the scandal of the evangelical mind.”[1]

Noll’s definition has strong reverberations when contextualized within an African American intellectual tradition. Historically, African American intellectuals and scholars have viewed the academic “scandal” facing the paucity of serious African American intellectual and scholastic thought in terms of a “crisis.” Since Harold Cruse’s (1967) The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual, African American intellectuals such as Nathan Hare, bell hooks, Cornel West, Hortense Spillers, and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. have responded directly or indirectly to Cruse’s despondency about African American intellectual culture. The most notable of these respondents was Cornel West. In prophetic fashion, West may have been “the voice of one crying in the wilderness,” preparing the way and making straight paths for revitalizing African American intellectual and scholarly life in the 21st century.

To be sure, West’s intellectual positioning with regard to African American intellectual and scholarly life did not amount to overbearing advocacy or espousal of Christianity, but it did represent the kind of clearing of the land or demolition that is necessary before either erecting or reconstructing African American intellectual thought and scholarship. For West, the state of African American intellectual and academic life is not a “crisis” but a “dilemma”—a quandary that has no solution among available alternatives.

In his essay, “The Dilemma of the Black Intellectual,” West outlines and discusses four distinct frameworks for literate African American intellectual activity that may be capitalized upon in future work.[2] What is most compelling about West’s essay is what he does not suggest. Prior to discussing these four models of historical African American intellectual production, West suggests “that there are two organic intellectual traditions in African American life: the black Christian tradition of preaching and the black musical tradition of performance…Both [oral] traditions are rooted in black life.”[3] And in concluding his essay, West remarks that the expansion of literate black intellectual activity:

“…will occur more readily when black intellectuals take a more candid look at themselves, the historical and social forces that shape them, and the limited though significant resources of the community from whence they come. A critical ‘self-inventory’ that scrutinizes the social positions, class locations, and cultural socializations of black intellectuals is imperative… The future of the black intellectual lies neither in a deferential disposition toward the Western parent nor a nostalgic search for the African one. Rather, it resides in a critical negation, wise preservation, and insurgent transformation of this black lineage, which protects the earth and projects a better world.”[4]

Contained within the whole of West’s argument—which tries to project some hope against the plight surrounding present scholastic difficulties in African American scholarship—is a latent framework for merging successful oral African American intellectual history with its less successful descendants of the letter.

What is the most likely point of convergence between the intensely sermonic African American oral tradition and the African American intellectual tradition? Where are the most “significant [historical] resources” that African American scholars may draw upon when studying the African American communal experience in America? What would a “self-inventory” of African American culture reveal about African American intellectual and literate life? What intellectual “lineage” can African American scholars hope to rely upon that has sufficient institutional and communal interplay to promote genuine intellectual exchange between persons within and beyond the academy? Finally, where might this “wise preservation” of a rich and complex intellectual tradition be found that is neither in the Western backdrop of the Gutenberg Press nor in the explicitly oral, dynamic, and pluralistic African Diaspora?

CHRISTIANITY AND AFRICAN AMERICAN INTELLECTUAL HISTORY

African American scholarship should immerse itself in projects that ferret out distinctive Christian components. By revisiting an African American literary ancestry consisting of slave narratives, poetry, political/polemical/abolitionist tracts, novels, speeches, sermons, private journals, letter writing, newspapers, and magazines, scholars might uncover the ways in which African American engagement with Christianity has created a vibrant and sustainable tradition of African American intellectual acumen. Such a task would perhaps resolve the “scandal,” “crisis,” and “dilemma,” which all but ostracize African American scholars from the larger African American community and the predominantly white American academy alike.

Such a task does not fail to recognize the profound and traumatic impacts of America’s historical abuse of Christianity, recorded by African American and European American writers alike. Racism in the European American community and patriarchal abuses in the African American community rightly should be taken into account when assessing a distinct African American intellectual tradition in relationship to its Christian underpinnings. Yet this examination would not simply amount to Black liberationist theology as the only acceptable framework through which to discuss African American engagement with Christianity.

The sort of investigations that I am suggesting are tantamount to a recognition of a living and breathing historical Christianity, which has always been and will ever remain a part of the African American community. In the universal life cycle of births, weddings, and deaths—including renunciations of the plausibility of Providence and the divinity of Jesus Christ—Christianity has always been part of the air that African Americans live, move, and breathe within; as a result, it is virtually impossible to extract African American thought from its deeply imbued Christian framework. To borrow a proverbial phrase, “it’s like taking a fish out of water.”

George Marsden’s groundbreaking effort in The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship—which argues for the acceptance of academically rigorous “faith-informed” perspectives in the academy—also provides an insightful, yet perfunctory, glance into the predicament of aspiring African American scholars who wish to pursue African American academic projects in relation to their Christian dimensions. Marsden writes:

“African Americans, for example, are enthusiastically encouraged to enter the mainstream academy, but the condition typically has been that they do not bring the religious dimensions of their culture into intellectual life. Ever since African Americans began to be permitted to play a role in mainstream academic life, they were also sent the clear message that they must conform to the standards of the mainstream academy concerning religion. No matter how religious they might be, they were not encouraged to think about the implications of their religious beliefs for their intellectual life, unless they were studying in divinity schools.”[5]

(I am sure Marsden would later agree that the invitation in the sixties, in many ways to both the traditional and Christian academy, now carries another caveat: seek and speak “justice” only and explicitly, without also citing the historical hope and exemplars—personages and periods—for overcoming injustice, when the Christian motif understands there is hardly ever any “justice” as seen in its progenitor.)

All the same, Marsden’s account is reason enough for aspiring African American scholars to resist Christian examinations as part of a distinct African American tradition. Far more disturbing is that such sentiment is found in African American thought as well. Significant African American intellectual figures have also held hostile positions about Christianity’s influence in tracing African American intellectual lineage. Richard Wright’s remarks in “Blueprint of Negro Writing” are an example. Wright contends:

It was through the portals of the church that the American Negro first entered the shrine of western culture. Living under slave conditions of life, bereft of his African heritage, the Negroes’ struggle for the religion of the plantations between 1820-1860 assumed the form of a struggle for human rights. It remained a relatively revolutionary struggle until religion began to serve as an antidote for suffering and denial. But even today there are millions of American Negroes whose only sense of a whole universe, whose only relation to society and man, and whose only guide to personal dignity comes through the archaic morphology of Christian salvation.[6]

Even while granting Wright’s premises as fact, the question still remains: How does an intellectual assumption that identifies African American engagement with Christianity as inadequate, illegitimate, embarrassing, and intellectually unworthy of serious engagement reconcile with the overwhelming evidence of African American intellectual reliance upon Christianity? The historical fact remains that the African experience in America, conventionally speaking, does begin in Jamestown in 1619. Jamestown and other similarly situated slave-trading posts, without question, mark the beginning of the African American experience in America.

Certainly, one way of proceeding as an African American scholar is to retreat to an intellectual framework that suggests examining one’s history in light of the drudgery and demeaning nature of slavery produces uninspiring explorations of the earliest literary antecedents.

On the other hand, one could just as easily consider American slavery as an intellectually viable pretext for ingenious African American intellectual activity and countless examinations of fictional and historical efforts that overcame this fixed fate that Wright describes.

Since both Wright and James Baldwin’s denunciations of the fictional—not personal—example of Uncle Tom (Josiah Henson), our scholarship and teaching simply decry, unilaterally, all the wrongs that have been done upon the community from 1619 to the present without examining the periods and personages where African and American Christian engagement produced communal and individual prosperity in spite of prevailing societal conditions. (This would include the veritable stories of historical personages such as Josiah Henson and Booker T. Washington.)

What is most popular now is for African American non-academics to write and be published in both Christian and traditional academic spaces while possessing little to no academic credentials or even familiarity with the academy. One need only hold the political line and decry that the purpose of the black church and Christian engagement is for “justice” above all else, without any imagination for how this might be applied—as applied historically—within its own community. The founding of the American Negro Academy by Alexander Crummell, W.E.B. Du Bois, and others envisioned an African American academy that would not simply argue the wrongs of America but also address how such wrongs might be overcome through the efficacy of Christianity.

No ideological position in the African American community—and, for that matter, in the wider American community—is ever free from the rubric of Christianity. It is the “oversoul” of all of Americana, ever serving as a referent or sounding board from early American Puritanism to contemporary American postmodernism. Similar to F.O. Matthiessen’s suggestion that “one way to understand America’s intellectual history is through Puritan orthodoxy, Unitarianism, and transcendentalism,”[7] if indeed African American scholarship serves a communal purpose by offering a variety of ways for students to theorize, understand, and appropriate an intellectual and literary history, then it becomes increasingly problematic to fail to recognize a fuller, broader (not a single-minded, century-long maelstrom) treatment of Christianity in African American intellectual history as one of many justifiable scholarly approaches, methodologies, and areas of investigation in African American scholarship.

Extensive scholarly investigations of African American intellectual figures such as Booker T. Washington, Phyllis Wheatley, Jupiter Hammon, Zora Neale Hurston, Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune Cookman, Frederick Douglass, Charles Chesnutt, W.E.B. Du Bois, William Wells Brown, Maria W. Stewart, James Baldwin, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, Nat Turner, David Walker, Frances Harper, participants in the American Negro Academy, the Harlem Renaissance, Alexander Crummell, Jean Toomer, James Weldon Johnson, Amiri Baraka, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Harriet Wilson, Margaret Walker, Ernest Gaines, Absalom Jones, Richard Allen, Randall Kenan, Rudolph Fisher, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Nathan Hare, Jesse Jackson, George Washington Carver, Fannie Lou Hamer, among many others—which flesh out the Christian contours of distinctly creative intellectual projects—are crucial for potent scholarly connectivity with students and community members.

In a January 7, 2005 article appearing in The Chronicle of Higher Education, titled “One University Under God,” Stanley Fish recounts a reporter’s desire to “know what would succeed high theory and the triumvirate of race, gender and class as the center of intellectual energy in the academy.” To this Stanley Fish answered “like a shot: religion.”

Beyond Fish’s some 20 plus year prognostication, perhaps in the face of the waning presence of legitimate, organic, and authentic presence in the academy—both secular and Christian—Christianity and African American scholarship answer a most pressing question in the 21st-century American academy: How do we promote authentic, innovative, and representative scholarship among African American scholars and professors that will genuinely invite African American students and community members to participate in shaping 21st-century American thought within both the traditional and Christian academy?

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February 7, 2025 · 9:55 pm

Warner Pacific Restored as Governing Institution by CCCU Council of Christian Colleges and Universities

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August 22, 2024 · 6:09 am

HEART-HEAD-HANDS

“We can fill your heads with knowledge, and we can train your hands to work with skill, but unless all this training of head and hand is based upon high, upright character, upon a true heart, it will amount to nothing. You will be no better off than the most ignorant.”-Booker T. Washington, A Sunday Evening Talk

Presidential Commentary by Dr. Brian Johnson

In this writer’s opinion, “integrity” is the greatest 9-letter word, “knowledge” is the second greatest, and “ignorance” is-by far-the worst and most dangerous. And the founding principal and president of Tuskegee (Institute) University, Booker T. Washington, gives on this Sunday evening talk his oft-repeated conception of “heart-head-hands” to help his students avoid the dread of becoming “no better off than the most ignorant.” One can easily seek the help of professors to develop one’s “head”. (These men and women have as their primary purpose to fill the “heads” of students with “knowledge”.) Likewise, professors are able to help make a student’s “hands”-or their work-“skill”[ful]. (Through repeated instruction and correction a student will either become skillful at their work or they will receive failing grades.) Yet, the matter of the “heart,” Mr. Washington suggests, is one matter where students must begin and complete this work largely alone. (Let no man or woman ever presume to become an expert on the subject of another’s heart.) Of all subject matters, it is the one that is deeply personal and unique to the individual. Whereas both the competencies of the “head” and the credentials of the “hands” lie in full view, the character of the “heart” is always hidden from view. Yet, without it, all else “will amount to nothing.” For Mr. Washington’s complete configuration of Heart-Head-Hands in education is akin to the strength necessary to shoot arrows a great distance even as [the] University has shot forth [its] sons and daughters…into rewarding and meaningful careers of service for over 133 years. The heart is the unseen and invisible strength that determines how far one can bend the bow to make the arrow go.

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February 12, 2026 · 4:18 pm

‘Speaking for the Sake of Speaking’: Booker T. Washington _Up From Slavery_ (1901)

“I believe that one always does himself and his audience an injustice when he speaks merely for the sake of speaking. I do not believe that one should speak unless, deep down in his heart, he feels convinced that he has a message to deliver.” -Booker T. Washington _Up from Slavery_ (1901)

It is a wise and prudent man or woman indeed who does not readily accept-or seek-any and every invitation to speak. Although such restraint is uncommon, Mr. Washington’s recommendation is one that would serve us well to follow. For the best speakers-whether teacher, professor, lecturer or any number of itinerant persons-are those whose words proceed from the works that support them. 

Mr. Washington was known locally, regionally, nationally and globally for his oratorical prowess and was largely regarded as such for the work he was doing at Tuskegee University. And this work was no mere job for the founding Principal and President of Tuskegee University, but his life’s purpose “deep down in his heart.” When he spoke, men and women could feel the force of someone who was not pretentious but purposeful. And he was able to do so because he spoke concerning those things he was doing or had done.

Booker T. Washington did not theorize about how to lead an institution. He led one. He did not simply ask of those within his charge to persevere, endure and overcome. He himself had done these things. He did not simply speak about the “race problem” affecting newly freed and formerly enslaved men and women but was engaged in a work to solve this problem in a manner consistent with his beliefs. And all of these things were visible, tangible and remain so nearly 110 years since his passing (1915-2025). For audiences know easily enough whether one has done or is doing the things that he or she speaks which is why one should avoid the temptation to offer words without corresponding works.

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February 12, 2026 · 10:18 am

Black Leaders Who Inspired the Church: Booker T. Washington, Alexander Crummell and Charles Chesnutt

20 Black Leaders Who Inspired the Church

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February 10, 2026 · 11:27 am

‘His Father’s Farm’: Booker T. Washington, _The Future of the American Negro_ (1899)

“For example, not very long ago I had a conversation with a young coloured man who is a graduate of one of the prominent universities of this country. The father of this man is comparatively ignorant, but by hard work and the exercise of common sense he has become the owner of two thousand acres of land. He owns more than a score of horses, cows, and mules and swine in large numbers, and is considered a prosperous farmer. In college the son of this farmer has studied chemistry, botany, zoölogy, surveying, and political economy. In my conversation I asked this young man how many acres his father cultivated in cotton and how many in corn. With a far-off gaze up into the heavens he answered that he did not know. When I asked him the classification of the soils on his father’s farm, he did not know. He did not know how many horses or cows his father owned nor of what breeds they were, and seemed surprised that he should be asked such questions. It never seemed to have entered his mind that on his father’s farm was the place to make his chemistry, his mathematics, and his literature penetrate and reflect itself in every acre of land, every bushel of corn, every cow, and every pig.”- Booker T. Washington, (1899) The Future of the American Negro

There is perhaps no better example of possessing what many elders refer to as “book sense but no common sense” than what Booker T. Washington describes concerning the young man in the above passage. To be sure, it was an admirable accomplishment for a young man hailing from a destitute background to go on to achieve an education at a “prominent university.” Yet, what the founding principal and president of Tuskegee (Institute) University points out is a rather glaring omission in making his scholarship serviceable to his own father. This young man failed to apply this hard-won knowledge–nor apparently thought to do so–in his own backyard, namely-‘at his own father’s farm’. Serviceable scholarship is that which translates theoretical abstractions of “knowledge” into practical application and dissemination in service to others beyond one’s self or esoteric guild. (Wisdom is but knowledge applied, and the wise man or woman is made wise for others.) And the clear and obvious corollary to Mr. Washington’s description of his encounter with this young man is as follows: the young man had not made his scholarship serviceable to his closest and most intimate constituent group-his farmer father who likely supported his pursuit of education.

