"The tradition of the Afro-Christian church, too long ignored and under-celebrated, takes its rightful place in the canon of United Church of Christ history. The holy stream of African spirituality that flowed across the Atlantic Ocean up into the tidewaters of the South, the same stream that overflowed into the worship and work of the United Church of Christ, is celebrated in the landmarking book, The Afro-Christian Convention. Why did American Missionary Association-founded schools in the South while AMA-founded churches failed? The white New England missionaries failed to understand and account for the deep African rootedness"--