The Role of the Black Church as an Institution of Social Change
By,
Kyle Roland
The Black Church was the most important institution in the African-American community before the civil rights movement. As a social institution, the church has been unrivaled in its ability to generate the unity needed for social change. The church was at the vanguard in demanding racial equality in the United States during a time when racial tensions characterized the nation. Culminating in the civil rights legislation of the 1960’s, the civil rights movement was a mobilization of the black community and a demand for the social change of a racially unjust society that tainted the history of the United States. Used as a tool for change, the black church was undeniably the center of the black dominated civil rights movement.
The decade of the 1960’s is characterized as a controversial period of counterculture, rebellion, protest, politically leftward social movements, civil resistance, and the questioning of established traditions established during the previous two decades. Following chaos of WWII, the atmosphere of the United States retreated into a reticent and reserved mood. An aura of isolationism blanketed the traditional social environment of the United States. The United States had developed into a world military power and as a result of its military success and pro-American propaganda the people trusted the government. As a result, the political atmosphere was one of trust in the power of the leaders. However, lying beneath the coat of stillness was dissatisfaction and a frustration with the socially unequal environment of the United States. Brewing for centuries, the anger toward the institutionalized racism of the United States profoundly came to light garnering widespread support from primarily colored, but occasionally non-colored citizens. One such support is John David Maguire, racial activist, aid to Martin Luther King’s movement for civil rights, and an invaluable interview resource for this paper.
The period titled the civil rights movement is commonly assigned the years 1955 – 1968, however these dates are not accurate. The civil rights movement is actually much older and has origins dating back to the import of the first slaves to America. The roots of the civil rights movement can be traced back to the early American inhabitants. The period between 1955 – 1968 should be considered as modern civil rights period. The desire for racial equality began as a reaction to the institution of slavery and the exploitation of labor from African slaves. Slavery continued throughout the antebellum period and up until Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, the Civil War, and the Reconstruction period. Following Reconstruction, the Jim Crowe era of social racism replaced the era of legal slavery; the end of de jure racism and the beginning of de facto racism.[1]The separate but equal facilities were legally mandated under Plessy v. Ferguson (1898) blurred the lines of racial integration confusing both the white and black populations. The tension over the rights of black people created a time often referred to as the “nadir in American race relations.”[2],[3] Following the Second World War, the troops that constituted the integrated military returned to a hypocritical country in which the values being fought for abroad, such as freedom and liberty, were not present back home. The modern civil rights movement emerged form the hypocrisy and cruelty of American culture after WWII.
The goal of the civil rights movement was to obtain freedom from the political, economic, and social oppression from the white population. The term refers to the black dominated movement that emerged in the south in the 1950’s, “when large masses of black people became directly involved in economic boycotts, street marches, mass meetings, and non-violent direct action.”[4] The goal of the movement was to obtain legislative victories such was the verdict of Brown v. Board, which overturned the legally mandated segregation of facilities enforced through the Plessy v. Ferguson verdict. However, the changes in legislation did not yield the social changes that the black population hoped for.[5], [6] As a result, unprecedented levels of civil disobedience became both popular and needed to incite change. Few opportunities were given to blacks to freely congregate in large numbers, a necessity to organize a movement. The black church provided the black population with a mode of congregation that supported unity and enabled conversation between members of a community.
Throughout history, the black church has been a staple of the black community. Widely influential and almost universally utilized by the black population, the black church significantly impacted the civil rights movement. The black church is comprised of a multitude of denominations, however in this essay the particular religious denomination will not be analyzed. Instead the significance of the black church as a social institution of change will be analyzed. In the following essay, a dialogue will first be presented analyzing the historical importance of the black church to the civil rights movement, then a theoretical discussion on the origins of the unique counter-culture of the 1960’s and the resulting sociopolitical changes will be offered.
Theories of social change:
Leading up to the 1960’s, the black population in the United States had been powerfully oppressed by the white population. By preventing access to education, economic opportunity, and social freedom, blacks seemingly had no escape from the imprisoned lifestyle in which they lived. The emergence of the civil rights movement is often considered a phenomenon for this reason. When there is a monopoly on a way of life, change and innovation is difficult. Homogenous societies, such as that of the United States, are hesitant to foster and accept change.