More than this, this young man-as do many in both this and past generations-missed the opportunity for he, his father, his community and the surrounding region and nation to benefit from. For “knowledge,” the second greatest 9-letter word, by design, should increase, reproduce and multiply. (Here again, the complete cycle of education is to first learn, apply for one’s self through repeated demonstrations of mastery and then-and only then-proceed to teach others.) This young man had not gone on teaching others at the time of his meeting Mr. Washington for he had not first applied for himself and demonstrated mastery for himself and for his father-his own father who owned a fruitful farm that might have been made more fruitful with the assistance of his son’s proverbial “tree of knowledge.”

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February 10, 2026 · 10:57 am

The Jeremiad: The People, Babylon and Cyrus the Great (Jeremiah 29:10-11)

“10 For thus saith the Lord, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place. 11For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.”Jeremiah 29:10-11

Whereas Jeremiah 29:11 is an oft-quoted scripture heralded to inspire messages of a “future and a hope,”many hearers—and expositors alike—do not consider that such promises to the people proceeded ‘after seventy years’ of suffering. In a similar fashion, the Jeremiad—the complaints, protestations, prophesying, sermons and lamentations of the prophet Jeremiah recorded in the Book of Jeremiah and the Book of Lamentations—were not simply directed towards the Babylonians for its future invasion and subjugation of the people. (It first involved prophecy against his own people.)

For the entirety of the 52 chapters of the Book of Jeremiah was first directed to the wrongs of the people that led to ‘seventy years of [Babylonian] captivity,’ which Jeremiah was prosecuted, persecuted and imprisoned for speaking. (And this came at the hands of the people and false prophets who “healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, peace, peace when there was no peace.” (Jeremiah 6:14). These were also those who comforted the people saying that they should not suffer or be subjugated believing that God was with them in spite of Jeremiah’s declarations, which were proven to be true.)

All the same—then and only then—in his final prophecies against Babylon and its eventual demise at the hands of the Medes and Persians (Darius and Cyrus the Great) was the promise of an “expected end” fulfilled. In prophetic fashion, the people were first required to suffer before they would succeed.

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February 10, 2026 · 7:30 am

‘To be that which he is not’: A Sunday Evening Talk (1909)

“A person never gains anything in real power, in real lasting influence except as he remains always himself, always natural, always simple-and whenever he departs from that attitude, yielding to the temptation to imitate somebody else, of something else, to be that which he is not, in that same degree he loses his influence, he loses his power, and his strength.” – Booker T. Washington, “A Sunday Evening Talk,” January 10, 1909

Presidential Commentary by Dr. Brian Johnson 

Ralph Waldo Emerson suggests in his essay, “The American Scholar,” the following concerning individuals and their originality: “Is it not the chief disgrace in the world…not to yield that peculiar fruit which each man was created to bear [?]” And the founding principal and president of Tuskegee University, Booker T. Washington, reminds students about this all too forgotten principle in one of his Sunday evening talks. Both Washington and Emerson bid students the following: Become more organic to become more fruitful.

Like fruit and trees, individuals come in all sizes and shapes. Moreover, they all serve different purposes. Still further, individuals have been born in different soils of environment, culture, creed and ethnicity for the singular purpose of fulfilling the distinct function they were each designed to fulfill in the earth. Each person is designed “to yield that peculiar fruit which each man [or woman] was created to bear.”

And when a person, like a particular tree that was designed to produce a particular “fruit,” “departs” from its central purpose in life, “in that same degree he loses his influence, he loses his power, and his strength.” Any student, like any fruit-bearing tree, that is not developed or cultivated to produce that which he or she alone can produce cannot fulfill their “purpose” and tap into the requisite “passion” to succeed in their given career or still better “calling.” (Careers fill pockets; Callings fulfill people; Careers linked to Callings fulfill great purposes for people.)

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February 10, 2026 · 3:33 am

‘After I got so that I could read a little’: Booker T. Washington, _My Larger Education_ (1901)

“After I got so that I could read a little, I used to take a great deal of satisfaction in the lives of men who had risen by their own efforts from poverty to success. It is a great thing for a boy to be able to read books of that kind. It not only inspires him with the desire to do something and make something of his life, but it teaches him that success depends upon his ability to do something useful, to perform some kind of service that the world wants.” – Booker T. Washington, My Larger Education (1901)

Presidential Commentary by Dr. Brian Johnson 

The great scholar, literary critic and ‘Narnia’ chronicler, C. S. Lewis, remarks about the value of books upon a young boy or girl’s imagination: “Since it is so likely that (children) will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage. Otherwise you are making their destiny not brighter but darker.” Here again, what one consistently reads, one consistently becomes; Just imagine what one might become when one reads about the lives of great men and women from the time of one’s youth even into one’s mature years. This is what the founding principal and president of Tuskegee (Institute) University recommends, and it is a recommendation that we would do well to not only just follow, but continuously follow.

First, the world needs verifiable, authentic and organic heroes, not simply scripted and crafted ones. Men and women whose lives are grounded in believable and relatable life experiences that one can readily identify with provides great grounds for hope for those who have similar experiences. Second, one can learn from the mistakes made in the lived lives of others. It is simply not true that one must repeat the mistakes of others. (Instead, you read and learn from them.) The triumphant records of men and women that also record both their foibles and follies are useful for persons of any century to learn, discern and comprehend that what happened before may very well happen again.

Third, the lived lives of men and women who are no longer amongst us are permanent, indelible and fixed records that will remain ever unchanged. (One may repeatedly interpret and re-interpret their deeds done but there will be no adding or taking away from them.) And this final thought is one that certainly motivated men and women of the class of Booker T. Washington and should motivate us as well.

For Booker T. Washington knew that one has but one life to live, and there would be no do over. When future chroniclers composed the narrative of his life, he wanted to be certain that it contributed to making someone else’s “destiny brighter” not “darker.” The founding principal and president of Tuskegee (Institute) University did not simply write correspondence, books and speeches worth reading; he lived a life worth reading not only in his generation but also in the many future generations to come.

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February 9, 2026 · 1:36 pm

‘I am engaged in a Mission work…’: Mary McLeod Bethune to Booker T. Washington (1902)

“Honored Sir: I hope a note of this kind may not greatly surprise you, as a man in your sphere must expect such. I am engaged in a Mission work in this town and I greatly desire your interest in it. It is an Interdenominational work therefore has no support. It is a work that is most sadly needed to be done, and it takes great sacrifices to get it in shape. I have rented a room where I gather the poor and neglected children and teach them daily. Aside from this I do general city mission work, the jail work included.

Now I would like to ask you, would you recommend this humble work to some friend asking their assistance? Would you yourself make a donation toward helping us secure an organ for the Mission room? Do you know any friend who would even send a few clothing to be used for the poor? God has wonderfully blessed you and used you and I know He will be pleased to have you lend your influence towards the sustenance of this work. I trust you may consider well before answering. Very Respectfully, (Mrs.) Mary McLeod Bethune.”-“From Mary McLeod Bethune to Booker T. Washington,” Palatka, Florida, November 3, 1902

In this 1902 letter written to Booker T. Washington, Mrs. Mary McLeod Bethune, founder of the now Bethune Cookman University located in Dayton Beach Florida, petitions Mr. Washington for support for her work at her university. (Mr. Washington’s personal correspondence contains many similar requests for support during his tenure when he not only served as principal and president of Tuskegee Institute but also considered by many the leader of the national African American community. His closest rival perhaps being W.E.B. Du Bois before his passing in 1915.)

All the same, while many persons seeking Washington’s assistance—including presidents—were very much concerned with obtaining funds to support their institution or programs in a variety of ways, here is a rare request made by a fellow principal and president to Mr. Washington that sought support for the ‘missional’ work of the institution beyond the institutional community.

Consistent with the founding of Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute for Girls in 1904 and most institutions of the period—particularly HBCUs—Mrs. McLeod Bethune’s missional philosophy encompassed a tangible expression of its faith-based mission in “missional work,” “jail work,” and “teaching” to the “poor and neglected children.” Yet, equally consistent, such work had very little or no “support.” And Mrs. McLeod Bethune’s appeal to Booker T. Washington was made with the hopes that his efforts on behalf of other HBCUs and African American communities similar to the building of the Rosenwald schools throughout the rural South and the Carnegie buildings (libraries) built on several HBCU campuses might be extended to this “mission work.”

Mr. Washington had clearly supported Mrs. McLeod Bethune for he had paid the institution a visit and spoke to a gathering of Presbyterians in March 1912 to support her efforts. Beyond this, Mrs. McLeod Bethune roundly heralded that Tuskegee and Booker T. Washington was the model for the founding of her institution. All the same, there is no recorded response from Washington to this 1902 request and in a similar request made by Mrs. McLeod Bethune made in 1915–the last year of Mr. Washington’s life—he acknowledged not being able to grant the request owing to the “many demands there are upon my personal purse.” In spite of this, we can plausible deduce from their relationship that Mrs. McLeod was certainly someone whose work Booker T. Washington shared a deep and lasting affinity towards in part because of its primary impetus upon reformation efforts directed within the African American community.

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February 8, 2026 · 12:23 pm

The Dinner between Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois (July 6, 1903)

“[To William Edward Burghardt Du Bois] Mr. Booker T. Washington will be pleased to have you take dinner with him at his home, “The Oaks,” at 6:30 o’clock this evening.” – Booker T. Washington, Tuskegee, July 6, 1903

Presidential Commentary by Dr. Brian Johnson

There are a handful of historic dinner-time conversations that the writer of this commentary would ever wish to be transported back in time to listen in upon. And this one between the eminent and distinguished founding principal and president of Tuskegee (Institute) University, Booker T. Washington, and the eminent and distinguished, William Edward Burghardt Du Bois ranks near the very top.

For in 1903, these two men were, arguably, at the very zenith of their spiritual (heart), intellectual (head) and physical (hands) strength. W.E.B. DuBois would have published his signal work, The Souls of Black Folk in this same year, 1903, and Booker T. Washington would only be two years removed from publishing Up From Slavery in 1901. In a little-known, yet most noteworthy moment in the history of both American and African American literary history, they jointly published the book, The Negro In the South (1907) containing 2 essays from himself and 2 other essays from none other than this W.E.B. Du Bois who apparently was teaching a summer course in Tuskegee in 1903. (And this was not their first co-publication. This would be the second book containing these two stalwarts in American and African American educational and intellectual history.)

All the same, one can only imagine the earnestness, frankness and thoughtfulness of their discourse on that evening. (“Depth” and “breadth” is the greatest 5 and 7-letter word combination, and this conversation would have certainly fit this description-completely opposite of a conversation that is flat, flippant and frivolous.) One would be deeply mistaken to assume their ideological differences were so deep-seated that these two men could not come together for dinner and discussion.

One would hardly ever invite someone to dinner who he or she disdains and distrusts. One would not invite them into the confines of one’s home, particularly into one as auspicious as “The Oaks,” and amongst one’s family. These men likely expressed their differences with one another, but they assuredly did so honorably and respectfully in the presence of each other. In the end, one might never learn what the conversation was about.

Yet, the singular invitation to invite one who has commonly been regarded as his chief adversary-possessing equal ability, stature and renown-speaks to the magnanimity of Tuskegee’s Booker T. Washington, who demonstrated one of his oft-quoted maxims: “I let no man drag me down so low as to make me hate him.”

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February 7, 2026 · 5:46 pm

‘I Used To Picture The Way I Would Act’: Booker T. Washington and Cyrus the Great on the Imagination of Youth

” I used to picture the way that I would act under such circumstances; how I would begin at the bottom and keep rising until I reached the highest round of success.” – Booker T. Washington, Up From Slavery (1901)

Presidential Commentary by Dr. Brian Johnson

Robert Hedrick’s translation of Xenophon’s Cyrus The Great: The Arts of Leadership and War captures a rather profound and startling idea about the power of both the mind and imagination in one’s youth. This is particularly evidenced in Mr. Washington’s autobiographical telling of the time spent in his youth thinking of his future. Hedrick translates Cyrus as follows: “I created an empire in my thoughts long before I began to win an empire in reality.”

The founding principal and president of Tuskegee (Institute) University, Booker T. Washington, tells of not having many flesh-and-blood examples of “success” due to both his poverty and enslavement. Yet, while his “hands” might have been bound, his “heart” and his “head” were certainly not.

Though he might have seen but dimly into what his future held, he “used to picture the way [he] would act under such circumstances.” (Note, one can hardly go where one cannot see one’s self beforehand going. And one can hardly do what one cannot see one’s self beforehand doing.) “Vision” is the greatest 6-letter word, and “leader” is the second greatest 6-letter word in this writer’s opinion. And Mr. Washington possessed “vision” enough for himself to see himself as a “leader,” which he later realized for some 34 years at the helm of Tuskegee (Institute) University.

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February 7, 2026 · 5:15 pm

‘Try to form the habit of spending your nights at home.’: A Sunday Evening Talk To Students (Booker T. Washington)

“”Associate yourself with people of good quality. It is better to be alone than in bad company.”-Booker T. Washington

You cannot hope to succeed if you keep bad company. As far as possible try to form the habit of spending your nights at home.” – Booker T. Washington, “A Sunday Evening Talk: On Influencing by Example”

The adage that one is known by the company he or she keeps is an oft-expressed one, but the founding principal and president of Tuskegee University, Booker T. Washington, extends the adage even further both in the aforementioned passage and in another commonly quoted passage: “Associate yourself with people of good quality. It is better to be alone than in bad company.” Moreover, his additional suggestion to “try to form the habit of spending your nights at home” is a very practical one worth noting.

Insofar as it is possible to discern from his autobiography, correspondence, letters, speeches-and more importantly his accomplishments-the man, Booker Washington, apparently did little else but read, write, work and stay at home with his family.

And while it is easy to regard Tuskegee (Institute) University’s founding principal with an overwhelming sense of awe, one can begin to appreciate and understand him in view of his own self-discipline and self-sacrifice. (Everyone suffers but few suffer voluntarily. Yet, if one learns how to suffer, one will learn how to succeed.) One need not be reminded that everyone has the same 24 hours in a day, but how one spends those hours is what ultimately distinguishes men and women.

(One would simply be amazed at how much more time can be committed to a meaningful mission or a purposeful project if time is not spent in (un)meaningful and (un)purposeful ones that do not result in progress.) Clearly, recreation, fun and leisure have their place but not if these things come at the expense of sustainable success.

(Mr. Washington suggests that it is even better when one’s recreation, fun and leisure become part and parcel of one’s work.) For when an individual can transform his or her home into an extension of their workshop, they have the benefit of continuing, doubling and multiplying their labors when others have ceased from theirs.

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February 7, 2026 · 3:38 pm

The Power to Read and Cipher Intelligently: Harvard President Eliot’s Visit to Tuskegee (1906)

“(4) I felt some concern lest at Tuskegee the manual labor side had an excessive development as compared with the mental labor side, or in other words, lest industrial training should unduly impair academic training. Is it not important the graduates of Tuskegee should have acquired not only a trade or an art, but the power to read and cipher intelligently, and a taste for reading? Otherwise the isolated negro farmer or mechanic will not prove to be capable of progress. The world changes so fast nowadays that the man or woman who does not read will be left behind, no what the calling. The academic side of Tuskegee ought there to give all its graduates a competent mental equipment and especially to implant the purpose to improve continually.”-“From Charles W. Eliot to Booker T. Washington,” September 7, 1906

Os Guinness poses the following rhetorical query in his (2022) _The Great Quest: Invitation to the Examined Life and a Sure Path to Meaning_: “Do you agree with Bertrand Russell’s famous dictum that “what science cannot discover, man cannot know”?

Upon Booker T. Washington’s invitation to visit the Tuskegee Institute campus and offer his assessment of the institution, Charles W. Elliot, President of Harvard University, who served for a record-setting 40 years, offered this 4th suggestion amongst five additional ones on how the institution might continuously make improvement beyond its tremendous successes under the administration of Booker T. Washington. (While Elliott and Harvard had honored Booker T. Washington with an honorary degree in 1896, it does not appear that Mr. Washington was present during the visit but he did respond in a letter dated October 20, 1906. A forthcoming commentary will discuss Washington’s response.) Notwithstanding his other recommendations to Washington and Washington’s response, Elliott’s present recommendation is one whereby modern American colleges and institutions have been confronted with: The neglect of the liberal arts.

