From the Hood to the Hill: A Story of Overcoming

By Barry C. Black

From the Hood to the Hill is Chaplain Black's story of overcoming unpromising beginnings in the ghettos of Baltimore. His travels through uncharted waters exemplify God's power for change. Read his story and discover how you, too, can move toward unprecedented satisfaction through a living faith in God.

"With Barry Black, you don't just hear a sermon, you see the sermon. That sermon is captured vividly in this story of his life. A life shaped by love, humility, confidence, courage, strength, and hope." - from the Foreword, THOMAS R. CARPER, US Senator

"Barry Black is a leader among leaders. Brilliant and articulate, yet humble and approachable, he is a force for integrity, goodness, and compassion on Capitol Hill . . . this narrative, From the Hood to the Hill, is a fascinating read." - DR. RICK WARREN, Best-Selling Author, The Purpose Driven Life, and Pastor, Saddleback Church, Lake Forest, CA

"Chaplain Barry Black embodies the best of the American Spirit and the Christian tradition-a man of great erudition who has never forgotten his humble roots; a man of great faith who remains open to all the wisdom of all people; a man of great seriousness who knows how to laugh. The Senate and the country are grateful for his service." - BARRACK OBAMA, US Senator

"From a wonderfully unique man comes a powerfully unique story. Barry Black is a testimony to God's faithfulness and grace." - MAX LUCADO, Pastor, Oak Hills Church, San Antonio, TX

"This is an inspiring autobiography by an outstanding man of God, a great leader, a powerful preacher, and a true patriot . . . Barry Black is my cherished friend. I'm honored that he succeeded me as Chaplain of the United States Senate. From the Hood to the Hill is a stirring and power-packed book of the way God uses whom He chooses." - DR. LLOYD J. OGILVIE, Former US Senate Chaplain

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Aug 20, 2006
• ISBN: 9781418577285

Book preview

FROM THE HOOD

TO THE HILL

Praise for

FROM THE HOOD TO THE HILL

Barry Black is a leader among leaders. Brilliant and articulate, yet humble and approachable, he is a force for integrity, goodness, and compassion on Capitol Hill. Barry leads in the Jesus-style by serving instead of demanding. God has blessed his life in an unusual way. Because he is blessed with a photographic memory, this narrative, From the Hood to the Hill, is a fascinating read.

— DR. RICK WARREN

Best-Selling Author,

The Purpose Driven Life, and

Pastor, Saddleback Church,

Lake Forest, CA

From a wonderfully unique man comes a powerfully unique story. Barry Black is a testimony to God’s faithfulness and grace.

—MAX LUCADO

Pastor, Oak Hills Church,

San Antonio, TX

This is an inspiring autobiography by an outstanding man of God, a great leader, a powerful preacher, and a true patriot. Here is truly an American story of how a person of modest beginnings can rise to heights of personal and professional success. Barry Black is my cherished friend. I’m honored that he succeeded me as Chaplain of the United States Senate. From the Hood to the Hill is a stirring and power-packed book of the way God uses whom He chooses.

— DR. LLOYD J. OGILVIE

Former US Senate Chaplain

Barry Black’s story is more than inspirational—it’s a template for success. No one talks the talk better than Chaplain Black. In From the Hood to the Hill, he also shows how to walk the walk on your faith journey.

— JON KYL

US Senator

Chaplain Barry Black embodies the best of the American Spirit and the Christian tradition—a man of great erudition who has never forgotten his humble roots; a man of great faith who remains open to all the wisdom of all people; a man of great seriousness who knows how to laugh. The Senate and the country are grateful for his service.

— BARACK OBAMA

US Senator

From start to finish, From the Hood to the Hill is a wonderful book, full of great stories, deep humility, sound wisdom, and best of all, the authentic voice of Senate Chaplain Barry Black. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and you will too."

— ROBERT C. BENNETT

US Senator

From_the_Hood_to_the_Hill_0005_002

Copyright © 2006 by Rear Admiral Barry C. Black, CHC, USN (Ret.)

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other—except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a trademark of Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Thomas Nelson, Inc. titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fund-raising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail [e-mail].

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishing House. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked CEV are from THE CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH VERSION of the Bible, Copyright © 1991, 1995 by the American Bible Society. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations noted KJV are from The Holy Bible, KING JAMES VERSION.

Scripture quotations marked The Message are taken from The Message by Eugene H. Peterson, Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the NEW KING JAMES VERSION®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Black, Barry C.

         From the hood to the hill : a story of overcoming / Barry C. Black.

                 p. cm.

         Includes bibliographical references.

