FGC recommends the following tip for newcomers to the Quaker faith: Read two popular QuakerPress titles: Black Fire and Fit for Freedom, Not for Friendship.

There is a common misconception that, because of their belief in equality, most Quakers assisted fugitive slaves and involved themselves in civil rights activism. While there were Friends committed to ending enslavement and post-enslavement injustices, study of Quaker history reveals that racism has been as insidious, complex, and pervasive among Friends as it has been generally among people of European descent. The book Fit for Freedom, Not for Friendship: Quakers, African Americans, and the Myth of Racial Justice documents the spiritual and practical impacts of discrimination in the Religious Society of Friends in the expectation that understanding the truth of our past is vital to achieving a diverse, inclusive community in the future.

Black Fire – African American Quakers on Spirituality and Human Rights gathers together the voices of 18 remarkable individuals who spoke and wrote as African Americans from within the Quaker community. they testify about their viewpoints on racial justice — both within the Religious Society of Friends and society at large – and they speak of their life in the Spirit. As a collection, these selections exhibit the vitality and wisdom that three centuries of African American Quakers have contributed to and on behalf of Friends.

Find Black Fire at QuakerBooks

Find Fit for Freedom at QuakerBooks

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