2024 has been one of the most heartbreaking years of my life. Yet, even in the midst of these dark times, God has continually encouraged me with His many blessings. I think of Langston Hughes’s poem about a dream deferred. In my case, my dreams have never dried up. Instead, through the sovereign hand of God and in his timing, His blessings have exploded in my life. Today, I want to share a video (see below) where I reflect on my testimony of how God led me to my most recent book contract with Anthem Press.
Nearly 20 years ago, I began writing about the Black Intellectual Tradition, and from the start, I’ve encountered resistance in sharing this truth. I am deeply thankful that God connected me with Dr. Sheena Mason and her groundbreaking work in the Togetherness Wayfinder/Theory of Racelessness, which speaks to the very heart of why I do this work. My passion is to use my scholarship to bring us together, and I explore this vision in the final chapter of my dissertation, Living in the Constellation of the Canon.
By uncovering the shared legacy of our ancestors in the classical tradition, I believe we can see ourselves as part of one global human family, rather than being divided by the artificial construct of race. For years, I searched for a theoretical framework to guide this work—not just as a scholarly pursuit, but as a way to bring racial healing to those who truly seek it. The classical tradition is one of the few shared legacies we can trace across race, culture, continents, and even socio-economic status.
I am so grateful to God for how my connection with Sheena led me to submit my manuscript, Human Tapestries: Weaving Africana Stories with Classics, to Anthem Press. I am also thankful that the timing is now. This opportunity didn’t come earlier in my career because I wasn’t yet ready; I still had more research to do. Writing The Black Intellectual Tradition (co-authored with Angel Adams Parham) was a crucial first step in understanding just how integral the classical tradition is to Black history.
Honestly, I thought my journey had reached its end when I completed my PhD, but my dissertation was only the beginning of a lifelong journey. It didn’t come while I was a lecturer at Howard or a leader at Johns Hopkins. Instead, it came after God opened the door for me to become an assistant professor at Catholic University, where academic publication can help me achieve tenure.
This journey has been long, difficult, and often discouraging, but God has been with me every step of the way. I give all the glory to Him, and my hope and prayer is that this next book will share the truth that can set us free from the racism that divides us. By learning about our shared human origins and understanding that the color line, as we know it, did not exist at the dawn of human civilization, I believe we can begin the work of healing, reconciliation, and unity.
Dr. Anika T. Prather 