Book News!!

Cover release. Plus, pre-order links now available

This week I’m pausing on the usual essay to provide you with some fun book news. First things first: We have a cover!

I’m so excited about this. Kristin Miller at Fortress Press did such great work on it. In visual form, it captures the two entangled stories that the book tracks. At the top is a map of Charlotte, NC. Against the black background, the map looks a bit like stars in the night sky. In the center, between the stems of the U, is the old Brooklyn neighborhood of Charlotte. Brooklyn is the site of the history I’ve been tracking, and the site of the great trespass that constitutes the primary movement of the book.

At the bottom is Raymond King, a Sunday School teacher, a church elder, and the best-known white liberal in Charlotte during the 1960s and early 70s. He is wearing a suit. He is riding a bulldozer and plowing down a house in a federally-financed Urban Renewal project in Charlotte’s Greenville neighborhood. Alongside the long story of Brooklyn, and the North family who lived there, in particular, Our Trespasses looks deeply at how Christians planned, operated, managed, and profited from Urban Renewal in Charlotte and around the country. I’ve spent years investigating the stories and the history in the book, and the theological and political world that gave rise to that history. Regarding the work of white Christians and churches who pushed for Urban Renewal to happen here and then profited from it, I’m trying to understand the question that Charles Mills poses: “How were people able consistently to do the wrong thing while thinking that they were doing the right thing?”¹

The photo of Ray King was celebrated in the press in 1970 when it appeared. It is jarring today. It gives us a stark visual to help us think through the answers to Mills’ question. The answers that I’ve done my best to uncover tell us—here I mean us white Christians—something that remains true about us today. The answers to Mills’ question help to explain how and why race remains a determining factor in the spatial orientation of cities in the United States. The work of confronting our histories is a necessary step toward creating a future worth having.

If the entangled stories of the Norths, and Brooklyn, and First Baptist Church, and white liberal Christians sound interesting or important to you, then you can use the link right here to pre-order a copy of the book, which officially arrives Feb 20, 2024.

Thanks to my friends at Park Road Books, I have a special opportunity for you. If you pre-order through their site, I will put a custom inscription in the book for you. Once you drop the book in your cart on their site, you can leave a note with instructions for how you’d like me to inscribe it before finalizing the order. When the books arrive, I’ll sign them as you want, so long as what you want is brief and within the conventions of good taste. I’m barring any mentions of Duke losing to Carolina in the Final Four, but outside of that, feel free to have me provoke your uncle, or say something sweet to your sweetie, or offer some encouragement to your neighbor or nephew.

Park Road Books will let you know when the book is ready for pick up. They’ll ship it to you in whatever far-flung locale you are in if you can’t get there. I should acknowledge my bud Tommy Tomlinson, one of the finest writers anywhere, for making me aware this arrangement was possible by way of his Substack, which I read at lunch every Friday. Tommy has a fascinating book about the world of dog shows coming in April. You can get the same deal on his book (and several others) through Park Road Books here.

You can get Our Trespasses in all the other places you can buy books also, including your own local bookstore. Here are links to the book for pre-orders through Fortress Press, the river site, B&N, and bookshop.org.

Lastly, I’m opening up paid subscriptions on this Substack. Several folks have already pledged to be paid subscribers, for which I’m so grateful. Several others have asked how they can support the work. Becoming a paid subscriber is one significant way of doing that. So is sharing this newsletter and the book, or having me come speak to your church or club or fantasy football draft or whatever. I’m working on a few perks for subscribers and those who pre-order, so stayed tuned for those. And keep your receipts! Upgrade to a paid subscription with this button:

One Last Note: I came across the album Uneasy this week, a collaboration between pianist Vijay Iyer, bassist Linda May Han Oh, and drummer Tyshawn Sorey. All of them are among the most highly regarded players of their generation on their respective instruments. They are also all on record for staying connected to the long stream with the jazz tradition of tying the music to the struggle for justice. The album captures that, especially in the opening track “Children of Flint.” Worth multiple listenings.

And one more time:

1. Charles Mills, The Racial Contract (Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univeristy Press, 1997), 94.