Author Description

The Autobiography of a Spiritual Negro is a genre-defying memoir that weaves together personal testimony, ancestral memory, and cultural critique. Written by J.L. Smith, a Black father, poet, and survivor of America's forgotten warzones, this book transcends the traditional autobiography to become a spiritual reckoning and political declaration. From being born dead on a Sunday to witnessing systemic violence in the streets of Roxbury, Massachusetts, J.L. chronicles a journey through trauma, addiction, incarceration, and loss-with unwavering honesty and poetic depth. Each chapter moves through layered dimensions of Black life in America, exploring themes of mental illness, family dysfunction, generational pain, and the hunger for love. Yet the narrative doesn't stop at survival. It builds toward resurrection. What emerges is a voice forged in fire-guided by ancestral whispers, Native and African spiritual traditions, and the redemptive power of fatherhood. At once raw and academic, intimate and universal, The Autobiography of a Spiritual Negro is a blueprint for healing, a testimony of rebirth, and a sacred offering to every soul navigating chaos with divine memory. This is not a book for profit. It is a book for purpose. All proceeds go to support suicide prevention efforts for young Black boys through the J.L. Smith Suicide Prevention Center.