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.

The book contains writings by: Benjamin Banneker (1731-1806), William Boen (1735-1824), Paul Cuffe (1759-1817), Elizabeth (1766-1866), Sojourner Truth (1799-1883), Sarah Mapps Douglass (1806-1882), Robert Purvis (1810-1898), Jean Toomer (1894-1967), Howard Thurman (1899-1981), Ira DeAugustine Reid (1901-1968), Barrington Dunbar (1901-1978), Helen Morgan Brooks (1904-1989), Bayard Rustin (1912-1987), Mahala Ashley Dickerson (1912-2007), Bill Sutherland (1918- 2010 ), Charles Nichols (1919-2007), George Sawyer (1925-2002), Vera Green (1928-1982).