Civil Rights icon Ruby Sales joins Jacqui for this episode of Love Period, part of our special mini-series celebrating Black History Month. She’s a leader in the Southern Freedom Movement, and a mentor to many, including Jacqui. Listen in as she and Ruby discuss what it means to be Black in America today.

Ruby Sales is the founder and director of the Spirit House Project. She joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in the 1960s as a teenager at Tuskegee University and went to work as a student freedom fighter in Lowndes County, Alabama. She is one of 50 African Americans to be spotlighted in the new Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC.

A deeply committed social activist, scholar, administrator, manager, public theologian and educator in the areas of civil, gender and other human rights, Sales has preached around the country on race, class, gender and reconciliation. She has done groundbreaking work on community and nonviolence formation, and also serves as a national convener of the Every Church A Peace Church Movement. Throughout her career, Sales has mentored young people and provided support and venues for an intergenerational community of developing and seasoned social justice performing and creative artists. She has a deep commitment to providing the education, practical experiences, and frame of references to contest racism and add their voices to the public conversations on the many streams of oppression that emerge from them.

Resources:

• Jacqui’s new book Fierce Love can be found here.