          ISBN-10: 0-7852-1881-5 (hardcover)

         ISBN-13: 978-0-7852-1881-4 (hardcover)

          ISBN-10: 0-7852-8900-3 (trade paper)

          ISBN-13: 978-0-7852-8900-5 (trade paper)

          1. Black, Barry C. 2. Christian biography. 3. United States. Congress. Senate Chaplains—Biography. 4. Admirals—United States—Biography. I. Title.

BR1725.B573A3 2006

277.3'082092—dc22

2006008218

Printed in the United States of America

07   08   09   10   11   RRD   5   4   3   2   1

For my dear mother,

Pearline

CONTENTS

Author’s Note

Foreword

FROM THE HOOD . . .

1. Expecting the Unexpected

2. Celebrating Stuttering Starts

3. Developing Wings

4. Investing in the Spirit

5. Finding Blessings in Affliction

6. Learning to Persuade

7. Preparing for Love

8. Finding a Virtuous Woman

9. Exploring the Mind

. . . TO THE HILL

10. Taking the Less-Traveled Path

11. Thinking About War and Peace

12. Surprising People

13. Pursuing Transcendence

14. Staying Busy

15. Harnessing Prayer Power

16. Facing Life’s Challenges

17. Developing Ethical Clarity

18. Learning to Lead

19. Thinking About Violence

20. Becoming an Admiral

21. Going to the Senate

22. Getting with the Program

23. Coming Full Circle

Notes

AUTHOR’S NOTE

I wondered what she thought of us, this social worker, Miss Jenkins.

Opening the doors of all our closets, she seemed satisfied that no adult male lived with us, one of the requirements for receiving public assistance. File folder in hand, she stared sympathetically at our sparse furniture as she spoke in almost a whisper to my mother. I waited to exhale as she repeatedly glanced at our carpetless cement floors. I prayed that no rat would make an ill-timed pilgrimage to another hole in the wall, and that the roaches would stay in their citadels. My siblings and I sat patiently, remembering that children should be seen and not heard, and I let my mind wander in a leisurely daydream.

I pictured this social worker in an office, like one I’d seen on The Dick Van Dyke Show. On her cubicle wall, the ink is almost dry on her master of social work degree. A file labeled Black, Pearline sits on her cluttered desk. Beside the folder is a sheet of paper with Predictor at the top.

Miss Jenkins opens the folder.

Pearline Black, she muses. African-American mother of five girls and three boys. Residence, a Baltimore housing project. The children’s father, alcoholic and mostly absent.

With a shudder, she picks up a pen and starts making notes on the Predictor sheet.

The three boys—likely candidates for incarceration or early death.

The five girls—likely candidates for unwed pregnancies and welfare.

And with a sigh, she closes the folder and puts it away.

But I’ve got good news for that social worker who visited my home so long ago. The pathology I imagined didn’t happen. In spite of unpromising beginnings, my siblings and I bucked the statistics and turned out fine. One of the boys even became a two-star Navy admiral and the first African-American Navy chief of chaplains. Later, he was selected as the sixty-second chaplain of the US Senate. I am that child.

From the hood to the Hill. How did it happen?

That’s what I’d like to reveal to you in this book. And right up front, I want to state that the critical factor in this happy ending was a sovereign Providence. God was working strongly in my life.

But just as important, God wasn’t someone I discovered for myself—I’ve had a lot of help.

Early in life, my mother, Pearline, convinced me that God had created me for something special. You are different, God’s child, she kept telling me. Never forget that. She took my siblings and me to church with her. She worked hard to give me a Christian education.She planted in my spirit a love for the sacred Scriptures.

And God smiled on her efforts and blessed them. He gave me a love for learning and a willingness to search for wisdom across literature’s wide spectrum. He provided me with good memorization and public-speaking skills. He raised up friends for me, mentors who served as encouragers, advisors, and confidants. And He gave me brothers and sisters who, by their sometimes idiosyncratic tactics, helped burn away much of my dross.

God also opened and closed doors on my behalf, and used my own marital and parenting challenges to make me less selfish. He implanted in me a resolve to weather life’s tragedies and setbacks, and He developed my ability to see them as opportunities to climb higher on faith’s ladder.

All these blessings worked together to free my siblings and me from a seemingly ineluctable cycle of poverty and pathology. We became societal givers instead of takers. And in God’s loving providence we found love, humility, confidence, courage, strength, and hope.

What you’re about to read is the story of my journey from a Baltimore public housing project to the United States Senate—from the ghetto, the hood, to Capitol Hill. I think my story will make the case that success should not be measured by heights you’ve reached, but by obstacles you’ve vaulted that leave you standing on higher ground. It will show how God can bring deliverance to captives and relief to the oppressed.