To be sure, institutions like Tuskegee that experienced tremendous growth through its STEM-related fields ought be commended for they have ensured that they have contributed research, innovation and employment for many students. Moreover, STEM-related fields have contributed to society in far too many ways to be recounted here. All the same, “academic training” in the liberal arts which also contributes to human “progress” ought not be neglected. (This is Mr. Elliott’s reminder to Mr. Washington.)

The ability to “read and cipher intelligently” is the hallmark of a traditional liberal arts education and it is tantamount to STEM-related fields’ knowledge creation. (In fact, it is the “A” that gives “STEAM” to STEM.) It is necessary for the researcher and scientist to consider the impact of their important scientific discoveries and advancing technology upon societal interests. And in incredibly powerful ways, reading, writing and thinking fostered in the liberal arts help to determine whether such advances are consistent with long-held traditions that help determine not only whether to undertake certain scientific and technological advances but whether should we.

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February 7, 2026 · 3:21 pm

TWO LINES OF WORK: Protest AND Reform/Uplift

“I realize fully, and have always said so on every proper occasion, that there are two lines of work to be accomplished. One is in the direction of agitation, calling attention to wrongs and the condemnation of these wrongs. Along with this there should go efforts in the direction of education, moral and religious teaching and helping of the race to strengthen itself in material and financial directions. There is a wide field in all this for every man of the race who wants to give service.”-Booker T. Washington, “To Nicholas Chiles,” November 17, 1906 [Tuskegee, Alabama]

Unlike his very public disagreements with men such as W.E.B. Du Bois and William Monroe Trotter—often through public speeches, competing editorials or tacit subterfuge—Booker T. Washington felt comfortable enough to maintain correspondence with Nicholas Chiles. Though he possessed views, in some cases, similar to both Du Bois and Trotter, Washington writes about Chiles: “I always enjoy writing you because I find you are a man with whom one can discuss matters, and even disagree, without personalities and abuse entering in.” (To be able to disagree with one’s opponents without slander or attempt to harm and injure reputation is something contemporary leaders and followers alike would do well to remember in our age of social media and internet access.)

All the same, in the aforementioned passage, Washington outlines two lines of work that might be defined in more contemporary nomenclature as “protest” and “reform/uplift”.  While the work of Du Bois, Trotter and many contemporary and historical African Americans community leaders exist in the tradition of “agitation,” “calling attention,” and “condemnation,” (and their efforts more heralded, celebrated and popularized) Washington here describes that there are others who are deeply invested in a different work: “education, moral, and religious teaching.” It is clear that work of those who exist in the tradition of a W.E.B. Du Bois is a viable one, but make no mistake, in this letter, he invokes his own work at Tuskegee and others such as Mary McLeod Bethune, founder of Bethune Cookman University, who viewed theirs as equally valuable (and perhaps even moreso.) 

First, the work of both Washington and Bethune remain visible to this very day owing to the institutions they founded. (Though valuable, often the work of protest and agitation has not fashioned long standing institution building in a vein similar to these universities or the economic development African American citizens in Tuskegee, AL , Tulsa, OK or the city of Durham, NC-the latter two affectionately referred to as “Black Wall Street” in their heyday.) Moreso, though this aspect of their religious and faith convictions are often wittingly or unwittingly muted and ignored, Washington and Bethune were persons of deep and abiding faith, and though this has often been dismissed as mere “heavenly preoccupation” and they did their best to walk wisely concerning their views, Washington and Bethune also believed it to have a very pragmatic quality for both here and now (not simply the time to come): the moral and ethical development of the African American community.

(Like Washington and Bethune, there have always been African American leaders with deep and abiding faith, which went above and beyond political expediency and when one views their words and works comparatively and historically there would be much to ascertain concerning the reasons for their triumphs.) Cornel West’s (1994) _Race Matters_ alludes to this historical dynamic thusly: “THERE has not been a time in the history of black people in this country when the quantity of politicians and intellectuals was so great, yet the quality of both groups has been so low.” Whatsoever gains that are to ever be had through the efforts of both of these “lines of work,” the latter had most certainly be involved if it is to be kept, harnessed and continued.

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February 7, 2026 · 2:05 pm

‘Either religion is true or it is not true…learning will make it firmer’: W.E.B. Du Bois, the Church and the University

“The argument that college education makes a man irreligious seems to me mere fol-de-rol (foolish talk). Either religion is true or it is not true; if it is not true, men ought to be irreligious; and if it is true, learning will serve to make it firmer than ever. The Puritans did the best thing for morality and religion, when they backed their church by an institution of learning in my opinion. A religion that won’t stand the application of reason and common sense, is not fit for an intelligent dog. As to the snobbery connected with education, let me say that no thoroughly educated man ever turned up his nose at a fellow human being…When the church ceases to stand for education and morality, it must go. No power could do so much for the education of the colored people of Boston, for preparing them for the duties of citizenship…You have got to come to the point where you will call the man who announces a lecture and gives you fifteen minutes of rambling nonsense, a liar; the church which advertises a concert and gives a fiddle, a thief; a father who doesn’t educate his children, a public enemy; a man who allows a single penny to influence his vote, a traitor;”-“Does Education Pay?” (1891)

In “Does Education Pay?” delivered before the National Colored League in Boston, on March 10, 1891, Du Bois addresses those within the African American community who suggest that education contaminates religion. Resembling Thomas Jefferson’s Enlightenment preoccupation with reason and results more than religious profession in his Notes on the State of Virginia, Du Bois’s speech was far more concerned with what African American churches should do to aid others now instead of in the time to come. However, what is most intriguing about the speech is that in it one discovers that the seeds of Du Bois’s concerns about reform within the African American community were actually sown in his conception of “practical Christian work.”

It appears that the young Du Bois from Great Barrington, MA by way of Fisk University simply possessed a desire to see moral, ethical, intellectual and social dimensions of Christianity actualized within late 19th and early 20th Century African American communities; and he desired this in a manner similar Judge Justin Dewey—Du Bois’s Sunday school teacher at the First Congregational Church in Great Barrington who also adjudicated the infamous Lizzie Borden trials.

Dewey had raised similar concerns about the social contributions of his fellow white Great Barrington citizens while Du Bois was still a congregant. And if this suggestion is correct—that the seeds of Du Bois’s reformation writings were sown in his youthful and naive desire to see African American Christians make Protestant, Puritan even New England Congregational notions of morality and education manifest in their communities-these seeds both germinated and came into fruition through the pragmatism of William James, which he encountered during his undergraduate experience at Harvard.

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February 7, 2026 · 1:20 pm

‘A man who puts his whole soul in the work’: Booker T. Washington to Gilchrist Stewart (1897)

“[To Gilchrist Stewart]…I will tell you in a word what we want in the position that you are now attempting to fill. We want a man who puts his whole soul in the work-who gives it his thought night and day-who can teach the theory of dairying in the class room, and who is not afraid after his teaching to put on his dairy suit and go into the stable and remain with the students while they are milking, and then go into the creamery and take hold in a whole souled way and show the students who to do their work. We want a man who is so much in love with the work that he thinks it is just as important for him to remain with students while they are milking and separating the milk as it is for the academic teacher to remain with his class while they are reciting arithmetic. We want a person whose soul is so deeply in love with his work that it is a pleasure for him to co-operate and obey orders, who looks so closely after every detail of his work that matters will not get so out of order that others will have to be constantly calling his attention to defects and to whom orders will not have to be continually repeated by the farm director or myself. We want one who is continually planning for the improvement and perfection of his work. This is what we want in this position and we can accept nothing less.”-“November 9, 1897,” Booker T. Washington 

Esteemed author and educator, Parker Palmer, writes the following regarding finding one’s purpose and passion in connection with one’s work: “It is not easy work rejoining soul and role.” And the founding principal and president of Tuskegee (Institute) University, Booker T. Washington thoroughly outlines in this letter to Mr. Gilchrist Stewart the kind of employee he sought to assist him in his work at Tuskegee. Mr. Stewart, a remarkable graduate of Tuskegee Institute in his own right, would go on to co-found NFCF-National Federation of Colored Farmers.

Expounding upon his conception of “heart (calling), head (competence) and hands (capable),” Mr. Washington wanted someone to “take hold in a whole souled way,” and “whose soul is deeply in love with his work.”  While Mr. Washington’s passage needs no additional commentary, and one might argue that he offers a 19th century notion of work, we are able to glean two important lessons for the 21st century from his remarks to Mr. Stewart.

First, he wanted someone “who gives [work] his thought night and day.” Now, there are a great many employees whose work ends as soon as the bell rings, yet there are some who give constant thought and deliberation to how their work might be improved and made better.

To be sure, work-life balance dictates prudence in these matters. Notwithstanding, the student, scholar, professor, staff member and administrator who is constantly turning about in their head how to make things better will likely become the person who surpasses those whose work is done at the close of the class period or the business day. (For this man or woman is working while others are talking or sleeping, and when they become successful, it is only a surprise to those who do not know the supreme value of works as opposed to words.)

Second, Mr. Washington wanted someone “who looks so closely after every detail of his work…whom orders will not have to be continually repeated…[and] one who is continually planning for the improvement and perfection of his work.” Herein lies the (3) chief descriptors of any successful man or woman at their craft: 1. They look closely after the details. Contrary to popular opinion, “it does take all of that” to become a man or woman whose work transcends any boundary. Attention to the most minute of details is a characteristic of excellence that is oft-times avoided because it is perceived as additional work 2. They do not need to be told repeatedly what to do. If a supervisor must spend his or her time repeatedly issuing the same instructions and expectations to those within their charge, then they might rightly do the work themselves. On the other hand, if a supervisor can issue a general set of expectations and instructions and never return to the person except when absolutely necessary it enables the supervisor to attend to their own duties and not the duties of others. 3. They are continually planning for improvement and perfection in their work.

Note, one will never arrive at perfection which is precisely why an institution and its employees must be in a constant state of “continuous improvement.” It is a poor employee or organization that rests upon past successes or achievement. The best employees and organizations work constantly to achieve and do more. Success-true success-begets more success and, most importantly, continued success. (Success is the 3rd greatest 7-letter word after “purpose” and “passion.”) Every man or woman wants to work in a culture of success.

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February 7, 2026 · 12:49 pm

Politics

Personal and Private
Dear Sir: I am not active in politics and do not expect to be, and have no claim upon your time or attention. I simply write to assure you that I am doing in a rather quiet way whatever I can in connection with our mutual friend, Mr. Clarkson, to bring about your nomination for the presidency at St. Louis Convention […]. “April 10, 1896,” Booker T. Washington

 Booker T. Washington possessed many detractors who railed against the founding principal and president of Tuskegee (Institute) University for not being “active in politics.” In spite of this, we repeatedly find in his letters and correspondence that he was simply not “active” in the precise manner at the precise time that persons wanted him to be. Such was the case in his communication to William Boyd Allison. Although Mr. Washington was not loud, boisterous nor public in communicating the whole of his ideas and activities, he moved “in a rather quiet way” as demonstrated in this letter marked “personal and private.”

Unlike those without such responsibilities, many leaders of large and vast organizations like Booker T. Washington are not at liberty to publicly communicate all of their opinions or activities directed towards particular ends. Whether in the 19th century where leaders communicated through pen and paper or in the 21st century where men and women communicate via email or social media, you will rarely find the most effective leaders revealing the whole of their minds and the whole of their undertakings upon a matter. (The weightier their position, the weightier their word.)

It is a small and insignificant thing for a person who possesses no public reputation or great authority to offer opinion on highly charged political matters. Yet for a man in Booker T. Washington’s position, every move and word was scrutinized because of the eminence of his role and institution. For some 34 years, he was not simply Booker Washington; He was Booker Washington, principal and president of Tuskegee (Institute) University. As such, prudence dictated that he move “in a rather quiet way” in “politics” and on a great majority of matters for a great majority of his 34 years at the helm of Tuskegee (Institute) University.

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February 7, 2026 · 2:58 am

Heart-Head-Hands

“We can fill your heads with knowledge, and we can train your hands to work with skill, but unless all this training of head and hand is based upon high, upright character, upon a true heart, it will amount to nothing. You will be no better off than the most ignorant.” – Booker T. Washington, A Sunday Evening Talk

Presidential Commentary by Dr. Brian Johnson 

In this writer’s opinion, “integrity” is the greatest 9-letter word, “knowledge” is the second greatest, and “ignorance” is-by far-the worst and most dangerous. And the founding principal and president of Tuskegee (Institute) University, Booker T. Washington, gives on this Sunday evening talk his oft-repeated conception of “heart-head-hands” to help his students avoid the dread of becoming “no better off than the most ignorant.” One can easily seek the help of professors to develop one’s “head”. (These men and women have as their primary purpose to fill the “heads” of students with “knowledge”.) Likewise, professors are able to help make a student’s “hands”-or their work-“skill”[ful]. (Through repeated instruction and correction a student will either become skillful at their work or they will receive failing grades.) Yet, the matter of the “heart,” Mr. Washington suggests, is one matter where students must begin and complete this work largely alone.

(Let no man or woman ever presume to become an expert on the subject of another’s heart.) Of all subject matters, it is the one that is deeply personal and unique to the individual. Whereas both the competencies of the “head” and the credentials of the “hands” lie in full view, the character of the “heart” is always hidden from view. Yet, without it, all else “will amount to nothing.” For Mr. Washington’s complete configuration of Heart-Head-Hands in education is akin to the strength necessary to shoot arrows a great distance even as universities have shot forth theie sons and daughters into rewarding and meaningful careers of service. (The heart is the unseen and invisible strength that determines how far one can bend the bow to make the arrow go. How far one can bend the bow and shoot the arrow tells you precisely what one needs to know.)

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February 6, 2026 · 8:37 am

‘New England, Congregationalist, Protestant and Puritanical Ethics’: W.E.B. Du Bois and Benjamin Franklin

“”I am especially glad that the partial Puritanism of my upbringing has never made me afraid of life […] Perhaps above all I am proud of a straightforward clearness of reason in part a gift of the gods, but also to no little degree due to scientific training and inner discipline…. I have realized that Love is God and Work is His prophet; that His ministers are Age and Death.”-W.E.B. Du Bois, _The Dusk of Dawn_

One of the most famed exemplars of notions of 17th-18th Century New England Congregationalist,Protestant and Puritanical work ethic was Benjamin Franklin. And Franklin bears a conspicuous resemblance to the formation of this facet of W.E.B. Du Bois’s early zeal-like Puritanical reform efforts within the African American community albeit a full century later with Du Bois’s earliest writings appearing in newspapers from 1883-1885.

Though not widely known, in 1956, seven years before Du Bois’s death in Ghana, Africa, the Vienna World Peace Council asked him to write a biographical account of Benjamin Franklin’s life. The biography was to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Franklin’s birth. Among other things, the biography focused on Franklin’s scientific efforts, his hatred of cant and orthodox religion, and his fanatic devotion to improving the well-being of his fellow Americans.

While Du Bois’s The Story of Benjamin Franklin consisted of only thirty-nine pages, this was indeed a noteworthy, unprecedented moment in American print history: the most looming figure in African American letters was requested to document the life of one of the most formative figures in the whole of American letters. In considering Franklin’s life and letters alongside Du Bois’s, one notices several striking parallels-parallels that did not escape Du Bois’s shrewd perception.

Like Franklin, Du Bois was reared in the New England Congregationalist tradition and later disavowed it. As teenagers, both men undertook their first printed efforts, in the form of moralizing columns-Franklin for his brother’s New England Courant newspaper under the guise of Mrs. Silence Dogood, and Du Bois for T. Thomas Fortune’s New York Globe. Also, both men shared a devotion to scientific and rational pursuits of truth throughout their long careers in public life.

However, the most provocative link between these famous personages found throughout their various labors in print media was their consistent choice of theme: moral and ethical improvement. Many of Franklin’s moral and ethical commentaries were directed toward his eighteenth-century American compatriots, and Du Bois’s would be directed toward his fellow compatriots as well-late-nineteenth-century African Americans.

