Too Precious to Lose

A Memoir of Family, Community, and Possibility

De: Jason G. Green

A moving and inspiring memoir from a former Obama White House staffer, about his rural Maryland family’s untold history, the merger of three churches—one Black, two white—and how a radical embrace of community became their salvation, and his.

Jason Green was raised on fellowship—literally. Fellowship Lane, the once unpaved road he grew up on, served as a spiritual metaphor throughout his coming of age. A precocious preacher’s kid, Green felt a call to the ministry but ultimately devoted himself to the people in a different way—through public service. After working on Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, he spent four and a half years working in the White House as special assistant to President Obama.

However, Green’s government career was cut short by a devastating call that it appeared his ninety-five-year-old grandmother was on her presumptive deathbed. At her side, he listened while she detailed her life story dating back to her 1918 birth in Quince Orchard, a town that no longer exists. He was preoccupied with disbelief; how could he have never known the true legacy of his tiny community? How could a whole town’s existence be erased but for the memory of a few surviving elders? Green’s historical research uncovered a surprising trove of tales about the determination of his newly freed ancestors to build an African American house of worship, and how generations later, on the eve of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination, their progeny would be at the center of a brave decision to create an integrated church. Quince Orchard’s lost story is part of what Green calls the texture in the American fabric: the moral leadership of the Black church, the longstanding resilience of the Black community, and the transformative love of the Black family.

Fueled by a new understanding of where he comes from, Green traces one family through a century of life in a single community, asking deeply personal questions about belonging and finding answers from the compassionate, communal-led lives of his forebears.

Reseñas de la Crítica

“Too Precious to Lose is what happens when history and heart work together. Jason G. Green writes with the same clarity and conviction he carried when I knew him at the White House. He transforms family stories into a vision for collective belonging. This is how we need to show up for one another in these times.”—Deesha Dyer, former White House counsel and author of Undiplomatic

“Jason G. Green’s Too Precious to Lose is a moving and important reminder of the power of story, service, and faith. This is a timely book for anyone who needs assurance that participatory democracy is a living experience, not just an abstract idea.”—Deval Patrick, former governor of Massachusetts and author of A Reason to Believe

“I’ve stood with Green and his family at Pleasant View, on the very ground where this story begins. Too Precious to Lose captures the spirit of that place. Green has written a book that reminds us how history lives in people, not just on pages.”—Chris Van Hollen, U.S. senator from Maryland

“Jason G. Green tells the kind of story that has guided my career—the textured, truth-tethered narratives of our community that don’t always make the headlines but define so much of who we are. Too Precious to Lose is remembrance and revelation at once, uncovering a history hidden in plain sight and reminding us what’s at stake when we fail to listen. In a moment when our history is being threatened with erasure, Green’s work calls us back to the people, places, and memories that shaped us and this nation.”—David A. Wilson, co-founder of TheGrio and co-director of Meeting David Wilson