Analysis Of A Stone Of Hope: Prophetic Religion And The Death Of Dam Crow

David L. Chappell. A Stone of Hope: Prophetic Religion and the Death of Jim Crow In A Stone of Hope: Prophetic Religion and the Death of Jim Crow, David L. Chappell sheds new light on the components of the civil rights movement, concretely adding prophetic religion to the mix of ingredients of those tumultuous times from 1940s-1960s. Chappell’s thesis states “that faith drove black southern protesters to their extraordinary victories in the mid-1960s, grew out of a realistic understanding of the typically dim prospects for social justice in the world.” The protester’s prophetic content of their speeches, diaries, and other paraphernalia related to the civil rights movement, illuminates this great divide. With an eye for detail, Chappell points to the factors of religion that have been overlooked by

In his conclusion, Chappell admits, “First approaching this story as an atheist, I was surprised and skeptical to hear so many of my subjects – whom I admired from afar – expressing what Bayard Rustin called “fundamentalist” views.” Chappell goes on to describe his reluctance to believe his subject’s testimony of “miracles” had it not been for their frequency and key to the beliefs of his subject’s choices. In a catch-22 situation, perhaps only an atheist could tell this story with an objective mind, but perhaps a religious mind could have given more clarity to certain aspects. Clearly a well-researched book, A Stone of Hope is nevertheless not an easily understandable book by someone who is not somewhat familiar or the least bit interested in the civil rights movement of the twentieth century. Chappell obviously has a great handle on the material but seems to have trouble getting that material to the reader in a fashion that is interesting and relatable. It is more a book of general theories than facts, which is more difficult to