To the vexation of the many generations of readers who have sought wisdom in these stalwarts’ writings for their own moral and ethical (even intellectual) betterment, neither Benjamin Franklin nor W.E.B. Du Bois ever confessed that their intrinsic gifts and abilities were far superior to those of their contemporaries, making many of their puritanical expections of their fellow-citizens (albeit a century apart) nearly impossible. Perhaps this also led to both of their radical disavowals of religion in favor of scientific discovery.

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February 6, 2026 · 7:15 am

IN A RATHER QUIET WAY

Personal and Confidential
[To William Howard Taft]
“My dear Mr. President: In considering the matter of the new judge for the Northern District of Alabama, I hope you will bear in mind the interests of the Negro. The United States Courts have been, as it were, kind of “cities of refuge” for the colored people. I mean that in these courts they have been always sure of securing justice in cases that properly come under the jurisdiction of such courts by reason of the fact that the judges have been such broad and liberal men that the juries have represented a class of people who would see that a fair verdict was rendered.

Not only this, but in the United States Courts in the South Negroes have heretofore been place on the grand jury and petit jury and in this way they gotten recognition that they have not gotten in any other case. This matter, as small as it is, has gone to make them feel that they were citizens and has encouraged them not a little. With few exceptions, where narrow minded men have been made judges they have gradually used their influence in some way to keep Negroes off the juries and have made them feel that they had few rights in these courts.-

Please do not take the time to answer this letter.”  – Yours very truly, Booker T. Washington, “May 6, 1909”

After “integrity,” and “knowledge,” “influence” is the third greatest 9-letter word. And in this letter to the 27th President of the United States of America, William Howard Taft, Booker T. Washington once again demonstrates that the range of his “influence” extended to the very highest levels of American government. In earlier correspondence, President Taft, who succeeded President Theodore Roosevelt in 1909, made it crystal clear that the founding principal and president of Tuskegee (Institute) University would still be expected to play a similar major role in advising the President of the United States as he had done with President Roosevelt. (The correspondence reveals that Roosevelt not only recommended Washington’s pivotal role in consulting on major affairs but also Taft readily assented.) All the same, we learn in the letter to President Taft three very important considerations about the founding principal and president of Tuskegee University and his “influence.”

First, we learn, contrary to popular opinion, he used his “influence” to address issues that concerned one of his most important constituents: African Americans. Here again, one would be remiss to think that Mr. Washington did not advocate on issues of importance. Rather, he moved “in a rather quiet way” as he indicated in a previous communiqué. (The loudest, most boisterous, and most visible communication is not necessarily the most effective communication, and Mr. Washington’s direct correspondence with the President of the United States is effective communication. “Influence” is concerned with the “quality” of those we know, not the “quantity.”)

Second, the “influence” of Mr. Washington’s correspondence was certain in that it was marked “personal and confidential.” This was not one of many letters that the President of the United States or any man or woman situated at the helm of a large organization receives that may or may not come to his attention or was handled through an intermediary. It is clear that Mr. Washington’s letters would be read by the President himself. So much so that Mr. Washington did not even need a reply: “Please do not take the time to answer this letter.”

Third and last, Mr. Washington’s “influential” advocacy was owing to sound, sober and logical reasoning. His letter thoughtfully and dispassionately articulates the potential success for President Taft in following his suggestion based upon both past and present successes in similar matters. (No doubt Mr. Washington was likely part of such decisions during the Roosevelt Administration.) All three of these reasons-along with many, many more-are why Tuskegee University celebrates the “influence” of Booker T. Washington in the over 110 years (1915-2025) since his passing.

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February 5, 2026 · 5:35 pm

The Yancy Years: Chronicling the 14-Year Documentary History of Johnson C. Smith University President-Dr. Cowser Yancy

Owing to multiple requests, please find the link for the audio discussion of the creation of the The Yancy Years in 2008: Special memory also goes out to Dr. Jeffery Smith and Dr. Peter Radcliffe for their special roles in its inception. Gerald Hector former CFO, Ron Matthew former alumni director and co-authors Sharon Raynor former professor and Benny Smith former senior PR specialist at Johnson C Smith University: https://on.soundcloud.com/tBhnToWOfO3koPEDQO

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February 5, 2026 · 1:04 am

Dorothy Cowser Yancy: The Yancy Years (1994-2008) Johnson C. Smith University

When Dr. Robert L. Albright, eleventh president of Johnson C. Smith University, gathered Johnson C. Smith Board of Trustees members, administrators, faculty, staff, students into Biddle Auditorium on January 5, 1994, to announce that he would join the Educational Testing Service in Princeton, NJ as its executive vice president for research and programs little did the university community know that an arrow was already fashioned and formed “for such a time as this”-Dr. Dorothy Cowser Yancy.

Besides possessing a very impressive and long list of academic credentials-including but not limited to-becoming the first African American professor to be promoted and tenured as a full professor at Georgia Tech Institute of Technology in its School of History, Technology and Society and the School of Management, publishing numerous scholarly articles and cases, receiving significant recognition as a labor arbitrator and serving in several consulting and advisory roles to governmental agencies, unions and companies-President Yancy’s unique preparation for the role of 12th President of Johnson C. Smith University began well before her appointment including several more experiences unbeknownst to many.

In the fall of 1991, then Professor Dr. Yancy was appointed to serve on Johnson C. Smith University’s Board of Trustees. Armed with professorial and administrative experiences, she eagerly returned to the place where her academic career began with the hopes of assisting the institution’s entry into the 21st Century.

Shortly after her appointment to the Board of Trustees, Dr. Yancy was called upon to chair a board-appointed strategic planning committee that produced a little-known but all important document in the annals of Johnson C. Smith University history. “The Johnson C. Smith University Board of Trustees Strategic Planning Committee Report-April 3, 1993.”

In effect, this 1993 document completed under the direction of the university’s future president provided an outlay of the university’s strengths and non-strengths for the coming century and this outlay would provide both the future President Yancy and the then Board of Trustee members with intimate familiarity of the university’s existing infrastructure, resources and personnel.

All the same, this commemorative history is not an attempt to exhaustively etch into history all of her successes and trials during her 14-year presidency. (A more full-length biography and/or history waits to be written by the person or institution to whom she passes all of her important personal and professional papers.)

The history set out in these pages is designed to present a documented educational narrative for alumni of Johnson C. Smith University and Johnson C. Smith University’s 12th President. It is the authors’ hope that this narrative equally conforms to the message’s simplicity and captures the Person and Presidency-not Perception-of Dorothy Cowser Yancy.

This excerpt and The Yancy Years (1994-2008): The Age of Infrastructure, Technology and Restoration can be read , downloaded and seen digitized with accompanying documents in its entirety at: https://lib.digitalnc.org/record/237981?ln=en or https://drbrianjohnson1.com/books/the-yancy-years-1994-2008-the-age-of-infrastructure-technand-restoration/29b29a43-618f-4619-95eb-dd0991d1fbcd

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February 4, 2026 · 3:23 pm

‘Alma Mater means Nourishing Mother’: Booker T. Washington & R.W. Taylor

“Dear Taylor: This letter may be somewhat of a surprise to you, but I hope you can see your way clear to accede to our request. After deliberating for a good deal of time over the matter, we have determined to put some one of our graduates in the field in the North to collect money for the school; interest and instruct the people about our work, and we have settled on the conclusion that we can get no better person to represent us than yourself.” – Booker T. Washington, June 9th 1893

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“Dear Friend: your letter of recent date was the greatest surprise imaginable. I have thoroughly considered the offer made to me and have decided to off-set my ideas of going to school next term, so as to comply with your request. As you know Alma-Mater means nourishing Mother. From an intellectual stand-point I consider Tuskegee my mother-so I am perfectly willing to act in the capacity of a child.” – R.W.Taylor June 14th 1893

Aside from a University’s current students, there is no more important constituent group besides its students who graduate: ALUMNI. And this exchange between correspondence between Booker T. Washington, founding principal and president, and Robert Wesley Taylor at Tuskegee Institute (University) illustrates the strong ties, unity and affinity between the institution, the alumni and president. The President “deliberated for a good deal of time” when considering who among “the Sons and Daughters of Booker and Mother Tuskegee” would best represent the institution. Among the many shining arrows in their quiver, Robert Wesley Taylor was preeminent among the family’s best and brightest.

Although familial relations dictate equal filial love among siblings, when parents have a need it is not unusual for the strongest, most industrious, most diligent, most generous and most capable son or daughter to respond. This describes the character of Mr. Taylor. Hearkening to the true spirit of Alma Mater, he regarded the then Tuskegee Institute as his “intellectual nourishing mother.”

For Mother Tuskegee had nourished his nascent personal, intellectual, social and spiritual appetite with the milk of George Washington Carver among countless numbers of eminent professors, scholars and staff members. Mr. Taylor did not stop at child-like professions of love for his mother, or intrusive pressing into matters beyond his scope or constant complaint without corresponding work. He exhibited the attitude of a full-grown son who responded with a ready reply when he was “called” upon by his Alma Mater.

And “while children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children,” a child does well when he or she has left home to help restore the nourishing ability of his or her mother so that mother is able to continue nurturing many, many more sons and daughters for many more years to come.

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February 3, 2026 · 2:04 am

‘A Christian Gentleman’: Charles Chesnutt, Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois

“I have a very high ideal of those qualities which apart from his literary attainments and skill in teaching should make up the character of an instructor of youth; and my ideal of a teacher can be tersely but clearly expressed in two words—a Christian Gentleman. By the word Christian, I mean not merely a church-member or outward professor of religion; but one who is imbued with the true spirit of Christ…[He] should be a gentleman. And here I use not the word in its conventional sense. I do not mean that he should be of high birth or great wealth; that he should clothe his person in fine raiment, or his fine speech in fine words: I use the word in its broadest signification—one who has a proper respect of himself, and a proper regard for the rights and opinions of others and at the same time knows how to act in order that other people may know that he respects himself and them.”-Charles Chesnutt, “Etiquette (Good Manners),” A Speech delivered to the Normal Literary Society, Fayetteville, North Carolina (1881).

Though not the first African American novelist—William Wells Brown holds that title, with his 1853 publication Clotel—Charles Chesnutt is largely considered the first African American novelist of national importance. In addition to a compilation of short stories including “The Wife of His Youth,” featured in his 1899 The Wife of His Youth and Other Stories of the Color Line and a short story compilation, The Conjure Woman published in the same year, Chesnutt published three novels: The House Behind the Cedars (1900), The Marrow of Tradition (1901) and The Colonel’s Dream (1905).

Each of Chesnutt’s novels dealt prominently with depictions of the “Color Line.” Notably, The Marrow of Tradition was a fictional recounting of the Wilmington North Carolina Massacre in 1898, and his The Colonel’s Dream depicted a white protagonist from the north whose vision for reforming the South failed his high almost romanticized ambitions. (This was the very first novel written by an African American writer that possessed a central figure and narrative revolving around a white protagonist.) All the same, in the speech given to the Normal Literary Society in Fayetteville, NC while Chesnutt was then serving as a principal, he shared a recurring theme in his speeches and essays—ethical manners and morality.

Charles Chesnutt who abandoned his literary career and eventually went on to various trades was a constant and often unheralded interlocutor with both Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois. The steady stream of written correspondence between Chesnutt, Washington and Du Bois involved Chesnutt’s publications in Du Bois’s Crisis Magazine—as well as his challenges to Du Bois on varying racial matters of the day—and his personal and friendly—but often political disagreements—with Booker T. Washington. All the same, the three shared their interests (alongside many African American leaders of the period) in not only protesting on behalf of African Americans but seeking ethical and reformation within.

These 3 along with 4 other African American writers the most notable of which were Paul Laurence Dunbar and T. Thomas Fortune agreed to jointly publish The Negro Problem appearing in 1903 and it was edited by Booker T. Washington. In it, each author wrote from their various perspectives, admittedly, championing their own programs: Washington for Industrial Education, Du Bois for “The Talented Tenth,” and Chesnutt the disenfranchisement of the Negro vote.

All the same, in spite of Chesnutt’s call for political action, he argued in back of it the ethical and moral character of leadership that ought undergird all African American leadership. And this theme, though latent in his novels, was his view expressed in essays, correspondence and speeches like the excerpt above. Moreover, it echoed and reverberated throughout Chesnutt’s personal and public life, which inevitably placed at him at odds at times with both Du Bois and Washington. For Chesnutt’s view of a ‘Christian gentleman’ would not be constrained to either the left or the right—not one or the other but both—declaring right or wrong without respect to political or personal approbation.

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February 2, 2026 · 9:42 am

‘He Stood Between Giants’: T. Thomas Fortune, Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois

“Dear Mr. Washington: Your letter of the 29th ult. dated at Dekalb, Illinois, was received, and am very glad to hear from you as I had begun to get a shade uneasy over your silence. I agree with you that some good may result from our Boston Campaign. From all I can hear from there a very healthy counter sentiment was created. Councilor Isaac Allen was in here Monday and he took that view of it and numbers of others…”- “T. Thomas Fortune to Booker T. Washington,” New York, February 1, 1899

Despite his cantankerous relationship with Fortune during his adult career when Fortune became a staunch supporter for Du Bois’s future nemesis, Booker T. Washington, Du Bois possessed a profound admiration for Fortune and the role he played in advancing his career. He expressed as much in the May 1907 Horizon (a periodical Du Bois edited briefly before he became founding editor of Crisis magazine in 1910) when recalling this brief tenure with Fortune’s paper:

“I remember my first knowing of the man. It was about 1883, while I was a lad in the High School. I became an agent for his paper and wrote crude little news notes from our town. He wrote me an encouraging letter-a good long sympathetic letter. That letter I shall not forget. No matter how far the writer has fallen and groveled in the dust [referring to his support of Washington] I shall ever remember that hand of help. His fierce brave voice made men of the nation hearken even while it scared them.”

When Fortune arrived as a young man in New York around 1880, he began working in the printer’s trade for John Dougall’s Weekly Witness, a religious paper. Shortly thereafter, he met regularly with a group of African American men whose intellectual interests were similar to his own. One of these was George Parker who had recently begun a “little weekly tabloid” entitled The Rumor. Fortune along with Walter Sampson, who helped secure Fortune’s job at the Weekly Witness, “wrote copy and set type for Rumor at night” while still working for Dougall’s paper in the day. After about a year, Fortune was quickly recognized as the far superior writer and editor to either Parker or Sampson. During this same period, Parker’s tabloid came under financial pressure, which allowed Fortune to become a partner. As partner, he then insisted upon changing the paper’s name from Rumor to New York Globe in July 1881.

The New York Globe continued operating under the joint partnership of Fortune and Parker, and “in three short years the Globe had won national recognition and its editor had gained the reputation of the most brilliant, fearless and uncompromising journalist of his race.” However, Fortune never formally secured legal proprietorship, and, after the paper was besieged by turmoil, Parker mortgaged the paper without Fortune’s knowledge. Shortly thereafter, Fortune was able to reverse his circumstances, and, in 1884, New York Globe became New York Freeman under his sole proprietorship.

In keeping with its name, the New York Globe thought its mission to be broad and universal in scope-insofar as African American readership was concerned-and the newspaper sought to provide as much information pertaining to African Americans as possible within its four pages. Its self-stated aim was “to supply the place of a National Journal for the colored people of the United States.” The New York Globe had a staff of able correspondents in many cities in the North and the South who reported news of race conditions and political developments related to the race. Also, newsletters from smaller communities reported local trivia including activities of churches and fraternal organizations; one reporter of such information was the teenager Du Bois.

Like Fortune’s then national standing among African Americans-though still a teenager-Du Bois understood that his unusual pedigree afforded him a distinct role among Great Barrington African Americans, particularly the recent arrivals who were both Southern and religious, and his first commentaries in T. Thomas Fortune’s New York Globe (Freeman) relied upon this exceptional background.

