Thank People. Affirm People. Listen to People. Believe in People. Build Alliances. Show Results. Think Big. Follow your Passion. Strive for Excellence. Work Hard and Smart.
Thank People. Affirm People. Listen to People. Believe in People. Build Alliances. Show Results. Think Big. Follow your Passion. Strive for Excellence. Work Hard and Smart.
Excerpted from: Watkins, D. (2016). Thoughts held hostage : a Black teacher’s journey of unlocking young minds. ABEN Books.
We Win From Within serves justice-oriented artists, community groups, and not-for-profit organizations by offering consulting, facilitation, and grantwriting services.
Christopher R. Rogers, Ph.D started We Win From Within in June 2023 as an educator and cultural worker from Chester, PA with more than a decade of experience in supporting justice-oriented arts, culture, and community in the Greater Philadelphia area.
He currently co-coordinates the Friends of The Tanner House, incubating a revitalized Henry Ossawa Tanner House at the intersection of Black heritage preservation and community cultural organizing. As a Facilitator with the W.E.B. Du Bois Movement School for Abolition & Reconstruction, he supports aspiring movement leaders serving communities most impacted by poverty, policing, and mass incarceration.
He has previously served in key roles with National Black Lives Matter At School, Paul Robeson House & Museum / West Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, Philadelphia Student Union, Teacher Action Group Philadelphia, and more.
The source of “We Win from Within” comes from Zora Neale Hurston’s discussion of High John de Conquer:
“And all the time, there was High John de Conquer playing his tricks of making a way out of no-way. Hitting a straight lick with a crooked stick. Winning the jack pot with no other stake but a laugh. Fighting a mighty battle without outside-showing force, and winning his war from within. Really winning in a permanent way, for he was winning with the soul of the black man whole and free. So he could use it afterwards. For what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? You would have nothing but a cruel, vengeful, grasping monster come to power. John de Conquer was a bottom-fish. He was deep. He had the wisdom tooth of the East in his head. Way over there, where the sun rises a day ahead of time, they say that Heaven arms with love and laughter those it does not wish to see destroyed. He who carries his heart in his sword must perish. So says the ultimate law. High John de Conquer knew a lot of things like that. He who wins from within is in the "Be" class. Be here when the ruthless man comes, and be here when he is gone.”