Colored Women Sittin’ on High

“Black women are on a journey, a magical one. A journey of reclamation and welcoming of our teachers. . . . Who knew about the wonderful world of black women preachers, for instance? I didn’t. But there they are; there they have been. Nina Simone’s mother was a preacher! What!? Melanie Hill’s book is full of them.”—Alice Walker, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Color Purple

“A love letter to Black women preachers. . . . Colored Women Sittin’ on High preaches on Black women’s freedom dreams. Our grandmothers, great grandmothers, and motherly ancestors had dreams that they could not fulfill because they were Black women living in a particular time. We are the embodiment of those freedom dreams, living in ways that at times exceed our ancestors’ imaginations for what we could do.”—Sojourners Magazine

“Colored Women Sittin' on High is an expressive and passionate analysis. There is no other book-length treatment that brings together such disparate writers, speakers, and musical artists within an overarching eschatological, exegetical, and literary and cultural critical framework.”—Crystal J. Lucky, Villanova University

“Melanie R. Hill’s own ‘sermonic’ voice shines through in this engaging and exciting work, one that will appeal to not only scholars but general readers as well.”— E. Patrick Johnson, author of Honeypot