As I tell you my story, I will also share with you the insights and principles I have gained on life’s challenging battlefields. Why? Because God really does want to do for you exceedingly, abundantly above all that you can ask or imagine. If God could bring me from lack to abundance, He can do the same for you. Whatever your circumstances—no matter how dire—you, too, can overcome.

So begin this journey with me—and discover a transforming power for living.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I owe a debt of gratitude to six people: Joyce Harris, Celeste Ryan, Rebecca Grueneberger, Jacqueline Grace, Cathy Repetti, and Maylan Schurch. Their wisdom, time, and encouragement made this book possible.

FOREWORD

From the Hood to the Hill may not be the greatest story ever told, but it’s one of the most inspiring stories that any of us is likely to read this year or any year for that matter. One of eight children raised by a remarkable, God-fearing single mom, living in public housing, and growing up on the mean streets of Baltimore, Barry Black is one of the last people that most of us would pick to rise to national prominence. But from those humble beginnings, Barry worked his way up the ranks in the US Navy to become a two-star admiral and the first AfricanAmerican in the history of the Navy to lead its Chaplain Corps. Seasoned by the years, serving as a spiritual leader to hundreds of thousands of sailors and Marines, Admiral Barry Black became the sixty-second chaplain of the United States Senate—the first AfricanAmerican—in 2003. In this new spiritual role, he leads a community of one hundred senators, our families, and several thousand staff members. In an atmosphere of acrimony on Capitol Hill, Chaplain Black strives to promote civility, comity, and bipartisan cooperation more than anyone I know, simply by living his faith and encouraging the rest of us to do the same. With Barry Black, you don’t just hear a sermon, you see the sermon. That sermon is captured vividly in this story of his life. A life shaped by love, humility, confidence, courage, strength, and hope.

— THOMAS R. CARPER

US Senator

FROM THE HOOD . . .

1

EXPECTING THE UNEXPECTED

I never expected to become a United States Navy admiral. But the phone rang, and my wife, Brenda, whispered, Honey, it’s the chief of chaplains. Rarely did the top Navy chaplain, an admiral, ever call anyone at home, so I thought it must be an emergency. As frantic thoughts raced through my mind, I lifted the phone with apprehension.

Barry, I heard Admiral Byron Holderby say, I guess we can now make it official. Congratulations. You’ve been selected as our next admiral, the deputy chief of chaplains for the United States Navy.

Thank you, sir, I responded with relief, surprised at my apparent calmness. This is a great honor. Sir, let me also thank you for whatever part you played in making this dream come true. Putting down the phone, I greeted Brenda’s furrowed brow with a smile. I’m the new admiral! I shouted. Can you believe it? We danced for joy.

Finding solitude in a quiet room, I mused about this milestone. No African-American had ever been promoted to admiral in the United States Navy Chaplain Corps, an organization more than two hundred years old. Moreover, I had not aspired to obtain this honor; it was beyond anything I could have asked or imagined. I thought about my Seventh-day Adventist denominational roots. No one from this oft-maligned religious tradition had ever been so elevated. I had matriculated at a small, parochial, African-American college in Huntsville, Alabama, and then studied at an obscure seminary in Berrien Springs, Michigan. Some Navy chaplains possessed Ivy League diplomas, yet I had been chosen. My mind flashed back to my inner-city beginnings and my family’s poverty. Ruminating about the environmental pathology that characterized my childhood, I concluded that God Himself had ordered my steps, surrounding me with unmerited favor. God indeed has a sense of humor, I whispered to myself.

God must have smiled as He guided me from the public housing projects of Baltimore, Maryland. Crime, drugs, and poverty infected this environment. Most sociologists analyzing my family of origin would have made ominous predictions about my future. Many of my childhood friends’ final destinations were incarceration, addiction, or death. But my siblings and I escaped such fates, each of us making an unlikely pilgrimage from poverty to responsible citizenship. What made the difference?

My journey from the hood to the Hill seemed most improbable. Making admiral was miraculous enough, but does lightning strike twice? Some of my colleague detractors talked about the miracle of my becoming chief of chaplains. When they learned that I was also interviewing for the Senate chaplain’s job, a few thought that I had a better chance of winning the lottery.

Early in my military career, a colleague approached me with an unusual suggestion. Barry, he said, you’re probably headed for great things in the Navy. But if you really want to reach the top, change your denomination.

I don’t choose my church like an ice cream flavor, I responded.

You don’t understand what I’m saying, he continued. You can continue to embrace the same denominational theology; I’m talking about administrative leverage. You’ll be more competitive with a mainline church designation.

