People of the Dream

Michael O. Emerson is Allyn R. and Gladys M. Cline Professor of Sociology and founding director of the Center on Race, Religion, and Urban Life at Rice University. He is the coauthor of several books, including "Divided by Faith, United by Faith," and "Against All Odds". Dr. Rodney Woo is Senior Pastor of the Wilcrest Baptist Church in Houston, Texas.

• Acknowledgments ix Prelude: Decision 1 Chapter One: Dreams 5 Chapter Two: Dist inct ive 28 Chapter Three: Paths 47 Chapter Four: Folk 74 Chapter Five: Attract ions 105 Chapter Six: Shadows 131 Chapter Seven: Moment um 158 Appendix A: Shifting Visions: A Brief History of Metaphors for U.S. Race and Ethnic Relations 173 Appendix B: Statistical Tables 194 Appendix C: Methodology 200 Appendix D: Instruments 209 Bibliography 245 Index 257

Co-Winner of the 2007 Oliver Cromwell Cox Award, Racial and Ethnic Minorities Section of the American Sociological Association One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2006 "The book's bottom line: Multiracial churches are rare, hard to sustain and worth the trouble."--Sam Hodges, Dallas Morning News "People of the Dream is arguably the most complete examination to date of an important but thin slice of religious life in the United States... By virtue of its scope, its originality, and its ability to captivate, it will surely set the standard in the study of multiracial congregations for some time to come."--James C. Cavendish, Contemporary Sociology "The book's solid scholarship will satisfy the academy, and its accessibility will also make it useful in the church."--Deborah J. Kapp, Journal of Church and State "People of the Dream is filled with individual stories sympathetically told and quantitative data competently analyzed; it faces tough issues and offers reasonable grounds for hope. It is by far the best book on its topic that I know of."--R. Stephen Warner, Christian Century "The book and the research on which it is based, casts an interesting light no only on multiracial congregations, but on congregational life in general. It is a significant work for anyone studying race and religion in contemporary America."--Peter Slade, Journal of the American Academy of Religion "People of the Dream is an outstanding work that provides valuable insights for both the scholar and practitioner, and it stands as a prophetic signpost in evaluating the state of race relations in our most segregated institutions."--Jerry Z. Park, Sociology of Religion