One would be remiss to deny that Du Bois might have been influenced by Fortune’s longstanding idea that intelligent, African American opinion in matters civil and sacred would always receive a public hearing in spite of its disassociation from explicit religious efforts. (Since Fortune and Du Bois, much—not all of—African American intellectual history, as early as Frederick Douglass, divorces itself from religion except for decrying against it yet do not consider itself unqualified to comment upon most religious matters.) And this quality in Du Bois’s career began in his earliest writings within Fortune’s newspaper. Du Bois emulated T. Thomas Fortune’s method of expressing his intelligent and sophisticated opinion on African American social problems through an alternative “pulpit,” namely the secular periodical.

Notwithstanding, T. Thomas Fortune’s relationship to Booker T. Washington as ghostwriter, propagandist, confidante and ardent supporter was something altogether different. The two were contemporaries born in the same year, 1856, and their relationship was chronicled and detailed through Booker T. Washington’s letters, correspondence and ghost-written works dating back to their very first recorded correspondence on January 18, 1887 in a letter to Fortune from Washington. And one of the last being an October 30, 1907 letter from Washington to Daniel Hale Williams describing Fortune’s personal and professional conditions at the time which essentially cemented the end of their long relationship.

All the same, Washington would die in 1915 and Fortune would die in 1928. (Du Bois would live on until 1968.) Besides Emmett J. Scott, Washington’s modern day Chief of Staff at Tuskegee, Fortune would be one of the few who was in Washington’s personal circle who could speak freely on most matters. Furthermore, Fortune’s geographical positioning in the North alongside of Du Bois and other “race men” who opposed Washington and the “Tuskegee Machine,” or “Tuskegee Idea,” allowed him to serve as Washington’s voice in the North and black press against Du Bois and like-minded northern black intellectuals.

In the final analysis, T. Thomas Fortune’s standing as a writer was rivaled and eventually surpassed by W.E.B. Du Bois who nominally was his protege and his abilities as national tactician could only be surpassed by Booker T. Washington. Thus, ‘he stood between giants.’ (Fortune was recently featured in the HBO series The Gilded Age.)

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February 1, 2026 · 3:54 pm

“I am the personage of Uncle Tom and I feel proud of the title.”: Reverend Josiah Henson and Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)

“I am the personage of Uncle Tom and I feel proud of the title.”-Rev. Josiah Henson, An Autobiography of the Rev. Josiah Henson (1879)

In a reply written to Lord Carlisle of England in 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe outlines those effects she had hoped Uncle Tom’s Cabin, published in the same year, might have on the American public. She wrote, “1st. To soften and moderate the bitterness of feeling in extreme abolitionists. 2nd. To convert to the abolitionist view, many of whom this same bitterness had repelled. 3rd. To inspire the free colored people with self-respect, hope and confidence. And 4th. To inspire universally through the country, a kindlier feeling toward the Negro race.”

Uncle Tom, an African American enslaved person, who in the novel’s opening scene is leading prayer among fellow enslaved men and women. He quickly learns that he is to be sold to help pay off his master’s debts. Instead of fleeing (as he was advised to do by friends and family) Uncle Tom resigns himself to the condition he faces. Relying upon his Christian faith and fortitude, the novel depicts Uncle Tom’s heroic endurance of enslavement with the hopes of putting to shame the Christianity of southern slave-owning families. Stowe’s antislavery novel was designed to prick the consciences of both northern and southern readers about the horrors of slavery.

The novel was first published as a serial appearing in the National Era between 1851 and 1852. The story was published in 40 installments and Stowe was paid $300. When the story was published as a two volume novel in March 1852, 300,000 copies were sold in the first year and nearly 2 million copies were sold world wide by 1857. In 1849, three years prior to Stowe’s publication, the Rev. Josiah Henson, a former slave, published his life story which became the partial basis for the most infamous characterization in literary history and, arguably, American cultural history. (Sadly, Henson’s own heroic feats were not used in Stowe’s novel which included successfully escaping from enslavement with his entire family and starting anew in Canada. This he also owed to his Christian faith.) All the same, in his third autobiography written in 1879, Henson boldly announces that “I am the personage of Uncle Tom and I feel proud of the title.”

Despite the novel’s success—including the approbation of Rev. Henson whose life Stowe based the character upon—the extent to which Stowe’s novel successfully achieved her aims was and remains controversial. Particularly, the sentimentalist devices Stowe employed in the work trying to attain these objectives. Chiefly, the depiction of Uncle Tom is the subject that has garnered the most critical (and cantankerous) attention about the novel over the past 175 years especially within the African American intellectual and broader community.

Moreover, in 1853, Stowe published an apologetic to defend her fictional account, titled The Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin: Presenting the Original Facts and Documents upon Which the Story is Founded. In it, she relays that the depiction of Uncle Tom is largely taken from Henson’s first autobiography published in 1849. Stowe visited twice with Henson, once at her home in Andover in 1849 and a second time in 1850 at her brother’s house in Boston. Despite Stowe’s apologetic and Reverend Henson’s approbation and reclamation of the figure, polarizing African American intellectual views on Uncle Tom persisted even a full century later with James Baldwin and W.E.B. Du Bois possessing opposite views.

James Baldwin who would publish his most famous novel Go Tell It On The Mountain exactly 100 years later in 1952–with a very different figuring of African American Christianity embodied in the Black Masculine Christian Engagement of Gabriel Grimes (see my forthcoming commentary)—severely denounced the novel in his 1949 essay, “Everybody’s Protest Novel.” He labeled Stowe’s and Henson’s Tom so thoroughly unrealistic by suggesting that African Americans must become implausibly pious in order for American whites to recognize their humanity. W.E.B. Du Bois, on the other hand, suggested in an October 27, 1945 article appearing in the Chicago Defender that Stowe’s work was understandable and necessary given the time period. (Du Bois wrote several years earlier in a 1911 article appearing in Crisis Magazine also wrote: “Accordingly, in her writings we find the artist dominated by the preacher and reformer. Uncle Tom’s Cabin was to her a sermon hurled against a great moral evil.”)

All the same, contemporary usage has gone well beyond this history of the figure of Uncle Tom and has degenerated into monikers, labels and pejoratives that have surely gone well beyond what Stowe, Henson, Baldwin and Du Bois would have ever intended.

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January 31, 2026 · 1:34 pm

“‘Speaking Plainly’: Booker T. Washington to Mr. Will Eugene Hutt” (February 3, 1894)

“[Mr. Hutt][…] I do not think that you are doing yourself justice here and I hope you will excuse me if I speak to you rather plainly. I very much hope that you will be able to remain here until the end of the year with credit to yourself and profit to the school. The main trouble is that you do not push ahead; you wait too much for somebody to direct and lead you. You ought to see, it seems to be me, the difference between your work and that of Mr. Taylor, who has had about the same course of training as yourself. Mr. Taylor is constantly leading in his work, working in season and out of season. Instead of having someone to lead him he is constantly making suggestions as to what should be done […] You may think that I speak to you very plainly; but it is a good deal better to speak to you this way now than wait until the end of the term and say to you that we do not wish your services longer. I hope very much that we can keep you in the employ of the school, and shall do so if your prove worthy, but certainly if you do not, you cannot expect to be re-employed next term […] I do hope that between now and that time you will put your department in shape to be inspected, but in order for you to do yourself justice it is going to require hard and constant work on your part, and you will have to apply yourself in a way that you have never done before.” – “February 3, 1894,” Booker T. Washington

The “Tuskegee Machine” was no mere designation describing Booker T. Washington’s and Tuskegee University’s political and economic strength across the nation. Instead, it also referred to the systemic administrative and management philosophy of its founding principal and president, and his insistence upon the effectiveness and efficiency of every function within the organization. And this letter to Mr. Will Eugene Hutt is no exception.

First, Mr. Washington-as he does so in all of his writings and speeches-“speaks…plainly.” All too often hearers attribute rudeness to plain speech; frankness and honesty are often deemed unpleasant when hearing truths that may be considered offensive to the recipient.

Second, Mr. Washington did not take the road most often travelled in leadership. Such leadership avoids difficult discussions and makes decisions in the dark. Mr. Washington might have easily hid his concerns-wait him out-and grant this employee no opportunity to correct the deficiencies within his department. What one expects, one must inspect, and it is clear that Mr. Washington was not sitting on the mountain top of “Tuskegee Machine.” Rather, he was a very real participant in the affairs of Tuskegee Institute (University) making pointed suggestions he offers to Mr. Hutt.

Third, he provides an example of an employee who does not wait to be “push[ed] ahead” or “for somebody to direct and lead” them. To the contrary, Mr. Taylor, another employee in the same rank and class, was value-added to Mr. Washington. He took initiative “constantly making suggestions as to what should be done.” (One could rightly criticize Mr. Washington if he did not point to any employees who fulfilled his expectation but instead he provided an example to Mr. Hutt-one of his peers and colleagues-to demonstrate that the expectations he had for employees could not only be received but also achieved.)

Lastly, he reminded Mr. Hutt that he had not exercised his right to remove him but instead was speaking plainly and frankly to encourage him, perhaps even to motivate him. And he did so with the understanding that Mr. Hutt might have never had such expectations, for he completed his correspondence with a parting admonition that “it is going to require hard and constant work on your part, and you will have to apply yourself in a way that you have never done before.” Perhaps Mr. Hutt had never had such a supervisor provide such clear expectations? Perhaps Mr. Hutt’s previous supervisors merely discussed his poor performance with others as opposed to Mr. Hutt directly?

Perhaps Mr. Hutt responded and eventually became one of the greatest employees in the annals of Tuskegee Institute (University)? The National Parks Services reported that Mr. Hutt had a short tenure leaving there in 1896. Whatever Mr. Hutt’s response might have been to this letter from Booker T. Washington, it is clear that he fully understood Mr. Washington’s expectations of him, which is what real leadership looks like: Transparent, Consistent, Communicative and Collaborative.

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January 28, 2026 · 11:34 am

‘Free Baptism…in the Pages of the Crisis’: W.E.B. Du Bois and the Birth of the Harlem Renaissance

“The editor steps outside the limits of criticism to become personal. I should think that a publication so holy-clean and righteous-pure as the Crisis should hesitate about promoting anything from the pen of a writer who wallows so much in ‘dirt’ ‘filth’ ‘drunkenness’ ‘fighting’ and ‘lascivious sexual promiscuity’ […] deep-sunk in depravity though he may be the author of Home to Harlem [McKay’s novel] prefers to remain unrepentant and unregenerate and he ‘distinctly’ is not grateful for any free baptism of grace in the cleansing pages of the Crisis.”-“Claude McKay to W.E.B. Du Bois,” June 18, 1928

Du Bois was widely regarded as the father of the Harlem Renaissance for having given considerable space to its authors and poets within the pages of The Crisis: A Record of the Darker Races (1910-1934) during his first editorship and his book reviews and essays often castigated this young cadre of African American intellectuals for their moral looseness. So much so that Claude McKay, an acclaimed Harlem Renaissance poet and novelist, took issue with Du Bois for his didactic and moralist criticisms. (There is great irony for Du Bois during this period considering his working relationship with Jessie Fausett who is considered the ‘mid-wife’ of the Harlem Renaissance.) Their relationship can be observed in the wonderfully written Harlem Rhapsody by Victoria Christopher Murray.

Although his future agnosticism would eventually make him decidedly critical of all forms of orthodox Christianity and its ministers, Du Bois’s speeches, commencement addresses, periodical writings, book reviews, and scholarship always retained a rather perceptible moral and ethical strain that clearly resonated with the sermons he heard during his youthful time within the First Congregational Church of Great Barrington. In later years, Du Bois himself remarked about his life, “my morals were sound even puritanical.”

Even as early as 1897 while still a major contributor to Crummell’s The American Negro Academy, Du Bois’s infamous terming of a black “Talented Tenth” insisted that such leadership should “sound a note of warning that would echo in every black cabin in the land: unless we conquer our present vices they will conquer us.” Similarly, Du Bois envisioned and hoped that Renaissance writers would help him in setting forth both intelligent and moral leadership for African Americans that writers like McKay and Zora Neale Hurston did not consider as part of their work.

These writers were more in lockstep with Alain Locke’s conception of The New Negro which in differentiating itself from ‘the old Negro’ wanted no parts of religion even Du Bois’s Congregational and Puritanical remnants in spite of his disavowals of religion.

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January 27, 2026 · 3:59 pm

W.E.B. Du Bois and The First Congregational Church of Great Barrington

“I send enclosed a letter to the Sunday-school-after having written it I have had doubts as to its appropriateness, but I shall send it at any rate-perhaps it would be better for the Berkshire Courier, if so I should like to see a copy.”-W.E.B. Du Bois, “To Mr. Van Lennep, (September 29, 1892)”

In 1892, a 24-year-old Du Bois wrote a rather curious communique to his former assembly, the First Congregational Church of Great Barrington. This revealing letter came nearly seven years after his last writings appeared in T. Thomas Fortune’s newspaper while still a teenager and his letters to the church during his Fisk University undergraduate days, which updated them on his progress. This letter was directed to the then-current superintendent, Mr. Van Lennep, of the First Congregational Church of Great Barrington’s Sunday school.

At the time, Du Bois was a Harvard doctoral student studying abroad at the University of Berlin in Germany, and apparently he was discerning for the first time that his scientifically and liberally informed opinion should probably appear within some secular medium instead of a primarily sacred one.

Du Bois’s description of the town of Eisenach-a town famously known because of its intimacy with the great Protestant reformer Martin Luther-is written from the standpoint of a detached historian and sociologist rather than of an ardent participant in the Protestant faith.

Du Bois’s letter-which goes on to describe his experience sitting in the pews of the church where Martin Luther preached, and the historical context of Luther’s radical stance and excommunication-leaves conspicuously absent the kind of adulation and praise for the spiritual components of Protestantism that Du Bois’s Sunday school audience probably would have preferred.

Instead, the letter focused upon Luther’s “deeds” in hopes of inspiring the kind of practical efforts that Du Bois believed the Sunday school communicants were most in need of. Du Bois’s concern that the letter should be published through a secular print medium instead of being read before a Protestant congregation is equally telling. (Perhaps this is why it is addressed to his high school principal who possessed standing both within both educational and religious sectors in Great Barrington?)

All the same, this letter points to Du Bois’s earliest inclinations to utilize a secular, rather than a religious, forum for communicating both his pragmatic and increasingly scientific views of morality and ethics, as well as his increasing discomfort with identifying with purely religious causes.

While it is not known whether the church’s superintendent at Du Bois’s former church read Du Bois’s letter either in private or in front of the Sunday school, it does appear that the letter represents his final break from the Congregationalism of his Great Barrington rearing, for that letter is Du Bois’s last recorded communication to his former church—the church of his youth.

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January 21, 2026 · 2:20 pm

‘Spreading to Leaven’: Alexander Crummell, W.E.B. Du Bois and the American Negro Academy

“Just here arises the need of the trained and scholarly men of a race to employ their knowledge and culture and teaching and to guide both the opinions and habits of the crude masses […] we can spread abroad and widely disseminate that culture and enlightenment which shall permeate and leaven the entire social and domestic life of our people and so give that civilization which is the nearest ally of religion.”-Alexander Crummell, “Civilization: The Primal Need of the Race” (1898)

In the above excerpt, Rev. Alexander Crummell-Yale-trained seminarian before the end of the Civil War-argued at the opening of the founding of the American Negro Academy that educated and literate African American preachers and scholars must lead moral, ethical, intellectual and social reform efforts amidst their uneducated African American community members by supplementing-perhaps even supplanting-traditional African American religious practices; this was what all advanced civilizations required, he believed.

The corollary to Crummell’s argument, then, meant that regular communication to uneducated African American community members was imperative. Crummell’s (as well as Du Bois’s) concern about this communication was so earnest that it straightway led him to form the American Negro Academy’s Occasional Papers in the afternoon session during the inaugural meeting where this talk was presented at the founding of the American Negro Academy.