The habits of any particular culture are deeply ingrained and are not always easily changed. There may be times when some simple and obvious thing or idea may not be invented or adopted, even when there is a great need for it, and very complex things or ideas may be developed in simple societies.[7]
As explained by Benedict, the concept of change is inconceivable among a population that has been so deeply conditioned to accept a tradition. For this reason, two theories of change should be considered when analyzing the origin of social change as exemplified by the civil rights movement.
The first theory is: change is linear and constantly progressing toward a result. Under this theory, change is collectively generated internally of the population desiring a change. In the case of the civil rights movement, a linear change theorist would assert that change was inevitable, and that the black population had enough social capital to cause the change.[8],[9] The latent social capital held by the indigenous black community, Morris emphasizes, was the key to the emergent phase of the movement. Furthermore, one would additionally emphasize that the civil rights movement was long in its process. This point is illustrated in Bob Dylan’s famous 1963 anthem, “Blowing in the Wind.” Dylan sings, “How many years must a mountain exist, before it washed to the sea.” This lyric, through its imagery of the water slowly tearing down an oppressive force (white racial discrimination), depicts the longevity of the civil rights movement and shows the historical desire for equality. Morris declares that, “rational planning, well-developed preexisting communication networks, and established leaders, institutions, and organizations, rather than psychic strain, spontaneity, and emotionalism were the driving forces behind the movement.”[10] Lastly, “when Harlem rioted in 1935,” historian Eric Foner states, “only the patience of the negro had delayed it that long.”[11] In essence, the civil rights movement was building through centuries of racism and its emergence in the form of the civil rights movement, was simply a result of a growing and inevitable revolution.
The second theory is: change is stagnant until motivated by a stimulus. Under this theory, social change is influenced by external factors. The belief that change is stagnant until effected by a stimulus asserts that external spontaneity sparks the emergence of social change. Followers of this belief, such as political scientist and social theory author Robert D. Putnam, emphasize that the segregated black community did not have the internal ability to create change citing that “slavery and segregation…were designed to destroy social capital.”[12] This second theory, which contends that the “emergence of the civil rights movement in the post-world war II decades [was] remarkable to the point of anomaly,”[13] asserts that homogenized societies, those with little cultural diversity, require an external boost to jumpstart social change.
When looking at mass social change, one should not undervalue the importance of a multitude of factors contributing to the outcome. The theory that change is stagnant until stimulated lacks this vital point. The civil rights movement is a result of historical social trends such as slavery, segregation, and racial oppression. Thus, one can assume that the movement is heavily linear. However, the emergence of the modern movement following WWII can be viewed in part from the second theory as well. The modern civil rights movement was a break from the traditional desire for civil rights seen during the previous two centuries. To explain this emergence, a history of the historical factors leading up to the movement should be understood.
History of Civil Rights:
Since the colonization of the Eastern Seaboard by white Europeans in the first half of the 17th century, the import and use of slaves remained a legal institution until the passage of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution in 1865 following the Civil War. After the Civil War and Emancipation, the Reconstruction and the Jim Crow era began. Characterized by separate but equal facilities, Reconstruction did not help the assimilation of blacks into the white dominated community. Indeed, facilities were separate, but they were anything but equal. The quality of the facilities accessible to blacks constantly reminded the black population of their constructed social inferiority. The tensions of the Jim Crowe era were fueled by the (primarily southern) white community’s disregard of constitutionally enforced equality. Ironically, the segregation had benefits that contributed to the mobilization of social capital during the civil rights movement of the 1960’s. Separate institutions facilitated the development of strong black communities. Irrespective of education or income, black people were forced to use the same institutions and services and commonly lived in the same neighborhood. Collective cooperation of social strata, as is seen throughout black history, is vitally important to the mobilization of a unified movement to initiate change.[14] Previous protests did not recognize the imperative need of unity. For example, early slave uprisings were largely independent and ineffective at organizing large supporting populations, thus easily defeated by slaveholders. During the 20th century, the desire for equality was known, however black freethinkers such as W.E.B. Dubois struggled to mobilize an encompassing movement because of the disunity among similar thinkers; “by the time the 20th century began you begin to have more and more people challenging segregation but largely as individuals, W.E.B. Dubois, Booker T. Washington and others.”[15] This highlights the key aspect that distinguishes the civil rights movement of the mid-20th century from previous racial uprisings.[16]
