"The influence of Rev. Bradby and Detroit's Second Baptist Church is clearly outlined in Race, Religion, and the Pulpit , and Robinson brings a new perspective to the issues of twentieth-century race relations in urban Detroit. It is a historical narrative to be considered for any scholar interested in race relations and the history of urban Detroit and brings considerable attention to Detroit's Baptist influence while elucidating the life of a positive influence in the making of urban Detroit."?Robert S. Borrelli, The Michigan Historical Review "Robinson's study of the Rev. Robert L. Bradby . unearths valuable material useful to a range of scholarly interests.

"?Craig R. Prentiss, Journal of American Ethnic History "The book provides an interesting and thoughtful analysis of the challenges and responses of a black church and its pastor in the urban Midwest at a moment of dramatic economic, social, and cultural transition."?Robert Martin, Middle West Review "Robert L. Bradby has long been regarded as a revered religious leader, a strategic political thinker, and a stubbornly enigmatic figure. In this biographical study, Julia Marie Robinson conveys a set of fresh insights on Bradby's life and times, particularly in her exploration of his Canadian origins and interracial identity as well as the flows of black peoples across the fluid U.S.?Canadian border. Robinson's volume makes a distinctive contribution to the ongoing debates about Bradby, to the history of Second Baptist, and to our understanding of the intellectual and political histories of religion in black urban life in places like Detroit.

"?Angela D. Dillard, Professor, Afroamerican and African Studies and in the Residential College at the University of Michigan " Race, Religion, and the Pulpit is first and foremost a biography not just of one rather extraordinary man, the Reverend Bradby, but also of the city of Detroit at a time of great change and growth. Through the personal narrative of Bradby, we are able to appreciate the international and fluid character of vital cities like Detroit in the early twentieth century. We see that there was much movement between the U.S. and Canada for both black Americans and white Americans and that this ability to move and to seek new communities of support shaped self-identity and broader race relations alike. For any scholar who assumes that American racial categories were already determined by the turn of the century, Julia Marie Robinson offers a very different view."?Heather Ann Thompson, Associate Professor of History, Department of African American Studies and Department of History, Temple University.