Because educated and scholarly African Americans and literate clergymen were without a suitable print medium of expression designed for this ongoing commitment in either their community or the white one, Crummell’s American Negro Academy tried to fashion an alternative print mode-minus the bulky scholastic documentation-that would convincingly adhere to their respective academic backgrounds while simultaneously facilitating a forum for moral, ethical, intellectual, and social leadership in the African American community. To be certain, educated African American leaders of this ilk were also concerned with protecting African Americans from unceasing racist attacks. Yet the persistent strain of uplift and reform writing (directed towards African American communities) that this unique cadre was also preoccupied with is often overlooked.

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January 19, 2026 · 8:23 am

W.E.B. Du Bois, Alexander Crummell and Martin Luther King, Jr.-‘The Negro Ghandi’

“Our religion with all of its dogma, demagoguery and showmanship can be a center to teach character, right conduct and sacrifice. Therein lies a career for a Negro Ghandi and a host of earnest followers.”-W.E.B. Du Bois, Du Bois, “The Talented Tenth: Memorial Address,” Boule Journal (Wilberforce, Ohio) 15 (October 15, 1948): 7.

In a rare commendation of the possibilities of African American religion, Du Bois offers an almost prophetic pronouncement about the coming of someone like King where he actually suggested that a Ghandi-like figure might secure a place as an African American religious leader worth following.Yet, it did not come without Du bois’s deep reservations.

In a February 11, 1957 article titled “Will the Great Ghandi Live Again?” appearing in the National Guardian, Du Bois mockingly reproves the effort of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the civil rights movement, implying that it lacked sustainability and “moral courage.” Two years later, Du Bois does much the same in “Crusader Without Violence,” dated November 9, 1959 and also appearing in the National Guardian. (Even before King’s participation within the movement, he decried the possibility of such a national program in the aforementioned March 13, 1948 speech turned article.)

Though historians and literary theorists alike have pointed out the sheer poignancy and profundity of Du Bois’s passing occurring in Accra, Ghana on August 27, 1963-the eve prior to the Martin Luther King Jr.-led March on Washington for civil rights-not many have offered commentary about those criticisms Du Bois leveled toward King and the civil rights movement in light of Du Bois’s then deeply-ensconced agnosticism. (Although the man King himself passed over any such remonstrations and gave his due reverence to Du Bois in his remarks on the elder sage’s passing at age 95.)

Nevertheless, Du Bois’s demise on the eve prior to the 1963 March on Washington represented much more than the passing of the baton to the next generation of African American leadership. In many ways it represented the national African American community’s return to its religious leadership-a leadership Du Bois had seemingly fought his entire life to supplant and replace. And the symbolism of this return to its religious leadership (if only during King’s brief life) extends much further when one considers Du Bois alongside of King.

Whereas Du Bois’s appearance as a national African American leader came largely as a result of his being the first African American Ph.D. recipient from Harvard University, King’s mantle of leadership appears to have been the long-awaited manifestation of Alexander Crummell’s ambition-an intelligent African American religious leader possessing verifiable morality, ethics, and, with King’s receipt of the Ph.D. in systematic theology from Boston University, an academically respectable degree. This ambition-becoming the incarnate ideal of Crummell’s desire for moral, ethical and intellectual leadership-was necessarily both Du Bois’s and Crummell’s euphoric intention when they co-founded the American Negro Academy in 1897.

Here one has to pause and wonder what might have happened if Du Bois’s youthful idealism about the possibilities of a practical and intelligent Christian orthodoxy had been able to submit under Crummell’s tutelage beyond a year’s time and beyond their brief time together within The American Negro Academy. But needless to say, Du Bois’s growing disdain for organized religion coupled with the death of Crummell not one year after the Academy’s inception —as well as the quasi-religious organization’s vote to disallow the use of academic pedigrees within the American Negro Academy in the interests of solidarity—permanently quelled such hope for Du Bois.

In view of such reasons, it is not at all difficult to view Du Bois’s reticence to applaud the youthful King’s successful leadership within the movement as a conscious-panged, guilt-ridden reminder of what role he might have played in the national African American community had he bore both the cross and the gospel that Alexander Crummell passed on to him in 1898 at his passing in 1898 after their co-founding of the American Negro Academy in 1897.

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January 16, 2026 · 3:32 pm

‘New England, Congregationalist, Protestant and Puritanical Ethics’: W.E.B. Du Bois and Benjamin Franklin

“”I am especially glad that the partial Puritanism of my upbringing has never made me afraid of life […] Perhaps above all I am proud of a straightforward clearness of reason in part a gift of the gods, but also to no little degree due to scientific training and inner discipline…. I have realized that Love is God and Work is His prophet; that His ministers are Age and Death.”-W.E.B. Du Bois, _The Dusk of Dawn_

One of the most famed exemplars of notions of 17th-18th Century New England Congregationalist,Protestant and Puritanical work ethic was Benjamin Franklin. And Franklin bears a conspicuous resemblance to the formation of this facet of W.E.B. Du Bois’s early zeal-like Puritanical reform efforts within the African American community albeit a full century later with Du Bois’s earliest writings appearing in newspapers from 1883-1885.

Though not widely known, in 1956, seven years before Du Bois’s death in Ghana, Africa, the Vienna World Peace Council asked him to write a biographical account of Benjamin Franklin’s life. The biography was to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Franklin’s birth. Among other things, the biography focused on Franklin’s scientific efforts, his hatred of cant and orthodox religion, and his fanatic devotion to improving the well-being of his fellow Americans.

While Du Bois’s The Story of Benjamin Franklin consisted of only thirty-nine pages, this was indeed a noteworthy, unprecedented moment in American print history: the most looming figure in African American letters was requested to document the life of one of the most formative figures in the whole of American letters. In considering Franklin’s life and letters alongside Du Bois’s, one notices several striking parallels-parallels that did not escape Du Bois’s shrewd perception.

Like Franklin, Du Bois was reared in the New England Congregationalist tradition and later disavowed it. As teenagers, both men undertook their first printed efforts, in the form of moralizing columns-Franklin for his brother’s New England Courant newspaper under the guise of Mrs. Silence Dogood, and Du Bois for T. Thomas Fortune’s New York Globe. Also, both men shared a devotion to scientific and rational pursuits of truth throughout their long careers in public life. However, the most provocative link between these famous personages found throughout their various labors in print media was their consistent choice of theme: moral and ethical improvement. Many of Franklin’s moral and ethical commentaries were directed toward his eighteenth-century American compatriots, and Du Bois’s would be directed toward his fellow compatriots as well-late-nineteenth-century African Americans.

To the vexation of the many generations of readers who have sought wisdom in these stalwarts’ writings for their own moral and ethical (even intellectual) betterment, neither Benjamin Franklin nor W.E.B. Du Bois ever confessed that their intrinsic gifts and abilities were far superior to those of most men and women, making many of their puritanical expections of their fellow-citizens (albeit a century apart) nearly impossible. Perhaps this also led to both of their radical disavowals of religion in favor of scientific discovery.

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January 14, 2026 · 8:29 pm

THE PREACHER, THE SCHOLAR AND THE AMERICAN NEGRO ACADEMY (1897)

“ Just here arises the need of the trained and scholarly men of a race to employ their knowledge and culture and teaching and to guide both the opinions and habits of the crude masses […] we can spread abroad and widely disseminate that culture and enlightenment which shall permeate and leaven the entire social and domestic life of our people and so give that civilization.”- Alexander Crummell, “Civilization, The Primal Need of the Race” (1897)

One important organization and person in Du Bois’s life that he largely omitted when documenting the story of his intellectual life was that of the American Negro Academy and Alexander Crummell.

Du Bois secured his first academic appointment at Wilberforce University, a religious institution under the auspices of the A.M.E. church. While there, Du Bois would try to maintain a careful, uneasy balance between the religious expectations that the university would require of him and the research, educational, and intellectual expectations that he would require of the university. And it was at Wilberforce University where Du Bois first met Alexander Crummell, a Yale-educated African American preacher and scholar (before the Civil War).

Crummell’s willingness to take his fellow African American clergymen to task for their derisory education, illiteracy, immorality, and a host of other areas proved attractive to Du Bois’s bourgeoning agnosticism. And though Du Bois, and other African American Academy members attempted to craft quasi-religious reform rhetoric to implement the reform aims that Du Bois’s “The Conservation of Races” promoted, it was clear that the question of how to infuse scholarly knowledge into quasi-religious reform rhetoric was never entirely resolved, as this oil-and-water union between Du Bois’s credentials and agnosticism, and the religious dogma associated with Crummell’s rigid adherence to Episcopalian doctrine, would result in Du Bois’s relative silence about this period in his life.

Although no satisfactory explanation has been offered thus far for Du Bois’s failure to describe his time within the American Negro Academy and his relationship with Alexander Crummell, perhaps Du Bois’s silence about this period might be explained in terms of this experience’s frightening similarity with the zeal he exhibited at both Fisk and Harvard (albeit brief). This period probably reminded Du Bois of how closely and organically linked he had become with a fundamentalist para-African American religious organization and preacher, which, in the end, was radically at odds with his lasting agnostic legacy.

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January 14, 2026 · 7:24 pm

W.E.B. DU BOIS: AS THE BLACK CROW FLIES

“I suppose you’d like to be a Crow and fly over the world and see just everything as I,-and maybe I wouldn’t like to be a dear Brownie!-but since Crows must be Crows and Folks must be Folks, I’ll try to tell you about some things I’ve seen on my flight over the seas!”-William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, _Crisis Magazine_ (July 1920)

While W.E.B. Du Bois’s own descriptions of the crow’s travels through “many and varied nests” appear to explain his idealistic search for a centralized place for his unique and innovative concerns as a scholar, the crow’s prophetic symbolism in relation to the periodical is far more enigmatic. 

As an embodiment of Du Bois himself, the black crow bore a conspicuous resemblance to that of an Old Testament seer or prophet with only one distinction: a biblical seer or prophet possessed a providential mandate for his oracles and writings, whereas Du Bois’s authority-manifested most profoundly in periodical and utilitarian writing-proceeded from his standing as the first African American to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard in 1895- and a Berlin-trained African American who became the father of African American sociology.

Du Bois addressed African American social maladies using truths derived from sociological investigations in the African American community, which heretofore had never been attempted by an African American. He also possessed the unique advantage of being the most qualified African American to pursue African American social questions from an academic standpoint, and, among qualified sociologists, Du Bois was among the few whose work was wholly devoted to African American social problems for reform purposes. 

The black crow embodied in Du Bois’s founding of _Crisis Magazine: A Periodical of the Darker Races_ in 1910 as an arm of the NAACP; with it Du Bois marshaled the periodical’s unique ability to tersely disperse his enormous academic breadth of knowledge for reform and uplift purposes for the national African American and the larger global black communities. By situating the “black” crow “high above,” “looking downward with sharp eyes,” and dropping “bits of news” to the ordinary “folks,” Du Bois was able to metaphorically describe his uniqueness as an African American scholar relaying pertinent historical and contemporary knowledge for the purposes of reforming African Americans. 

Although the imagery surrounding the crow remains cryptic, it is certain that Du Bois was prescient enough to to know that the figure of the crow would personify an African American with unparalleled possibilities in the realm of utilitarian periodical writing that few could ignore, including major white editors and their national white audience. 

From such progressive, liberal and religious platforms, Du Bois could finally be seen and finally disseminate what he saw in a manner that he could not through the many academic and scholarly works that many non-academics would never encounter. His most famous work, (1903) _The Souls of Black Folk_ contained 9 of the book’s 14 essays that were first published via periodical publication.

Finding alternative means for communicating to the masses information gleaned from many long years of study and research makes W.E.B. Du Bois a progenitor for modern-day social media pundits. One need only imagine how W.E.B. Du Bois might have utilized social media for the purposes of communicating his research.

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December 20, 2025 · 10:09 pm

On The Passing of Rodney Rogers

Rodney Rogers recently passed. He was a Durham native hailing from inner city Durham North Carolina-specifically MacDougal Terrace. He eventually went on to play for Wake Forest University where he was ACC rookie of the year in 1991 then ACC player of the year in 1993 and had a reputable 12-year career in the NBA culminating in the sixth man of the year award in 2000.

Most cannot appreciate growing up in inner city Durham North Carolina and observing a verifiable hero who was assured to transcend the environments many of us were born into. Affectionately known as “T Tot” for those of us who grew up with him, he was arguably, the only person we knew who would make a life most would describe as recognizable. Though humble–T Tot was bigger, stronger and any other word you wish to describe him–yet knowing this he went out of his way to be one of us.

I was on the middle school football team with Tot at Holton Middle School which is now an alternative school. He was in 8th grade and I was in 7th. T-Tot played quarterback as well as starring on the basketball team. His aura was such that at least for me it was overwhelming. (T TOT was late for a game we played on the jamboree held at North Carolina Central University. They sent someone to pick him up and the whole team waited until his arrival.) Yet, no one cared. We weren’t gonna win without him. (Although Roger’s Herr Middle School beat us soundly with many of the teammates–including the Hunter twins, Ronnie and Tony, cousins of my my best friend growing up Neal Hunter–he would eventually join at Hillside High School where he played football and eventually starred as a 9th grader when the legends began.) Those who grew up with him in MacDougal Terrace would definitely stand to differ as his feats began well before even this time.

For me, playing with T TOT was a life changing experience. One such event demonstrates this. We were playing Oxford and T TOT and the first teamers had pushed the score so far that the 7th graders like me could get in. (I was second or even third team end receiver.) When the second team was called, I was able to play. I had only played twice 7th grade year.

We ran an out and the back up quarterback Wayne Harrington, “Wild Man,” called a play designated for me. It was an 10 yard and out to the right. We ran the play. Wild Man hit me. I caught it. (I froze in fear) and did not run though there was an entire field in front of me. I was eventually tackled. (I can’t tell you how often I allowed fear to stop me.)

The next day at school, I ran into TOT and he said: “BJ why didn’t you keep running?’ I looked at him and could not answer a word and actually left him hanging because I could not even begin to hold a conversation with someone I had such a profound respect for. I could later remember when he was was in 12th grade playing basketball and I was in the 11th grade playing for Durham High School, another defunct school in Durham, North Carolina and later rebranded as the Durham School of the Arts. (Hillside with Andre McCollum, Larry Johnson and Rodney were beating everyone in our PAC 6 conference.) None of us could match their talents except our own Antonio O’Neal at Durham High who didn’t have sufficient help.

T TOT caught the ball and they were winning by like 20 or more points and I alone was defending the basket during garbage time. (He lost it out of bounds.) Similarly, I flashed backed to 7th graders and I know I had no idea how I could ever confront him on a breakaway. I later recalled speaking with him joking that “he was lucky he lost the ball.” He only smiled and grinned.

I share this because his impact on forging the identities of those in inner city Durham and all who had any proximity to him was such that it was a life changing experience. (This man was a living hero and everyone perhaps besides his closest friends and family can remember what he said to them or their brief interaction with him.)

I took from T TOT the need to be strong, courageous and fearless which eventually led me to my faith. I did not keep running in 7th grade or when I was glad–and clearly fearful—that he lost the ball out of bounds in 11th grade when he was a senior in-route to Wake Forest University; All the same, Rodney Rogers inspired in me and all who grew up with him in Durham, North Carolina to live life unafraid and to learn to “keep running.”

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December 1, 2025 · 3:57 pm

One Generation Gathers…The Next Generation Builds

“Phillips Brooks gave expression to the sentiment: ‘One generation gathers the material, and the next generation builds the palaces.’ As I understand it, he wished to inculcate the idea that one generation lays the foundation for succeeding generations.” – Booker T. Washington, Future of the American Negro (1899)

Presidential Commentary by Dr. Brian Johnson 

Any institutional or organizational leader would be remiss–no fool hearted–if he or she did not first look to, then build upon and, finally, greatly improve upon the foundation of the past–particularly when that foundation is as solid and substantive as that which is founded in 1881 at Tuskegee (Institute) University. (And this writer believes that the founding principal and president of Tuskegee, Booker T. Washington, was prescient enough to know that his was a foundation that any man or woman could build “palaces upon.”)

