From Publishers Weekly
This well-designed gift book pairs photographs and prayers to help readers understand the richness and diversity of African-American spirituality, including Muslim, Rastafarian, Jewish, Protestant, Catholic, Voudou and Yoruba traditions. As Coretta Scott King points out in the foreword, the book's dedication to a wide range of faiths seems encapsulated by a 1964 photograph of her husband leading a prayer at their dinner table under an irenic portrait of his Hindu mentor, Gandhi. A helpful appendix provides information about the setting of many of the photographs: a Promise Keepers rally, a prison service, a Buddhist meditation gathering, a prayerful university protest from 1960. Most of the photos are memorable, and often cleverly parallel the quote chosen for the facing page. These short quotes are taken from prayers, novels, speeches, hymns, spirituals and sacred texts like the Bible and the Qur'an. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
From New York's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture comes a collection of prayers from the U.S., Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean that reflects the enduring role of prayer in the lives of African Americans. The 100 prayers, accompanied by photographs, also reflect the variety of religious experiences of the African diaspora, including western Christianity, Islam, Haitian Vodou, Buddhism, Yoruba, and Coptic Christianity. In the foreword, Coretta Scott King recalls prayer as a source of strength and inspiration through the troubling times of her husband's struggle as a civil rights leader. The particular prayers are drawn from gospel song lyrics, literature, poetry, and the Scriptures and are invocations of peace, deliverance, understanding, victory, and strength for personal and racial struggles; particular contributors include James Baldwin, Marian Wright Edelman, Thomas Dorsey, W. E. B. DuBois, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Maya Angelou, and Martin Luther King Jr. A moving testament to the importance of prayer in African American history and to the enduring belief that prayer changes things. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
Derrick Bell professor and author of Gospel Choirs: Psalms of Survival in an Alien Land Called Home and Ethical Ambition: Living a Life of Meaning and Worth The power of prayer has carried black people over troubled waters, through valleys of dry bones, through paths of blood and tears. Prayer has been our cry for freedom and deliverance -- both a supplication and a celebration. Standing in the Need of Prayer is an eloquent and lovely book which captures the essence of the most sacred, humble, and glorious moments in the African-American religious experience.

Book Description
From the darkest days on slave ships to the defiant times of the Civil Rights Movement, prayer has embodied the most intense expression of African and African-American spirituality. As Mrs. Coretta Scott King writes in her foreword to Standing in the Need of Prayer, "It is said that every prayer is heard and every prayer is answered in some way [and] I still believe that the millions of prayers spoken by African Americans from the Middle Passage on down to today have been heard by a righteous and loving God." In this remarkable book, striking photographs and powerful prayers drawn from the unparalleled collections of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture span the broad spectrum of black religious traditions during the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries. From the plaintive Yoruba prayer to "Look after us,/Look after our children" and the humble opening prayer of the Qur'ân to "Guide us on the right path" to W. E. B. Du Bois's prideful prayer to "Let [Thy children] grow in the capacity for worthy work...and may they in the end prove worthy of their great heritage," this extraordinary volume reflects the struggle, despair, determination, and triumph of the black experience through the ages. Drawing from faiths as diverse as Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and Vodou, the book also includes prayers from some of history's most powerful voices, among them Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, and Martin Luther King, Jr. At once beautiful and evocative, Standing in the Need of Prayer captures the most varied, striking, and powerful photographic and poetic expressions of prayer in a joyous celebration of the rich spiritual roots of a courageous people whose incredible spiritual journey will inspire generations to come.

About the Author
The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library, is the most comprehensive public research library in the world devoted exclusively to the preservation of materials on the global black experience. Created in 1926, the Center now holds more than five million volumes, manuscripts, paintings, and other materials in its collections. A major hub of black cultural life, the Center is located in historic Harlem in New York City.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In this book, photographs and powerful prayers drawn from the collections of the Schomburg Center for Research n Black Culture span the broad spectrum of black religious traditions during the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries. From the plaintive Yoruba prayer to "Look after us/Look after our children" and the humble opening prayer of the Qur'an to "Guide us on the right path" to W.E.B. DuBois's prideful prayer to "Let [Thy children] grow in the capacity for worthy work...and may they in the end prove worthy of their great heritage," this volume reflects the struggle, despair, determination, and triumph of the black experience through the ages. Drawing from faiths as diverse as Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and Vodou, the book also includes prayers from some of history's most powerful voices, among them Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, and Martin Luther King, Jr.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal