How to Heal Our Racial Divide by Derwin Gray

I met Dr. John Perkins, or "JP," as he is affectionately called, when I was a seminary student in the early 2000s. I will never forget the imprint he left on me. I looked in awe at this man, who at the time was about sixty-eight. He was preaching with gospel fire accompanied by penetrating insights into the human condition with wisdom that only comes from living what you are proclaiming. Eloquence, knowledge, and truth erupted from him. The presence of the Holy Spirit was tangible. God's message was burning in his bones, and the flames of Jesus' grace raced through him to set us all on fire. But above all, he preached about King Jesus and the beautiful, reconciling power of the gospel. I did not know it at the time, but I was in the presence of a giant. I also did not know that JP's witness on reconciliation was so hard-won.

JP was born on a plantation, where enslaved Black people had picked cotton, in New Hebron, Mississippi. He was born during the Great Depression, so money and food were scarce. His mother died from malnutrition when he was a child. Let that sink in: his mother died because there was not enough food to eat. His grandmother took him in, and by third grade, JP stopped going to school because he was needed to work on the cotton farm.