Before the streetlights come on

Creation Care Committee hosts book study in January

by Joe Porter

The Creation Care Committee of the Diocese of Mississippi will be reading a very timely and important book during January of 2026 and invites you to join us. The book’s title is BEFORE THE STREETLIGHTS COME ON: Black America’s Urgent Call for Climate Solutions by Heather McTeer Toney. Many of you might recognize that name. Ms. Toney is a native of Mississippi who was raised in Greenville. After high school there, she graduated from Spelman College in Atlanta and then received her Juris Doctorate from Tulane University. She later returned to Greenville. There she became the first Black, the first female, and youngest mayor ever elected to that post at the age of twenty-seven. Following her public service in Greenville she was appointed a regional administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency by President Obama. Since that time she has served our country, and indeed, the world by being a leader in raising environmental consciousness.

Her words are very powerful and straight from the shoulder honest in spelling out the threat that we face with increasing global warming. Even more importantly, she underlines the increased harm that is faced by Black and other minority groups around the world by this crisis. This is being felt right now and especially in the south by states like ours. Ms. McTeer states that her book was written primarily for a Black audience, but I, a southern white male, attest that the book benefits White people even more. This is a book that addresses head on two great challenges facing us right now–the threatened return of the Jim Crow era and the impending destruction of God’s Creation by the hand of humankind.

Of this book David Axelrod, director of the University of Chicago Institute of Politics says, “With crystal clarity, Heather McNeer Toney documents the shameful history that has left Black communities particularly vulnerable to the ravages of climate change—and explores what we can do about it.”

The book read will be presented by zoom at 12:00 P.M. on January 6, 13, 20, & 27. Of course, the book, available from Amazon or your favorite bookstore, needs to be purchased beforehand. You may register by emailing Tracy Stebbins Arnett at tracy.stebbins@gmail.com. Please join us as we try to reclaim our role as responsible stewards of GOD’S GREAT BIG BEAUTIFUL EARTH and please spread the word to your fellow parishioners who might like to join in.