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Author is a retired priest renowned for his social work in Baltimore

BALTIMORE, Md., Aug. 26, 2024 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- "The Overcome: A Black Passover" is presented as a much-needed rite of passage for the African American population from victimhood to introducing and promoting and celebrating major victory concepts. Celebrated Baltimore, Md. priest Peter W. D. Bramble shares that his book was written to help black people to redefine their lives in such a way as to recognize the many victories they have already accomplished over the past few centuries.

Using the Jewish Passover as a working paradigm, the book shows that unlike blacks who put their "overcoming" in the future, the Jews of the Bible claimed their victory over Pharoah by establishing a rite, called Passover, before they ever left Egypt. They then made their way through other tragedies by celebrating past victories and looking forward to the next one. Bramble seeks to persuade blacks to do something similar and choose an event, person, and date to declare having overcome. This rite needs to then be incorporated to unify blacks worldwide to help lead lived poised to overcome whatever problems the future holds.

"This is an attempt to re-interpret our history in such a way that we can boldly claim our victories, wrap them up in story and myth and use them to inspire pride in the overwhelming successes of blacks," said Bramble.

Bramble has also written the companion piece, "" highlighting songs developed by people who have heard him speak, along with an abbreviated version of "The Overcome: A Black Passover. The book claims that the Civil Rights Movement, crowned by the death and consequent elevation of Dr. Martin Luther King, is that collective victory that must be re-interpreted and celebrated.

"The black community must abandon their fighting/process song 'We Shall Overcome," said Bramble, "and boldly replace it with 'We Have Overcome.' By doing this, the way will be cleared to celebrate past victories and see ourselves as Overcomers, rather than claiming in song that the real victories are all ahead."

"The Overcome: A Black Passover"
By Peter W. D. Bramble
ISBN: 9781663245403 (softcover); 9781663245427 (hardcover); 9781663245410 (electronic)
Available at , and

About the author
The Reverend Canon Peter W. D. Bramble graduated from Codrington College, Barbados, the Yale Divinity School and received his Ph.D. in Philosophy of Education from the University of Connecticut.
Bramble served as Rector of St Katherine of Alexandria Episcopal Church in Baltimore, Md. from 1976 to 1997. During that time he was one of the principals who initiated uniforms in public schools, a project highlighted by national media including TIME and Newsweek. Bramble developed high rise apartments for the elderly in Baltimore and Brooklyn, N.Y., as well as acquiring the largest day care center in Baltimore, and establishing established the program to re-direct troubled youth away from the criminal justice system by providing them housing, educational opportunities and job apprenticeships, a program that still serves young people in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1986, Bramble, along with his wife, established The Baltimore Times Newspaper, featuring "positive stories about positive people" in order to balance out the negative vibes fed to blacks in multiple forms. The paper was so successful it later established four more versions across Maryland. In 1989, The Baltimore Black Academy of Arts and Letters named Father Bramble the "Living Legend in Religion." He served as Rector and Pastor of St Mark's Episcopal Church in Brooklyn, New York from 1997 to 2015. At the time, St Mark's was the largest black Episcopal congregation in the United States. Dr. Bramble is now retired and resides back in Maryland. To learn more, please visit .

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SOURCE iUniverse