Summary

‘Black Necromancy’ begins with the sub-section ‘James Malachai Greene Confessions.’ James recalls one of his seminary professors, Schnider, who everyone called Rabbi. Jimmy describes Schnider as “one of the rarest of birds, a Christian Jew” (31). None of his family members were Christian and Schnider was unmarried. His reasons for conversion were personal and he never explained them.

At the time James reflects on, he was teaching and taking theology courses at Southeastern Seminary in Old Forest, where himself and Schnider had lunch together on campus. Rabbi told James that his curiosity was a gift and would make him a good theologian. Schnider told James to leave the South and study somewhere James had already received this advice from his siblings. His brother Franklin, a graduate of Howard Law, believed James only stayed in “Klan country” because of his wife Anne, who was from...