June 25th, 2004

Open My Eyes, Open My Soul, a poignant collection of stories and poems about our differences and commonalities, has been chosen as the #3 non-fiction paperback book by Essence magazine. The best-sellers list is based on reports of retail sales.  Respondents are African-American bookstores. 

The collection of writings in Open My Eyes, Open My Soul was chosen from over 1,000 entries by Yolanda King, the first child of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and writer Elodia Tate. The book features writing from previously unpublished writers and celebrities including Muhammad Ali, Maya Angelou, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Stevie Wonder, Dr. Bernie Siegel, Mattie Stepanek, Andrew Dan-Jumbo and Margaret Cho. King and Tate have been guests on The Today Show and CNN’s American Morning, and featured in Ebony, Essence, The Boston Globe, and The New York Daily News, and others.

 The Orlando Sentinel wrote that “Not since Martin Luther King Jr. has anyone been able to carry the torch for diversity or spur the nation to change… [With] Open My Eyes, Open My Soul, his daughter has found a way to celebrate humanity and to keep the flame burning.”  Music legend Aretha Franklin marvels that the collection “will encourage R.E.S.P.E.C.T. for one another." In the book’s foreword, Coretta Scott King writes that the entries “speak to our deeply felt longing for a more loving and compassionate world community.”

 Yolanda King told the Newark Star Ledger: “People tend to turn against each other in troubled times. I want to encourage people to go beyond the fear and barriers that separate us. Until we live with the fact of our oneness, we are never going to have peace…We have to celebrate difference until difference doesn’t make a difference in how we treat each other.” 

Essence Magazine was started in 1970 to “give a voice” to African-American women.  Today it is the pre-eminent lifestyle magazine with a circulation of 1 million and an estimated readership of about 8 million women. 

Essence Magazine July 2004 Best Sellers List