For Black History Month, our “Black Church in Detroit” series examines Black history in the biblical context. Host Stephen Henderson talks with Dr. Theron Williams, president and founder of The Bible is Black History Institute, about African presence in the Bible. Dr. Williams, who is a Detroit native and pastor of Mt. Carmel Church in Indiana, has written a series of books on “The Bible is Black History.”

He explains how major scholars and historians have studied and written about the presence of people of African descent in the Bible, and DNA and genetic evidence have proven the connection. Dr. Williams discusses why it’s important to emphasize this information, and he talks about how he has also created books, activities and a curriculum for children to help them understand the major African presence in the Bible. He also discusses the impact of this information on his congregation and ministry.

Learn about Black presence in the Bible by checking out these titles:

The Bible is Black History 

Dr. Theron Williams 

 

Beyond Roots: In Search of Blacks in the Bible  

Rev. William Dwight McKissick  

 

Black Biblical Studies: Biblical and Theological Issues on the Black Presence in the Bible 

Charles B. Copher 

 

Blacks in the Bible: Vol. I: The Original Roots of Men and Women of Color in Scripture 

James H. Warden Jr. 

 

Black People in the Bible 

Randolph Jackson 

 

Black Samson: The Untold Story of an American Icon 

Nyasha Junior, Jeremy Schipper 

 

Can a Cushite Change His Skin?  

Rodney S. Sadler Jr.  

 

How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind: Rediscovering the African Seedbed of Western Christianity 

Thomas C. Oden 

 

Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope   

Esau McCaulley 

 

Reimagining Hagar: Blackness and Bible 

Nyasha Junior 

 

The African American Guide to the Bible 

Dr. H.C. Felder 

 

The African Presence in the Bible: Gospel Sermons Rooted in History 

William Watley & Raquel St. Clair 

 

The Black Biblical Heritage  

Dr. John L. Johnson 

 

The Black Man in the Old Testament and its World 

Alfred G. Dunston Jr. 

 

The Black Presence in the Bible 

Walter A. McCray 

 

The Talking Book: African Americans and the Bible 

Allen Dwight Callahan 

 

Troubling Biblical Waters 

Cain Hope Felder