This special issue on "The Role of Spirituality, Religion and the African American Church on Educational Outcomes" is extremely timely. Moreover, the fact that this conversation is taking place in "The Journal of Negro Education" ("JNE") demonstrates once again that the "JNE" has its finger firmly on the pulse of significant educational and societal issues within the Black community. The author's preliminary discussions with the co-editors were quite remarkable in the sense that as they considered books to review to round out this special issue, they found that there was a dearth of recently published works concerning the relationship between the African American Church and educational outcomes. As they delved deeper into the issue they found this observation to be revealing, considering the historic relationship between faith, education, and the Black community. Furthermore, this observation is even more surprising with the recognition that from the Jim Crow era through the Civil Rights generation, the archetype of leadership, the professional class and the overall foundation of the Black community has been primarily composed of preachers and teachers. Against this backdrop, the author will briefly explore the historic roots of this relationship between faith, education, and self determination in the Black community as a means to provide context for the meaningful discussions presented in this ground-breaking edition of the "JNE."