Crossing the Tracks: Hope for the Hopeless and Help for the Poor in Rural Mississippi and Your Community

by Dolphus Weary

Dolphus Weary knows from personal experience just how harmful racial division can be. Growing up in rural Mississippi, he leared that if poverty, hunger, and disease didn’t kill him, racism, bigotry, or the Klan just might. So when a college basketball scholarship gave him the opportunity to get away from the broken, racially divided city of Mendenhall, he jumped at the chance. But he couldn’t outrun racism. Eventually God called him back to his hometown--to the city where the railroad tracks not only separate economic classes but also represent a divide in the church. Believing that prejudice is ultimately a spiritual issue, Weary went back to Mississippi and worked to break down racial divides and promote productive dialogue, greater understanding, and ultimately racial reconciliation. The founder and part-time president of R.E.A.L. (Rural Education and Leadership) Christian Foundation, Weary helps ministries and communities realize that a “kingdom mentality” is possible only when we stop limiting God’s work to a denomination or racial group.

193 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2012

Reviews

[Steve Gilbert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book of the the need for racial reconciliation, especially in the church. Changed some of my own biases, yet Dolphus wrote without trying to attack anyone. Recommended especially for pastors who want to work towards racial harmony in their own community, but also good for anyone who wants to better understand what it may have been like to grow up poor and black in the south.