The Beatitudes: From Slavery to Civil Rights

I have always wrestled with the Beatitudes, which are found in both the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. (We will read Luke's version on Sunday, February 13.) The Beatitudes bring up more questions than answers for me and I wish I could sit down with Jesus and ask him to say more. I am therefore grateful for people, art, and messages that enter into the Beatitudes with Holy imagination and make them come alive within our world.

"The Beatitudes: From Slavery to Civil Rights" by Carole Boston Weatherford and Tim Ladwig does this beautifully. The Beatitudes form the backdrop for Weatherford's free-verse poem and Ladwig's illustrations that traces the African American journey from slavery to civil rights. Both in word and illustration, the reader and listener are introduced/reintroduced to leaders in this struggle like Absalom Jones (whose feast day is also February 13), Harriet Tubman, and Marian Anderson. The reader and listener are invited to remember and wonder about how God was with them and by extension how God is with those who strive for justice today.

"The Beatitudes: From Slavery to Civil Rights" written by Carole Boston Weatherford and illustrated by Tim Ladwig. Published by Eerdmans Books for Young Readers in 2009.