Glenda Williams Goodson has written on the life of Church of God in Christ pioneers for many years. In Rediscovering An American Classic, she edits essays by Barbara McCoo Lewis, Willie Bragg, June Rivers, Romanetha Stallworth, and Cynthia Bragg who provide thoughtful insight on the faith in God as Dr. Arenia Conelia Mallory worked in education, social justice, and cultural change. One of the foremost educators in America. Mallory, a middle class Black from Jackson, Illinois entered the Southland at the request of Church Of God In Christ founder Bishop Charles Harrison Mason. Soon after her arrival at the Saints Industrial and Literary School in Lexington, Mississippi the principal died and the 22 year became the President of a school with little income, only two books for the entire school with outdoor facilities. With faith in God and determination, she changed the face of Holmes County through succeeded in educating the children of impoverished sharecroppers, despite obstacles such as threats of lynching by the KKK when she refused to fire white teachers. On the 300 acres she amassed for the school, Mallory would add a high school, an accredited college, partner with a sorority to provide health care to those who never visited a doctor and her students would give a command performance in President Franklin D. Roosevelt's White House.A strategic planner, Mallory was Innovative, seemingly fearless and motivated to make a difference in the world. She traveled to shanties to rescue children from poverty and ignorance, North with her all female gospel singing group to raise funds for the school and to Africa where she brought children from the COGIC schools there to educate at her school. She creates strategic alliances with American icon Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, founder of the Bethune-Cookman University and the President of the National Council of Negro Women and her sister-in-law actress Ethel Waters to raise awareness and funds for the school. Essayists relate how during the 1930s worldwide Depression she led the Jubilee Harmonizers from cotton fields in the South, to large churches in the North and all the way to the FDR White House. Rediscovering an American Classic essayists relate the far reaching inspiration of Mallory's fearlessness (she was threatened with lynching in the KKK infested Holmes County when she hired three white teachers) to today's female leaders. Many students would graduate from universities and worked as college professors, at least one became the General Consul to Liberia and others worked in the space program while heeding her admonition to Walk in Dignity, Talk with Dignity and Live in Dignity. Through these essays, the reader will rediscover how faith in God and confidence in His choice of you will help to complete their assignment!
About the Author: Glenda Williams Goodson received a Bachelors in English (Creative Writing) from Southern Methodist University where she participated in workshops taught by some of America's greatest writers including Maya Angelou. She earned an MBA (Strategic Leadership) from Amberton University. As a print journalist, she wrote cover/feature articles and courageously took on tough assignments affecting Dallas' marginalized communities. As Associate Editor (Whole Truth Magazine), she launched innovations such as Church Of God In Christ (COGIC) Around the Globe and also wrote Junior High/High Sunday School lessons. A freelancer (Media 13 Dallas/LA), her work included in AG Int'l Missiology Journal (Women in Missions 2015), COGIC Annual Commentary (Social Justice 2015), Charisma Magazines, etc. An award winning author (2015 Best in SW Author of the Year Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Inc. Upsilon Nu Zeta Chapter), her books include history (Royalty Unveiled, Charles and Betty Kennedy Missionaries to the World), and biographies (Bishop A.T. Moore, The Making of a Legend). As an expert in COGIC Women's History, after Presiding Bishop C. E. Blake negotiated, she was one of 7 recipients (Croatia, UK, The Netherlands, Romania and U.S.) to receive multi-year grant from USC Pentecostal/Charismatic Research Initiative resulting in including her archives at USC Digital Library. Her Center for African American Church History and Research, Inc. causes her to be sought out by graduate students, colleges, universities and researchers, (Anthea Butler Women in the COGIC, Jonathan Chism, Rice University - The Saints Go Marching In: The COGIC and the Civil Rights Movement in Memphis, TN 1954-1968; Emory University - Anjulet Tucker Get the Learnin' but don't Lose the Burnin': The Socio-Cultural and Religious Politics of Education in a Black Pentecostal College) and was the only female essayist included the 2015 scholarship on the life of COGIC Founder Bishop C.H. Mason. She has been featured on radio/TV, is a guest lecturer (e.g., AG Theological Seminary), and invited to present at Oxford University in 2013-14. In 1992 she formed Higher Calling Ministries (HCM) where she ministered for years in one of Texas' high security prisons, conducts inner city street and park revivals and supported int'l missions (e.g., providing containers with tons of rice, sneakers, to Liberian orphanages). Through KHVN Radio Mama Talks program Goodson shared practical wisdom by interviewing a variety of guests.