Acknowledgements
This project was originally birthed in 2009 when I served as diversity administrator and practical theology assistant professor of an honorâs leadership course in Christian higher education. Fannie Lou Hamer was incorporated into the course, and then I began to incorporate her prophetic voice, ministry, faith, and leadership into my speeches. Eventually, she emerged as the main subject of conference and sermon presentations. I thank God, and her, for the life she lived, and the lessons she taught.
Hence, thank you is due to my former provost, Herma B. Williams, who invited me to co-teach the course and supported my ideas in the designing and implementation of the class. Additionally, I would like to thank the following scholars, many of whom I do not know personally, who nonetheless recovered and resurrected the life and legacy of Fannie Lou Hamer in the twenty-first century: Lea E. Williams, Maegan Parker Brooks, Davis W. Houck, Charles Marsh, Rosetta E. Ross, and Albert J. Raboteau. Their research and scholarship gave me a solid foundation to stand on and create another rendering of the contributions of Mrs. Hamer.
In the spring semester of 2016, I was granted the Issachar Fund (IF) and Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) Sabbatical Writerâs Retreat Grant. A year later in the spring of 2017, IF afforded me the space, time, and financial resources while receiving free housing a stoneâs throw from Lake Michigan to focus on a novel idea, Hamerâs creation care leadership ethic. Many thanks to the IF staff of Grand Rapids, Michigan: Kurt Berends, Mike Hamilton, Sara Hohnstein, Sara Merrilees, and Deb Sisson, for believing in me and this project.
Assata Zerai, formerly at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), and Maimouna Barro, director of the Center for African Studies at UIUC who awarded me a research scholar affiliate status at the Center for African Studies for six-weeks during the summer of 2017. Their leadership, support, office space, and institutionâs academic resources propelled me in my research on Mrs. Hamer to greater depths. I was spoiled by the way the librarians took care of me as a visiting scholar. Assata, you went above and beyond in connecting me with local scholars, writing groups, interfaith networks, and Christian faith communities to share my research. I was welcomed with open-arms in unforgettable ways.
The King Center staff of Atlanta, Georgia accommodated my research request on the day it was made. The service and resources were phenomenal and I wish my time there could have been extended.
Thanks are due to my colleagues, mentees, dear friends, and/or Sistahs who read and provided feedback on at least one chapter. They are Hope Nisly, Angela Paula Hernandez, Anna A. Berardi, Marcel Woodruff, Colleen Windham-Hughes, Phillis I. Sheppard, Rosetta E. Ross, Mother Dr. Wilma Ardine Lyghtner Kirchhofer and the black women of Atlanta who gathered in the reading circle in March of 2017. Rosetta, you were my guardian angel by providing the necessary encouragement and freedom to persevere. From the beginning, you were intrigued by and excited about this project and they never waned. Hope, you did double duty by participating in the writing group with Angela and me as well as serving as my copyeditor. I am grateful for the way each of you celebrated earlier versions of this work and encouraged me to keep writing.
My mother Katherine Kelley Crozier has been anticipating this book, and she has been an avid supporter of her baby girl alongside my sisters Patrice Crozier Keenan and Charlene Crozier McClain. My youngest brother Rodney Crozier, Sr., provided a wonderful meal and gathering of extended family before I went on my sabbatical to Michigan. Thank you, family, for your undying love. I am humbled by the fact that my academic life is supported and embraced by you. I know the Ancestors are smiling!