Dr. Amanda Kemp, Visiting Scholar in Africana Studies at Franklin & Marshall College, is currently touring a performance project "Inspira:  The Power of the Spiritual," and her film “To Cross an Ocean Four Centuries Long."   A playwright and Pennsylvania Commonwealth Lecturer on poet Phillis Wheatley, Dr. Kemp regularly writes on African American culture, spirituality, and social change in her blog: "On a Mission to Heal the Planet."  She earned a B.A. and Phd from Stanford and Northwestern Universities, respectively.

AFSC’s humanitarian work in Vietnam focused on rehabilitating civilian casualties of the war. Many civilians, especially children, lost limbs as a result of booby traps and bombing campaigns in the countryside. It is without a doubt that innocent people suffer the worst of war. War was a disruption of their daily lives, but also constituted a theft of an otherwise peaceful future. Relief efforts were severely limited due to a lack of personnel, supplies, clean water, and sanitation.

Sam Lemon is a member of Providence Monthly Meeting in Media, PA. In 2007, he earned a doctorate in Education, Culture, and Society at the University of Pennsylvania. Currently employed as the director of a graduate program at a local university, he also writes on a range of topics including history, culture, science, and spirituality. His first book, Go Stand Upon the Rock (2014) recounts his ancestors’ flight from slavery to freedom during the American Civil War.

Sam Lemon is a member of Providence Monthly Meeting in Media, PA. In this spiritual autobiography, Sam describes his inward journey as a Quaker and the way it connects to his outward journey for racial justice. This is the second installment in a series featuring the writings of contemporary Black Quakers on the subject of Black Lives Matter. 

Sarah Willie-LeBreton is a sociologist who teaches at Swarthmore College and a member of Providence Monthly Meeting of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. She lives in Media with her family.