Preparation, planning, purpose and performance are the hallmarks of sound management practices in any leadership and management paradigm, and a leader must not only prepare and plan on how to ascend to institutional leadership, but what to do with it once he or she gets it. One certain way of doing this is to return to the founder’s “foundation.” Booker T. Washington laid a rock-solid foundation based upon personal and organizational “integrity,” the greatest 9-letter word.

In perusing through some 34 years of this man’s letters, books and correspondence, one finds that “integrity” is the most consistent and persistent attribute permeating within each writing or speech. Whether writing or speaking to persons small or great, he installed a vision on the basis of being truthful, honest and earnest in all his dealings, and such attributes appealed to both external and internal constituents alike-particularly when seeking major, transformational gifts like Booker T. Washington secured. (The best institutional leaders and organizations are “transparent,” “consistent,” “communicative,” and “collaborative”.)

What the man, Booker Washington, spoke, wrote and did concerning Tuskegee University in one arena was consistent with what he spoke, wrote and did concerning Tuskegee University in another arena, thus forming an unbroken chain of integrity on which he built the foundation of Tuskegee. This integrity extended not only to the world-renowned bricks of Tuskegee’s oldest buildings, but also to the foundational philosophy of Tuskegee University and its founder.

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November 17, 2025 · 12:12 pm

Jewish Federations-General Assembly-Brian Johnson, Ph.D.

Look forward to being in DC with colleagues and sharing with the #generalassembly on these important topics for our time.

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October 25, 2025 · 11:13 am

SPEAKING THE TRUTH IN LOVE

“But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:” Ephesians 4:15

In this particular passage, Paul in his letter to the Ephesians distinguishes the ministry of called and chosen church leaders (apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers) from those who would “deceive” others through “cunning,” “craftiness” and “sleight” (Ephesians 4:14). Yet, even in this, the apostle’s distinction –“speaking the truth in love”–has often been distorted. For deception often feigns the attributes of “love” at the expense of communicating “truth”.

Somehow the notion of “speaking the truth in love” has been stripped of “truth” in deference to how “truth” makes the recipient feel or how it is delivered. (Who has ever received correction and did not “smart at the rod”? Or in postmodern terms, who has not felt pain upon being corrected or having the truth spoken to him or her?)

While it is important to communicate with as much gentleness and kindness as one can muster, it is no small wonder to observe “truth” being so stripped of its power and potency in our time owing to postmodern notions of how it makes the recipient feel. (It even gives deceivers greater advantage and greater opportunity, for these have the opportunity to deceive as long as they do not make the hearers feel bad.) All the same, perhaps the most signal way in rightly distinguishing Paul’s ministry from others is simply this: Those who love the most, speak the most truth.

Still further, in his letter to the Hebrews, Paul extends this notion when he speaks more extensively about “fathers” who “correct” and “discipline” sons for their benefit (Hebrews 12: 5-11): “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receives” (Hebrews 12:6). And finally we need not look any further than the Lord in his dealings with men who like a parent seeks to raise his children by “speaking the truth in love.” Through John the Revelator, he writes, “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten…” (Revelation 3:19a).”

Notwithstanding the need to communicate in “love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness and self-control,” (Galatians 5:22), if the message of “love” is devoid of “truth,” it is wantingly winsome at best–and deceitfully destructive-at worst.

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October 14, 2025 · 12:58 pm

THINGS OLD AND NEW

Matt 13:51-52

51 Jesus saith unto them, Have ye understood all these things? They say unto him, Yea, Lord.

52 Then said he unto them, Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.

KJV

Let no man or woman resign themselves strictly to the New Testament study of the Kingdom of God and Christ “…for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” Revelation 19:10: For the instructed scribe should communicate truths proceeding from both the “law and the prophets” (Old Testament) as well as the New Testament. Quite telling, Jesus is not speaking to scribes and Pharisees when he utters these remarks, but his disciples.

The Hebrew word for “scribe” is caphar (saw-far) and it means to mark, record through recounting and/or celebration. And for all of Christ’s disciples (including ourselves) one’s recounting and celebration of the gospel may prove infinitely more valuable to others (and ourselves) when we can convey both Christ’s ministry, crucifixion and resurrection, as well as, those things that foretold (and confirmed) him before he appeared through types and testimonies that prefigured him. One of his disciples John even revealed him since his resurrection and ascension through the book of Revelation. And the Apostle Paul did as much.

While imprisoned in Rome, he called an assembly to come to him and there “he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and out of the prophets” (Acts 28:23). Paul would have been keenly aware that the Christ himself exhorted, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets: I am not come to destroy but fulfill.” (Matthew 5:17). Thus, he confirmed that every “jot” (the smallest Hebrew letter) and “tittle” (a Hebrew pen stroke) “shall in no wise pass from the law, til all be fulfilled” (Matthew 5:18).

It is no small wonder then that Moses and Elijah would be the representatives who appeared to him and “talked with him” on the mount of transfiguration (Luke 9:29-30). For in so doing, both the testimony of the law and the testimony of the prophets (all the prophets in the Old Testament) received great honor in pointing to the coming of Jesus. And just think how many more “treasures” shall we “bring forth” when communicating “things old and new” concerning the fullness of Jesus’ testimony in the earth and the heavens?

Notwithstanding, bringing forth things old and new will not convince many-including testimonies of the resurrection of Jesus Christ-which was the response to Paul, the disciples and scribes of all ages. The Lord testified as much when he relayed the testimony of Lazarus and the rich man when the latter desired that someone be sent back to his brothers so they might not come to the place he had been sent in the afterlife. Jesus relays the following in Luke 16:29-31:

“Abraham saith unto him, they have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. And he said, nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead they will repent. And he said unto him, if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.”

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October 13, 2025 · 10:50 pm

That I May Build It

Nehehmiah 2:4,5
4 Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven.
5 And I said unto the king, If it please the king, and if thy servant have found favour in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers’ sepulchres, that I may build it.
KJV

Nehemiah’s prayer to God and his request of the king for the rebuilding of the walls at Judah was not a self-directed spiritual exercise serving his own selfish interests. For Nehemiah did not pray God that the Most High himself or the king would rebuild the walls in Judah; nor did he lament because the people would not rebuild the walls; Instead Nehemiah sought favour so that he might be sent into Judah to do the work and “build it.”

And Nehemiah’s actions were all the more noteworthy when one considers the circumstances that Nehemiah found himself in. He was in no mean (lowly) position, for he was the King’s cupbearer. And while he might have used the position to ensure his own present and future security (having audience with both the king and queen), he was lamenting (not over himself) but over what was taking place among God’s own people, Nehemiah’s people. (Note the following: Though he possessed a position of privilege and preferment, he used his singular opportunity to make a request to the king to do something for others and not himself.)

Nehemiah’s interests were purely invested in the advancement of people and not himself. And those to whom the Lord has granted vision and strength enough to accomplish His purposes, will be the very same who the Lord will grace and grant the necessary favour for the fulfilling of it.

Beyond this, while the king may indeed have been the earthly instrument to grant Nehemiah’s request, Nehemiah’s first and primary petition (and likely a very persistent petition) was to the “God of Heaven.” Similar to rise of Joseph by Pharoah, the king of Babylon’s granting of favour to Ezra, the favor of Daniel with two kings of the Babylonians and a third, Darius, as representative of the Medes and Persians and still another king of Babylon, Evil-merodach, concerning the “lifting up the head of Jehoiachin” from prison-presciently and prefiguring the deliverance of Israel after their 70 year captivity prophesied through Jeremiah in Jeremiah 29:10-11-God often uses those who for reasons beyond (and within) their intentions to bring about His purposes on behalf of those who pursue purposes on behalf of people:

“Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.”-Ezra 1:2

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October 11, 2025 · 12:18 pm

TWO LINES OF WORK: BOOKER T. WASHINGTON, W.E.B. DU BOIS AND CHRISTIAN PRAGMATISM (A REFLECTION)

I remember my first day as president of Tuskegee University in April 2014. The heat in Macon County, Alabama pressed heavy, the buildings bore the weight of deferred maintenance, and the faculty, staff, students, and the Tuskegee community—fiercely loyal but growing weary with multiple presidents since 2010—carried questions in their eyes. The institution would be soon placed accreditation warning, which was noted in a foreboding accreditation letter placed on my desk on the day of my arrival based upon its recently submitted 5-year report. Newspapers wondered whether Tuskegee, once the pride of Black higher education, could endure.

As I stood before the gathered community that day, I felt two shadows at my back. One was Booker T. Washington, who had walked those same grounds a century earlier as its first principal and president—I had been the seventh—proclaiming that faith meant building bricks, raising barns, and cultivating dignity through labor. The other was W.E.B. Du Bois insisting that education must elevate the mind and sharpen intellect through reading, writing and thinking.

Between those two legacies and within my own Christian faith, I had to lead. The great temptation of American memory has been to tell the story of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois as permanent enemies. Washington the Conservative builder, Du Bois the radical agitator. Washington the accommodator, DuBois the prophet. Such binaries are convenient for textbooks and contemporary debate, but they are rarely faithful to the lives of real men who bore the burden of being leaders in the nadir of American race relations.

(Most are not aware that the two consented to book co-authorship containing their individual essays, Du Bois taught one summer at Tuskegee, they both dined together at Washington’s “The Oaks,” and there is a great deal of correspondence between the two in Du Bois’s earlier career before their very public disagreements. Perhaps most of all, most do not know of their profound agreement regarding the need for reform within the African American community just as much as the need for protest on behalf the community-this dual sword was also at the core of Alexander Crummell’s American Negro Academy that Du Bois co-founded.)

Looking back, I see that Washington and Du Bois, so often portrayed as opposites, are better read together. Their synthesisis what I call Christian pragmatism. Washington’s ethic of discipline and labor, paired with Du Bois’s ethic of disciplined thought, shows that Christian leadership begins not with charisma but with character demonstrating itself in words and works. Washington laid bricks and built an institution for his primary vocation, Du Bois wrote scholarly books as well as periodicals for his. Each knew that conviction must become tangible work. In their lives, theology became vocational—even avocational—practice.

Moreover, Washington built schools to strengthen communities; Du Bois developed leaders to confront injustice. Both understood that Christian pragmatism requires not only inward piety but outward service. Washington’s faith was primarily demonstrated through the work of institution building though his oratorical prowess and writings were equally potent. He believed that institutions themselves could be sacraments of faith. His life testified that you could preach as much with a plow as with a pulpit. “Cast down your bucket where you are,” he once told a generation of Black Americans.

It was not resignation but a summons to cultivate dignity, usefulness, and permanence in a hostile land. That conviction steadied me when I faced Tuskegee’s accreditation warning. This was not glamorous work (for as I write elsewhere in a forthcoming work, MONDAY COMETH for all HBCU and small college presidents after the pomp and circumstance of homecoming, social media posts, football games, on campus incidents, alumni and weekend celebrations.)

It meant combing through financial ledgers, aligning governance structures, and insisting on collaboration and accountability at every level. It meant unglamorous meetings with auditors, trustees, consultants, and accrediting agencies. But I knew: if Tuskegee lost its accreditation, generations of Black students would lose opportunity.

In that labor, Washington was with me. To build, even against the odds, was an act of faith. Washington’s Christian faith was less concerned with doctrinal creeds, “exposition, testifying and persuading” (Acts 28:23)—though his Christian faith was well documented—than with the moral formation that comes through work. He believed that labor, performed faithfully and with dignity, could itself be a sermon. The plow, the hammer, and the brick were not merely tools of economic survival but sacraments of public witness.

His message to Black Americans was clear: do not despise the day of small beginnings (Zechariah 4:10). Lay foundations. Till soil. Build schools. Repair what is broken. He urged his people to cultivate faith by cultivating institutions that would outlast a single lifetime.This was the grammar of Washington’s faith, and it steadied me at Tuskegee. To face financial precarity was not glamorous work, but Washington reminded me it was holy work.

It was the work of repair, the planting of seeds, the raising of structures that others would inherit. Washington’s voice reminded me that Christian pramatism in higher education requires not only celebratory vision and self-aggrandizement via social media but the discipline of repairing hurting institutions.

Yet Washington alone could not carry me. Du Bois also walked beside me. His Christian pragmatism was marked not solely by church membership but by intellectual seriousness. Although this engagement was largely through words—his scholarly books and, especially, his periodical writing was the site of most of these commentaries on the black community—in addition to these he was the founder of Crisis Magazine which is still in existence. (Yet, to be clear, he moved very sharply from youthful piety in congregationalist and—even highly Puritanical–Great Barrington, Massachusetts to seasoned agnosticism at the time of his passing in Ghana, Africa.) Du Bois who gave birth to the Harlem Renaissance within the pages of Crisis was roundly criticized by these authors for being too high-handed and moralistic. I and other Du Bois scholars roundly acknowledge this.

All the same, he doubted, he wrestled, and he demanded that any faith worth holding withstand the sharp edge of reason. In my two books on Du Bois, Du Bois on Reform: Periodical-based Leadership for African Americans (2005) and W.E.B. Du Bois: Toward Agnosticism (2008) I came to see his skepticism as a kind of reverence: an unwillingness to trivialize truth. For him, education was sacred because it formed minds capable of wrestling with the highest questions.

When I later became president of Warner Pacific University, a small Christian, minority-serving college in Portland, Oregon, I carried Du Bois with me again.

Warner faced declining enrollment, waning missional alignment and shifting accreditation sanctions owing to the enrollment. Transformation required not just fiscal discipline but also intellectual courage—reimagining how a Christian institution could serve first-generation students, rural white students, and communities of color in a progressive-oriented city such as Portland.

That intellectual labor bore fruit. Warner regained full membership as a Governing Institution in the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU), became the first four-year university in Oregon to secure a multimillion-dollar Title V grant, and later received a multimillion-dollar Title II Augustus F. Hawkins grant in consecutive years. Those victories were institutional, yes, but they were also spiritual: they testified that Christian pragmatism is as much about profession as it is about spreadsheets.

Du Bois embodied a different grammar of Christian faith from Washington. His was a restless Christianity—marked by doubt, questioning, and ultimately, by agnosticism. And yet, in that very struggle, he offered a lesson for the Christian: that the life of the mind is not an enemy to faith but a form of reverence in its own right.

Du Bois’s intellectual engagement was uncompromising. He demanded that truth be tested, that claims of faith withstand the scrutiny of reason, that education stretch the human soul toward its highest possibilities. His insistence on intellectual rigor was, at its core, a deeply moral conviction: that Black life in America—as well as the Christian church—was worthy of the most serious thought, reflection and deliberation.

As I look back on Warner Pacific’s ongoing transformation, I see how Du Bois’s intellectual discipline challenged me to imagine more: not only helping preserve the institution which all participated in but rethinking its purpose. In that sense, Du Bois became for me less a skeptic to be resisted than a teacher to be followed insofar as faithfulness to reason is concerned—insisting that thought itself can be an act of faith.

This is what I carried as a president but more importantly as a Christian: the conviction that to lead and live is to integrate faith and reason (faith and learning), heart, hands and head, institution and idea (mission), always with an eye toward the flourishing of others.

When I left Tuskegee in July 2017, its accreditation warning had been lifted. When I left Warner Pacific in August 2025, it was financially stronger, more regionally and nationally recognized, and newly invested in by federal support. These outcomes were not my doing alone—hardly—but the fruit of a tradition I inherited—the tradition of Washington’s labor and Du Bois’s thought, refracted through my own Christian faith and Christian and African Americanintellectual tradition.

Today, when I mentor young leaders, I tell them: Washington and Du Bois are not enemies to be chosen between but teachers to be held together. From Washington we learn that to repair an institution is holy work. From Du Bois we learn that to engage ideas with seriousness is holy work. And from Christ we learn that service—whether with bricks or with books—exists to serve others.

I began my presidency at Tuskegee with two shadows at my back. I carry them still. And in their company, I continue to believe: the work of building, thinking, writing, repairing and leading for the good of others is not only possible—it is a civic and sacred calling.

In my years at Tuskegee and later Warner Pacific University, I came to realize that these legacies cannot be separated.

Washington’s grammar of building taught me that accreditation warnings and financial reforms could themselves be holy work.