The civil rights movement was the first time that large masses of blacks effectively and directly confronted the source of their oppression. The origin of the new and effective movement was influenced by the social migration of blacks away from the South following emancipation. As blacks became free, there was a mass exodus from the rural southern region of America to the more industrial north. Between 1910-1960, an estimated seven million African Americans exited the south and migrated to the North and West.[17] Urbanization was caused by the mechanization of the cotton industry, freedom from slavery, upward social movement of blacks into the middle class, demand for jobs in factories. Urbanization provided greater opportunities to organize and congregate. This helped increase the power and popularity of the black church, as well as other modes of congregation such as the unionization of a workforce. The most prominent black union was the Sleeping Car Porters, a union of black train workers led by political activist A. William Randolph. Randolph’s unionization of black workers culminated with his threat to march on Washington in 1941 over the demand that military contractors cease discrimination based on race.[18] This was a vital example for the civil rights marches of the 1950’s and 1960’s because it was that beginning of the shift from reserved demands for equality to confrontational tactics. The original need for slaves was diminishing and the legal ability to own slaves was abolished, but the discriminatory ideologies of racism were remaining. This encouraged the aspiration for the abolishment of racism.[19]
The middle of the 20th century was defined by the return of soldiers from the war. According to Morris and concurred by Maguire, possibly the most vital condition that led to the beginnings of the movement would be the return of black WWII GI’s.[20] Soldiers had experienced desegregated life to some extent all over the world. Furthermore, fighting for freedom and liberty in the name of the United States, then returning to the racist homeland was too contradictory and eye opening to handle (expand with another source confirming Maguire). On July 26, 1948, President Truman underscored the significance of an integrated military by signing Executive Order 9981, which states, “It is hereby declared to be the policy of the President that there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all personal in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion, or national origin.”[21]Truman’s move to sign this executive order was a signal of his conscious concern of the political significance of helping the black population. Signing the executive order during his campaign for reelection, Truman shows the prevalence of an upcoming revolution for civil rights growing on the minds and hearts of the American people.
Conversely, Taylor Branch, author of the America in the King Years series argues, “the notion of drastic change for the benefit of negroes struck the average American as about on par with creating a world government, which is to say visionary, slightly dangerous, and extremely remote. The race issue was little more than a human interest story in the mass public consciousness.”[22] This statement should be contested as an inaccurate representation of American priorities. Maguire, agreeing with the linear theory of social change supported by Morris, as well as Truman’s decision to enact Executive Order 9981, asserts that the mindset for change had been cultivated for centuries, but the resources needed were only available come the mid-20th century. Maguire stresses that the modern movement was complex and organized, as opposed to the spontaneous. Maguire subscribes to a combination of the two theories presented earlier. He states that the movement was developing for years and was inevitable, however the specific timing of its emergence can be attributed to a particular availability of resources during the 1960s.
The Black Church:
For a protest, which defined by Morris is a, “a product of the organizing effort of activist functioning through a well-developed indigenous base,”[23] to be successful it must utilize its resources effectively. It must unify the people in support of the movement and create a plan quickly in the face of chaos. “It is the ability of groups to organize, mobilize, and manage valuable resources that determine whether they will be able to engage in social protest.”[24] For all of American history, the black church has been the African-American’s most vital resource.
As a general overview, the black church started as a shelter for escape during slavery, then progressed into reservoir of motivation used to persevere through the seemingly endless years of discrimination up to and following the civil war and emancipation, then into its role as the center of the fight for civil rights in the middle of the 20th century. As one of the few black institutions to survive slavery, the black church in itself is unique. As described by W.E.B. Dubois, “the black church is not simply a social institution. It is more fittingly the social center of the black life. It is in several ways a nation within a nation.”[25] To the segregated African-American community, the black church acted as a microcosm of a free world where social status existed in the form of priesthood, and community participation simulated the world of political involvement that was restricted by forced disenfranchisement. Participation in the black church simulated the feeling of living in a free world and helped attain that goal of equality through its capacities as a tool of social mobilization.
