The book Welcoming Justice was co-authored by Charles Marsh, a younger white professor, and John Perkins, an older black Christian leader. On the first day they met, Marsh sheepishly confessed that his grandmother was an ardent racist who thought that Martin Luther King. Jr. was a dangerous "troublemaker" and that most blacks were better off under slavery. Perkins' response puzzled Marsh.

"What does she grow in her garden?" he asked.

"What do you mean?"

"What does she grow? Cucumbers, squash, mint, tomatoes? I have the sweetest tomatoes in my garden this summer. You can eat them like apples. Your grandmother like tomato sandwiches? I bet she does. Let me ask you another question: does she like blueberries? I love blueberries," Perkins said, and in great detail he described all the ways he loved to eat blueberries: freshly picked, over ice cream, in blueberry pie. "I always keep blueberries in my refrigerator. When we get to the house, I'm gonna give you a bag of blueberries, and I want you to take them to your grandmother and tell her they're a gift from me."

After Perkins gave Marsh the bag of blueberries, Marsh called them a "gift that marks you as a new kind of person." He wrote, "I haven't been quite the same since I accepted those blueberries."