Faith Made Flesh

Faith Made Flesh brings together the experience, insight, and stories of those actively addressing societal and educational disadvantages of Black children in Sacramento, California. Editors Lawrence "Torry" Winn, Vajra M. Watson, Maisha T. Winn, and Kindra F. Montgomery-Block seek to offer viable solutions to racial injustice by centering the voices of organizers, policymakers, educators, scholars, and young people alike.

Focused on the Black Child Legacy Campaign (BCLC), a ten-year community-driven initiative to respond to disproportionate health outcomes, the contributors analyze the impact of the BCLC's successes, providing an empirically rich narrative of its transformative alliances and radical actions. Through timely and urgent case studies and personal reflections, Faith Made Flesh advances the need to address societal challenges through creative engagement with diverse institutional and individual stakeholders. The findings offer an innovative model to other regions aiming to cultivate thriving community-city-school partnerships that center the well-being of Black children and Black futures.

Lawrence "Torry" Winn is Associate Professor of Teaching in Education in the School of Education at the University of California, Davis.

Vajra M. Watson is Senior Associate Vice President and Professor of Education at Sacramento State University.

Maisha T. Winn is the Chancellor's Leadership Professor at the University of California, Davis.

Kindra F. Montgomery-Block is Vice President of Diversity, Equity, and Social Impact for the Sacramento Kings.

In these pages, the authors develop a consummate example of publicly engaged scholarship. This well researched undertaking surfaces an impressive range of voices well beyond the usual suspects. Employing rigorous frameworks including poetic and musical verve, Faith Made Flesh demonstrates how knowledge makers embrace the tough work of imagining toward ameliorating some of the most pressing and urgent social issues in urban life.

Mark R. Warren, author of Willful Defiance:

Faith Made Flesh is a creative and powerful book on a topic of critical importance: how to make concrete progress in reducing racial inequities rooted in anti-Black racism.

Bianca J. Baldridge, author of Reclaiming Community:

This book is a beautiful blueprint that can shape how we create and sustain equitable, liberatory, and justice-centered educational spaces and communities for Black children and youth.