Family origins are traced to Heinrich Süsstrunk (ca. 1601-ca. 1660) who married Anna Stücki in 1630. They lived in Hümlicken, Canton Zürich, Switzerland. One descendant, Heinrich Süsstrünk (1716-1762), and his wife, Ürsüla Ülry, came to South Carolina in 1744. Another cousin, also Heinrich, came to South Carolina in 1746. Descendants lived in South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Florida, Texas, Louisiana, and elsewhere.
Winner of the 2023 College Language Association Book Award Finding Francis, finding family, freeing history Francis is found. Beyond Francis, a family is found—in archival material that barely deigned to notice their existence. This is the story of Francis Sistrunk and her children, from enslavement into forced migration across South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. It spans decades before the Civil War and continues into post-emancipation America. A family story full of twists and turns, Finding Francis reclaims and honors those women who played an essential role in the historical survival and triumph of Black people during and after American slavery. Elizabeth West has created a remarkable "biohistoriography" of everyday Black resistance, grounded in a determination to maintain enduring connections of family, kinship, and community despite the inhumanity and rapacity of slavery. There is inevitable heartbreak in these histories, but there is also an empowering strength and inspiration—the truth of these lives will indeed set us all free.
Over 13,000 Americans have been murdered in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries because of their sexual orientation and gender presentation. In Unfinished Lives: Reviving the Memory of LGBTQ Hate Crimes Victims, Stephen Sprinkle puts a human face on the outrage and loss suffered when people die from anti-gay hatred. Beginning with new developments in the story of Matthew Shepard's murder in Laramie, Wyoming, Sprinkle tells the stories of fourteen representative LGBTQ victims whose lives were savagely cut short due to homophobia and transphobia. These are stories about people who could be your neighbor, classmate, co-worker, or friend-real, everyday people whose love was foreclosed, relationships brutally terminated, and future contributions stolen from us by outrageous, irrational hatred. Told lovingly yet unflinchingly, Unfinished Lives lifts the stories of these LGBTQ victims from undeserved obscurity, allowing their memory to live again. Relying on personal interviews and visits to the locations where these people lived, loved, and died, Sprinkle records the raw emotions, powerful movements for social change, and unexpectedly hopeful communities that arise from the ruins of those people whose only "offense" was to live as they were born to be. Part portraiture, part crime narrative, and part ethnography, Unfinished Lives is poised to change the conversation on hate crimes in the United States.
This special collection assembles some of the most pre-eminent scholars in the field in African, African American, and American Studies to explore the ways writers reclaim the Black female body in African American literature using the theoretical, social, cultural, and religious frameworks of spirituality and religion. Central to these discussions is Black women’s agency within these realms—their uncanny ability to invent and reinvent themselves within individual and communal spaces that frame them as both outsider and insider, unworthy and worthy, deviant and sacred, excess and minimal. Scholars have sought to discuss these tensions, acknowledged and affirmed in prose, poetry, music, essays, speeches, written plays, or short stories. Forgiveness, healing, redemption, and reclamation provide entry into these vibrant explorations of self-discovery, passion, and self-creation that interrogate traditional views of what is spiritual and what is religious. Discussed writers include Toni Morrison, Phillis Wheatley, James Baldwin, Tina McElroy Ansa, Toni Cade Bambara, and Thomas Dorsey.
Radically Apostolic isn't just a book that Charles Robinette has written; it is a life that he has lived, with his wonderful wife Stacey and their precious girls at his side. I encourage you to join them on the journey and to become all that God has called you to be. --Pastor Raymond Woodward Radically Apostolic tells a captivating story of fierce storms and astonishing destinations. For the Christian who might be feeling a holy discontent in the harbor, this book will serve as a map for your journey. My faith soared as I read this book. I pray yours will too. --Pastor Aaron Soto Brother Robinette stretches us all to see the infinite possibilities that come with being radically apostolic. --Bishop Joel N. Holmes 7
" An exciting story of the life of a man, from his early years as a hungry orphan, to his rewarding achievements as a successful trial lawyer. He entertains with gusto as we experience some of his exciting cases as well as his madcap personal experiences. The true murder case is so unbelievable and spellbinding; it transcends reality as it unravels and becomes comical and then the irony in its conclusion. His selection of the title The Jurys Back gives real insight into the fervor associated with the conclusion of a trial. Throughout, we feel the authors desire to inspire young people to succeed. It also provides a good test to determine if you could be a good trial lawyer."