Thanks for the tip, I said, but I think not.

Before the military selection board met and selected me for admiral, this same minister friend called me and said, You’ll never be selected for admiral. If you had only followed my advice and changed denominations years ago, you would now be competitive. But you wouldn’t listen to me. He chuckled smugly, certain of the inevitability of his prophecy.

You just don’t know my God, I fired back at this naysayer.

Of course I know your God, he rejoined.

I don’t think so. Not if you think a few minor obstacles can stop Him, I argued. If He wants me to be an admiral, it will happen.

After the announcement of my promotion to rear admiral, I received a message on my voice mail from this friend: Barry, when you get a chance, would you please introduce me to your God?

Later, this same friend would lay odds that the Senate would not soon select a black man for its chaplain.

I thought he had a point. After all, since 1789, when the first Senate chaplain was selected, no African-American had ever served in that position. But in spite of its improbability, God’s plans and purposes prevailed.

THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED

A number of critical factors contributed to making the improbable possible. Some of these factors can be subsumed under the umbrella theme of expecting the unexpected. The people in my life did not expect to stay in poverty. They believed that interior strength is more important than exterior vicissitudes. My mother and an extended church family imparted to my siblings and me the belief that God had great plans for our lives. They backed this optimism with their cheerful diligence and used Scripture to reinforce a positive outlook. These wonderful people encouraged and mentored me. They would quote Ephesians 3:20, reminding me that God can do more than we can ask or think. Expect the unexpected, many would say. They supported me financially and exposed me to good books and music. Those possessing college degrees shared their insights until association produced assimilation, enabling me to walk with confidence down an unfamiliar road to excellence.

Another reason I began to expect the unexpected was that God provided me with tools. One important tool was an exceptional memory. I discovered that most of what I heard, I remembered. This enabled me to quickly absorb many valuable principles in Christian schools, from first grade through seminary. It increased the expectations of my friends and mentors, who refused to let me settle for less than my best. God has given you too much for you not to maximize your potential, they would tell me. I buckled down and, in a degree-conscious society, eventually earned three master’s degrees and two doctorates. My excellent recall enabled me to navigate the challenging academic waters and survive. But it was the faith that others expressed in my future that became my horizon stretcher. I became a lifelong learner, working assiduously to build on my strengths and to compensate for my weaknesses.

Expecting the unexpected led me to give God my life at the age of ten. This, my most important decision, energized me constantly. I pursued God as a suitor for the object of His affection. And finding Him, I discovered an unspeakable joy. This may sound ethereal and esoteric, but friendship with the Divine provided me with a sense of certitude and peace in the midst of life’s frenetic pace. I could deal with critics and even enemies without losing confidence in myself or my future. I could sleep at night knowing that God surrounded me with the shield of His favor. I became a Bible student and permitted sacred Scriptures to inform my decision making. My trust in God destroyed anxieties and brought peace. My life became God-directed. I depended more on revelation than empiricism, for Pascal was right: The heart has reasons that the mind can’t understand. I saw things that were not and asked, why not? I continued to expect the unexpected.

Expecting the unexpected led me to embrace diligence. I was told that the dictionary was one of the few places where success came before work. Someone else challenged me with the assertion that we often miss opportunities because they come disguised as work. I began to feel that the most diligent worker, not necessarily the most gifted, eventually won the prize. This attitude was articulated and modeled by many of the people who influenced my life. I watched my mother succeed against great odds because of her willingness to work. As a domestic, she was unafraid of lowly tasks because she believed Proverbs 14:23: All hard work brings a profit. She insisted that her children make a commitment to earning their way in life, to cast aside notions of entitlement. She taught us that God helps those who help themselves and that our reach should exceed our grasp.

BELIEVING THE UNIMAGINABLE

This inclination to expect the unexpected fueled my faith and prepared me for an uncharted career path. I expected to find fulfillment in the United States Navy, even though ministerial colleagues discouraged me from volunteering for military service. Though warned that entering the military chaplaincy meant burning bridges and perhaps permanently alienating people who could help me, I expected God to supply what I needed to succeed. I didn’t expect to reach the top. I did, however, expect to get close to the summit, for when one aims high, even when he misses the mark, he’s still on higher ground. I expected God to bless me in my going out and coming in, in my rising

Reviews for From the Hood to the Hill

[marthal_5424 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I purchased this book after hearing the author speak at the Memorial Day Service at the Crystal Cathedral. I highly recommed this book and the the viewing of that broadcast. This is must have for church or school libraries. Very inspirational. Contains much wisdom for anyone wanted to be informed on leadership.