“George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Sandra Bland, Atatiana Jefferson, Philando Castile...The killings of these unarmed men and women ignited racial firestorms across the country. Too often, churches and faith leaders across America struggle to respond to and lead through the sociopolitical uproar these events produce.” [ reference amazon.com]

Dr. Dorrell Briscoe approached me about the book cover in April of 2020. At the time, we were planning for an early fall release of the book project he had poured himself into for 2 years. Dorrell called shortly after the news broke about Ahmaud Arbery’s death and asked if we could push up the release date. He felt so strongly that we needed to put this project out to the world.

My goal for the cover art was to address the Church body that has been rooted in racism, support for, and benefit from white supremacy. Too often church services are held following a racial tragedy as business-as-usual. There’s little or zero mention from the pulpit of the atrocities happening in our society or the reality of being Black in America. I chose to depict the image of a cross burning occurring right on the lawn of the church, so close the heat radiated off the stained glass. An image so visceral that it cannot be ignored. What will the church do now, that a racial tragedy is occurring on their lot? How can they turn their backs now?

In the midst of finalizing the book release, we could have never imagined the tragedy of Ahmaud would be followed by the murder of George Floyd.

Since it’s release, Dr. Briscoe has been asked to offer his wisdom and guidance on local news stations, multiple podcasts, online interviews, and CNN.