I would like to underscore just how old the black church was. Slaves always met on Sundays. They needed something that was protected, didn’t have the hand of the massa [master] coming in on them and that was really theirs. They sang in code. Songs that were codified and hidden by their African language. It was something really theirs that sustained their spirit decade after decade after decade. So the black church was the one institution that was all black and allowable during the entire history of the United States. It was built into the psyche of the blacks.[26]
The black church was the most important institution in the African American community before the civil right movement[27]
To trace the origin of the black church in America, one must look at how and why Richard Allen’s African Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania came to be born. When Allen first began attending an integrated, but primarily, white church, he was allowed to sit in the comfortable seats alongside white member. However, as his presence introduced many more black people to the church, Allen and the black churchgoers were forced to sit in a different and poorly maintained section. As a result, he and his black followers stormed out of the church claiming that “they were no longer plagued with us.”[28] In 1816, Allen was given the option to establish his own church and thus founded the Philadelphia based African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME). The church separated the two races furthering segregation. However, it “proved to be the most dynamic social institution in the Negro community affording its members an all too rare opportunity to assemble freely, vote for officers, and express themselves spiritually, socially, and politically.”[29] As Christianity spread through forces such as the Second Great Awakening (1800ish – 1870ish) the church evolved and black ownership increased. The Antebellum (1789 – 1849) church was characterized as an escape from southern slavery and national discrimination. For a black person “seeking an escape from the drudgery and disabilities of everyday existence, many negroes found spiritual comfort and opportunities for social expression in the church.”[30] This is the foundation of the significance of the black church to the African-American community, a location where the beat-down and oppressed could find relief and confidence.
Although, the early antebellum churches were perceived as being less political than the churches of the mid-20th century,[31] the foundations and structure of the political activism exemplified in the 1960’s can be found these churches. Furthermore, the perception that churches were less political during this time period is just that, a perception. The white population largely writes history; therefore, knowledge about the happenings within the black church is limited and one-sided. The presence of white oversight in black churches was generally insignificant, increasing the likelihood of controversial and forbidden conversation. While the black church was commonly restricted from raising dialogue about current social issues, it would be naïve to assume such restrictions were abided in all churches. As noted by Taylor,
Both a politician and a spiritual leader, the Negro minister frequently used his position and prestige to arouse his congregations on issues affecting their civil rights as well as their morals; he not only condemned colonization, segregation, and disfranchisement, but persistently attacked licentious literature the immoral and corrupting influence of the theater, infidelity, and atheism[32]
Another trait of the Antebellum church was its individuality from other churches. Due to the fractured and fragmented rural black communities of the south, churches did not have an effective communication process. Thus, the internal personality of each individual church was deeply influenced by the leader and his congregation. The devotion to one’s own pastor is an important historical constant of the black church that helps facilitates the rise of progressive civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King jr.
Following the Civil War, social trends such as the Great Migration of blacks out of the rural south affected the black church. The northern migration from southern rural churches to northern urban churches profoundly changed religious activities. According to Foner, the growing northern churches were large and more middle class, while the southern church was much smaller and informal. Furthermore, the northern church was a less emotional and less valued social concern. The southern church was mostly fundamentalist, spiritual and “maintained the old-time shouting religion.”[33] Coincident with the Great Migration, the Third Great Awakening of the second half of the 19th century and early 20th century was a movement to revitalize national faith. The growing northern black church sent missions to the southern states to encourage the building of new churches. Since the “first stitches of education were sown”[34] in churches, the spread of faith following emancipation also spread education and literacy. Denied to blacks during the Antebellum era, education and literacy were perceived as too powerful a resource to make available to the slaves. The spread of these resources by the church gave blacks another tool to challenge white oppression.
The spread of faith and increase of religiosity during the first half of the 20th century created a widespread black Christian base. Due to its purpose as a social escape from white oppression, “the negro church was all negro and proudly so, a self perpetuating segregated institution which made no effort to reach across race barriers, individually or institutionally.”[35] However, the black church was still censored by the white community and remained mostly non-active with regard to social issues. This similarity to the Antebellum churches of the pre-Civil War era, discouraged those who wanted to mobilize a widespread movement for social justice.
