"Young, gifted and black,

Open your heart to what I mean . . . "

Nina Simone's popular anthem from the civil rights movement speaks to both the celebrations and trials of the Black experience.

Young, Gifted, and Black gives voice to the real-life stories of Black millennials and younger adults. If life was a race, it's assumed that every runner has a fair shot at winning. However, it's not always the case for young, gifted, and Black folks. Sheila Wise Rowe goes beyond the common narrative that focuses solely on their success or struggle. Her stories of celebration and lament point toward hope, joy, and healing.

Drawing from her years of experience in counseling trauma and abuse survivors, she provides stories, reflections, and tools for Black readers of all ages and their allies. These stories offer an opportunity to explore, reflect, and journey toward healing from the barriers that affect their lives, the lives of their children,and their communities.



Sheila Wise Rowe (Tufts University, Cambridge College, M.Ed.) is a truth-teller who writes about faith and emotional healing. She advocates for the dignity, rights, and healing of abuse and racial trauma survivors and offers training and support to them and also emerging and established leaders. Sheila has lived in the USA; Paris, France; and Johannesburg, South Africa. For over twenty-five years she's been a counselor, educator, writer, spiritual director, and speaker. She's a member of the Community Ethics Committee of Harvard Medical School, a resource for its teaching hospitals. Sheila is a member of Entrusted Women, Spiritual Directors of Color, and Redbud Writers Guild. Her book Healing Racial Trauma was awarded a 2020 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award, Christianity Today Book Award, and a Publishers Weekly starred review. Her other books include Young, Gifted, and Black; Healing Leadership Trauma (co-authored with her husband, Nicholas Rowe); and Seeds of Racial Healing.



1. The Starting Line: The Journey Begins

2. The Color Line: Healing Racial Trauma

3. The Family Line: Wounds and Wonder

4. Fall in Line: The Mask

5. Between the Lines: Things Lost and Found

6. Out of Line: A Moral Injury

7.A Fault Line: All In or Out

8. The Frontline: Activism and Discipleship

9. Hold the Line: The Long Wait

10. The Boundary Line: Where I End and You Begin

11. Walk the Line: What Matters Most

12. Finish Lines: Surrender and Acceptance



Acknowledgments

Appendix 1: The Genogram

Appendix 2: A Forgiveness Prayer

Notes