Du Bois’s grammar of intellectual engagement taught me that survival was not enough—institutions must also nurture minds capable of deep thought, critical reflection, and moral courage even with the advent of (A.I. Artificial Intelligence).

This synthesis—discipline and dignity, questioning and thought, words and work (integrity)—is what I call Christian pragmatism. It does not pit faith against reason or action against reflection but integrates them in service.

Isaiah’s vision of rebuilding and restoring reminds us that God’s people are called not only to mend walls but also to renew minds. In Washington’s bricks and Du Bois’s questions, I see a Christian pragmatism that calls Christians to both. One repaired the waste places through labor; the other renewed the life of a people through thought. Without respect to one’s vocation, “[Paul] planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. (1 Corinthians 3:6)”

My hope for Christians today (African American and White alike, even hearkening back to the formation of the American Republic and the founding of the Republican-Democratic parties through the divergent and polemic views of Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson) is that they will embrace this dual inheritance. To labor faithfully like Washington and to think seriously like Du Bois is to embody a Christian pragmatism that strengthens institutions, nurtures communities, and prepares people to flourish.

That, I believe, is the work of Christian Pragmatism (or whatever one chooses to name it for one’s own faith tradition) for all believers and non believers alike demonstrating itself in both words and works in this time.

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October 7, 2025 · 11:55 pm

TWO LINES OF WORK: BOOKER T. WASHINGTON, W.E.B. DU BOIS and CHRISTIAN PRAGMATISM

Looking forward to speaking at the 2025 CCCU Imago Dei Conference at Indiana Wesleyan University https://www.cccu.org/cccu_event/2025-cccu-imago-dei-conference/
I will be speaking on the following: “Two Kinds of Work: Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois and Christian Pragmatism”

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October 4, 2025 · 12:21 pm

A FAMINE

Amos 8:11-12

11 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:
12 And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.
KJV


There is a far more severe a censure from heaven than the mere withholding of one’s bread and water, for when the words of the Lord are withheld, there will be a famine of the worst kind. For to be without the light of God’s Word is to be within darkness, and thus unable to see clearly into the direction of God’s choosing. (And the ability to see, perceive and recognize God’s will is the one area that no man or woman can ever live successfully without.)

Without the ability to seek God’s counsel at the mouth of His prophet Amos and similar prophets-for at the time there would only be the law of Moses and the prophets- they “wandered,” “ran to and fro,” and still did “not find it.” For the people well understood that having access to the words of the Lord were far more valuable than any temporal treasure such as food and drink. Jesus shared as much during his earthly ministry: “man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” Matthew 4:4

And while the prophet Amos shared about a time when there would be “a famine of the hearing the words of the Lord,” this was also the condition of God’s people when He called Samuel, the seer and prophet. Scripture records that during His calling as a child in service to Eli “the word of the Lord was precious [rare] in those days” 2 Samuel 3:1. Though “Samuel did not yet know the Lord neither was the word of the Lord revealed unto him,” 2 Samuel 3:7 he would eventually become a prophet to all Israel “for the Lord revealed Himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the Word of the Lord” 2 Samuel 3:21.

Unlike the time of the law and prophets and until the fullness of the canon of scripture came, contemporary believers possess an opportunity much greater than Amos and Samuel to hear the “words of the Lord” and it is an opportunity we would do well to consider and not always neglect:

“We have also a more sure word of prophecy; Whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:”-2 Peter 1:19

“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.”-2 Timothy 3:16

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October 3, 2025 · 1:44 pm

Politics

Personal and Private
Dear Sir: I am not active in politics and do not expect to be, and have no claim upon your time or attention. I simply write to assure you that I am doing in a rather quiet way whatever I can in connection with our mutual friend, Mr. Clarkson, to bring about your nomination for the presidency at St. Louis Convention […]. “April 10, 1896,” Booker T. Washington

 Booker T. Washington possessed many detractors who railed against the founding principal and president of Tuskegee (Institute) University for not being “active in politics.” In spite of this, we repeatedly find in his letters and correspondence that he was simply not “active” in the precise manner at the precise time that persons wanted him to be. Such was the case in his communication to William Boyd Allison. Although Mr. Washington was not loud, boisterous nor public in communicating the whole of his ideas and activities, he moved “in a rather quiet way” as demonstrated in this letter marked “personal and private.”

Unlike those without such responsibilities, many leaders of large and vast organizations like Booker T. Washington are not at liberty to publicly communicate all of their opinions or activities directed towards particular ends. Whether in the 19th century where leaders communicated through pen and paper or in the 21st century where men and women communicate via email or social media, you will rarely find the most effective leaders revealing the whole of their minds and the whole of their undertakings upon a matter. (The weightier their position, the weightier their word.)

It is a small and insignificant thing for a person who possesses no public reputation or great authority to offer opinion on highly charged political matters. Yet for a man in Booker T. Washington’s position, every move and word was scrutinized because of the eminence of his role and institution. For some 34 years, he was not simply Booker Washington; He was Booker Washington, principal and president of Tuskegee (Institute) University. As such, prudence dictated that he move “in a rather quiet way” in “politics” and on a great majority of matters for a great majority of his 34 years at the helm of Tuskegee (Institute) University.

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October 3, 2025 · 8:36 am

The Bond of Perfectness

The Bond of Perfectness

Col 3:12-14
12 Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;
13 Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.
14 And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.
KJV


In spite our preoccupations with spiritual gifts, these are (by no means) indications that he or she that employs them are mature (perfect). For “charity [love]…is the bond of perfectness” and is the first named “fruit of the Spirit” in Galatians 5:22. All the same, the Apostle Paul provides the most telling theological exposition of this truth when he informs the Corinthians, “And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.” To be sure, Paul also informs the Romans that the “gifts and callings of God are without repentance,” but make no mistake, giftings (without charity) never amounts to perfection (maturity). And though we find this illustrated in the lives of Peter, Sampson, Gideon and a host of other biblical personages, perhaps the clearest example of such is Joseph.

Joseph possessed an unimpeachable character throughout his life. Yet while still a child, and in possession of a great variety of giftings (i.e. visions, dreams, prophesy, interpretation and revelation), Joseph did not always demonstrate charity (love). For scripture records a number of his uncharitable acts: He brought an “evil report” to his father about his brothers; He “vaunteth” himself when he reported to his father and brothers his dream. And finally, he “sought after his own” in doing so. (For what edification is it to one’s fellows to report to them the manner in which God will exalt you, except it be for selfish vain glory?) These were uncharitable acts, and as such they were not the “bond of perfectness” (maturity).

Nonetheless, Joseph would eventually move “on unto perfection,” (not simply relishing in giftings) when he demonstrated charity (love) towards Pharaoh, Egypt, the surrounding countries, and his brothers. For in interpreting Pharaoh’s dream, he would not be prideful regarding his gift of interpretation, for he remarked: “It is not in me: God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace.” He would cover the transgression of his brothers with mercy and forgiveness and not give an evil report (though he discerned and was aware of their transgression): “So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God.” And finally, though his brothers would in fact bow down before him, it was not for the purpose of his own exaltation, but for others: “God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.” In the end, Joseph’s giftings would not be the principle marker of his notoriety, but his charity (love), “the bond of perfectness (maturity).”

1 Corinthians 3:11 “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things […] And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.”

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October 2, 2025 · 4:49 pm

11th Thing Podcast with Paul Aladenika: Leadership and Power Dynamics

So, make sure you listen in to next episode of the 11th thing podcast, hosted by me Paul Aladenika with my special guest, distinguished professor, scholar and president of Warner Pacific University, Dr Brian Johnson.

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September 21, 2025 · 3:44 pm

10th Tuskegee University President Investiture

Congratulations to the 10th President of Tuskegee University, Dr. Mark Brown and my college Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity brother on his investiture.

The second picture is Shemeka and I next to her First Lady portrait this morning in chapel to hear my good friend and pastor, Tuskegee alum, Bill Winston concluding 10th Tuskegee President investiture weekend.

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September 9, 2025 · 10:05 pm

Unknown…Yet Well Known: A Commentary on Moses’ Calling

“As unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed;” 2 Corinthians 6:9, KJV 1900

Within this chapter, the apostle Paul discusses the experiences of “ministers of God” who were living out their “callings” with an implicit contrast to others who were largely unaware of such similar difficulties and were simply striving for success and achievement without the inherent “purpose” seeking found in fulfilling a “calling.” And one such paradoxical experience is “being unknown yet well known.” The desire to become “well known” is a common desire for it aligns very deeply with the Apostle John’s admonition in one of his letters to avoid seeking the “pride of life” (1 John 2:16 ). And restraining from this all too human desire to seek glory for ourselves while simultaneously embracing a “calling” is a tempting one but necessary. For “calling” at its core seeks to first bring glory to God and secondarily “service” to others as its ultimate “purpose.” (And perhaps the most helpful biblical personage to help us understand this notion of being “unknown” yet well known” is the “calling” of Moses.)

Like ministers or those labouring in their “calling” with a paradoxical lack of success or notoriety, this very period often deepens “calling”‘and strengthens one within it. From every appearance (besides their very notable and public successes) Paul and Moses appear to be “unknown,” “poor,” “dying,” “chastened,” and a host of other things prior to their now more “well known” and well deserved reputations. Yet even when they were “unknown”-The people constantly spoke of stoning Moses in spite of his many miracles and Paul eventually died for his faith–these men were “rich” “alive” and “unkilled” during a lifetime of fulfilling their callings. This is called paradox which means a statement like “unknown but well known” may appear to be contradictory but in fact it reveals a deeper truth. The parallel to Paul’s ministry was that Moses is more well known after his miracles and great leadership but that was at 80 years old when yet before that time he was relatively “unknown” as a leader in Egypt and as a “shepherd” in Midian. In spite of this, this period of being unknown proved to be used by God for Moses’ ministry even though when he was in Egypt and Midian he was despised in part by both Egyptians and Hebrews.

While the complete telling of Moses’ life can be found throughout the Bible, the book of Exodus provides perhaps the most biographical material pertaining to his “calling.” We are mostly familiar with his fleeing from Egypt at age 40, his “calling” at the burning bush at 80 and another subsequent 40 years of leading a trying and turbulent people which led to his passing at 120. Yet, it is within this first stage—his time in Egypt—that we come to appreciate the experience of being “unknown yet well known.”

While extremely significant—and this is putting it in the mildest terms—it is simply not true that all of his personal acquaintance with miracles, mature graces in character and deep humility were the only tools the Lord used as he followed his “calling” wherein he became “well known” throughout the ages as the king of Jeshurun, a prophet to Israel, the great lawgiver and scribe of the first 5 books of the Bible (the Pentateuch). The Lord also employed his personal experiences prior to this great “calling” when he was “unknown” in Egypt and Midian. For it was there where he led Egyptian armies in war as a young leader and in Midian where he became familiar with the rigors of living in the desert becoming familiar with the natural mysteries of the mountains, sea and desert.

Yet in spite of this “unknown” pedigree of experiences—prior to receiving his “calling”—he is largely “well known” for the great miracles wrought by his hand in leading the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt. What we find in the biography of Moses is what we often find in ourselves and our own experiences. God wastes nothing in both the “unknown” and “well known” individual experience when “calling” us-causing “all things to work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28

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September 9, 2025 · 12:56 pm

Interview on “The Gre8tness Router Podcast” w/ Brian Johnson, Ph.D.

Thursday, September 11th. Episode No. 0017: The Greatest Seven Letter Word can be found anywhere podcasts are available by searching “The GR8TNESS Router” or by visiting thegr8tnessrouter.com.

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September 9, 2025 · 12:24 pm

A Commentary on Discerning Calling: Prove the Good, Acceptable and Perfect Romans 12:2

“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” (Romans 12:2, KJV 1900)

For most, coming to and discerning one’s “calling’ is by no means an overnight process; Rather, for believers and unbelievers alike, it is lifelong—whether one is pursuing it or not. And perhaps one sure way of searching forward to discover one’s “calling” and the “will of God” is to begin by searching backwards to “prove what is that good, acceptable and perfect will of God.”

To be clear, one cannot develop a formulaic, mathematical and rational approach for discerning the “calling” that this writer believes every person possesses. (And it is unique and it is not to be compared to another except insofar as it conforms–albeit far from it–from the Lord. Read Hebrews 5:8-10.) Chiefly there is a call to the Lord and secondarily to one’s purpose here in the earth in response to Him: “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:9 (To even attempt to address such a wide chasm between our own understanding and His can often appear unknowable and it necessitates first and foremost a personal relationship with the Creator.)

All the same, there are several principles that we might glean from in helping us to discern “calling” and one of these is “proving” in Romans 12:2 which contextually occurs —similar to the call of Isaiah—in the prior verse Romans 12:1. Like Isaiah, one’s “reasonable service” is confession, separation and ongoing commitment that precedes discovering “calling” See my commentary on Isaiah’s calling: https://intersectionoffaithandlearning.com/2025/09/09/send-me-a-commentary-on-calling/

“Proving” involves finding evidence for, having witnesses to, and objective (not opinion) facts that give transparent confirmation to an assertion. And one way to discover one’s calling is to observe and prove (for one’s self) attributes, giftings, passions, interests, successes, talents etc that have been resident with you since one’s youth. (It is never too late to undertake and fulfill one’s highest “calling to God” and one’s secondarily “calling” concerning what you are to do in response to this “calling.”)

Notwithstanding, this “proving” (as with most principles) contains 3 important constraints when considering them within a perceived “calling”. These might be framed into the following queries: “Is it good?” “Is it acceptable?” “Is it perfect?” (The latter being does it possess the intrinsic and latent qualities of a talent or giftedness that has been given to you effortlessly and was not obtained on one’s own.) This would be akin to a fish being created to swim and not climb a mountain like a mountain goat.

It would be beyond the scope of any single commentary to begin to determine those “good,” “acceptable,” and “perfect” things that have been given to us for “calling” in “service” to others which is part and parcel of everyone’s “purpose.” Yet one singular place to begin discerning whether one is in “lockstep” with one’s “calling” is “proving” what has preceded (and perhaps overlooked) in the past to determine how to bring forth “calling” in the present.

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September 9, 2025 · 10:45 am

Send Me: A Commentary on Isaiah’s Calling

5 Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.
6 Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar:
7 And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.

8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.
Isaiah 6:5-8


Though the Apostle Paul’s “calling” and conversion offers a useful place for believers and unbelievers alike to begin understanding their own sense of “calling,” the prophet Isaiah’s “calling” does so in similar fashion. (See my commentary on Paul’s calling:

Who Art Thou, Lord?: A Commentary on Paul’s Calling

Although there have been men and women throughout scripture who have been privy to eternal majesties and have been assigned to spectacular missions by God himself, their qualifications were not much different than our own. James writes of the prophet Elijah “that he was a man subject to like passions even as we are.” Notwithstanding, the virtue and nobility of those men and women selected by God for magnificent purposes lie not in the fact that they were sinless and perfect like our Lord, but within the fact that they were deeply aware of, and admitted their own sinfulness when others were not and would not. We see this here explicitly in the “calling” of Isaiah.

Although Isaiah’s vision of the throne and his subsequent response, “Here am I; send me” is quite familiar to most, what’s most impressive about the prophet is his acknowledgement of his own “unclean lips,” and God’s subsequent purging of his sin with “live (fiery) coals.”

And herein lies in Isaiah’s “calling” two important elements for coming to understand one’s “calling”: 1. A candid, frank and transparent acknowledgement of one’s own mortality and frailties in face of His immorality and perfection 2. Purging through the fire of enduring what this awareness inevitably brings-often through “suffering” (Acts 9:16)- and will continue to bring while responding to this “calling.”

For what was Isaiah’s first response to this charge, invitation, summons, or “calling” to the Lord’s queries: “Whom shall I send and Who shall go for us?”

Isaiah was first completely assured of his own forgiveness for his weaknesses and shortcomings wrought in deep humility and awareness that all that is good and that God will do through him in this “calling” is from the LORD, and having been “sent” he experienced “purging” often through “suffering” prior to and continuously while serving people.

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