The Black Church – The Civil Rights Movement:
The post WWII black church served as the center of congregation for the black community. Its role as an institution unified the segregated black community and established a resource free from white control. In this sense, the church has its most value. As always, the Black Church provided an escape from white oppression, however the key to understanding to origins of the civil rights movement is to understand the slight, but significant changes occurring within the walls of the church.
As a result of the social trends mentioned above, by 1963, there were 55,000 black churches, which equates to 1 for every 200 black churchgoers, and 260,000 white churches, which equates to 1 for every 400 white churches. Furthermore, in 1963, “96 per cent of all Negroes professed a faith. Many of them (49 per cent) also said they attend church regularly – at least once a week or oftener.”[36] Apparent from these statistics, religion was as much or more permeating of the black community in comparison to religion in the white community. Maguire stresses the value of the broad availability of the black church during the mid-20th century. Maguire states that there were “black churches in every city in the early sixties,”[37] accentuating the strength of the black church and its ability to unify large social masses.
The popularity of the black church leading up to the civil rights movement can be primarily attributed to its independence from white culture; this is also the main strength of the black church. The church was a rare institution that was independent from white economic control. This gave the black community a feeling of familiarity and ownership, something that had a rare precedent in earlier black culture. In reference to the lack of black ownership in America, Vernon Johns, the controversial and progressive preacher at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church from 1947 – 1952, exclaimed, “give the average Negro a Cadillac and tell him to park it on some land he owns.”[38] By articulating the economic oppression against the black community, Johns challenges his congregation to seek economic autonomy from the white man. Furthermore, the church gave the black population social opportunities that were denied to them in the outside world because of their racial identity. The black church created its own internal hierarchies of social position that were impossible to attain outside of the church. For example, the possibility to be a deacon within the church and then a go back to being a janitor outside of the church reaffirmed the members of the church of the social and political privileges denied to them.[39] In the mid 20th century there were minimal jobs were offered to the outstanding minds of the black community – preacher was a rare place where one of these people could rise and speak with influence.[40] Lastly, the church was a historically bound institution. Its significance as a historical staple of black culture fostered a trust and comfort within the black population.
The Black Church – Conservative vs. Progressive:
So far, two main assertions have been made in this essay. First is that the black church dominated black society as a communal institution. Second, is that the mental desire to acquire racial equality was not a phenomenon among the black population, but instead a widespread and pervasive aspiration. However, despite these factors, the black church as a whole was not fully supportive of the movement.
The black church was the anchor of the movement. It provided activists, ministers, laity, and financial support through black church members….The black church also gave the movement and ideological framework through which passive attitudes were transformed into a collective consciousness supportive of collective action[41]
…the Black church was an opiate, discouraging social and political activism among adherents[42]
The dissimilarity of these two characterizations of the black church can be explained by a
excerpt from John David Maguire.
The progressive black church was a definite minority and the vast majority [of black churches] was the same conservative, individualistic, get comfort for your soul. They were not about making change.[43]
Maguire’s observation of the polarization of the church is an important factor in the analysis of the black church’s ability to generate a mass social movement for racial equality. The main and most visible flaw in the church’s ability to advocate for change is its reluctance to do so itself. Contrary to popular perception, the black church during the civil rights movement was not a unified entity. The phrase ‘black church’ implies a monolithic being, but in fact it was a multidimensional institution comprised of black churches of every persuasion across the board. The two most distinct were the non-politicized conservative church and the politicized progressive church. The progressive church itself was broken into two sectors, the radicalized progressive church and the basic progressive church.[44],[45] This analysis will demonstrate the ideological confliction between the active black church and the conservative black church.[46]
The conservative black church stayed faithful to the traditional and original style of black church attendance. It was based on religious principles of the fundamentalist beliefs of black religion. The conservative church did not focus on much beyond the ideal of heaven and the escape from oppression that was provided to the slaves. To most followers of the conservative church, values such as perseverance and solace through faith were the most honored. For hundreds of years, black churches did not support ideas of confrontation “because they knew that every time they took a stand, they got it! They were afraid, they were deeply fearful.”[47] Furthermore, although rare and very conservatively radical, there is evidence that the conservative black church actively defended against the civil rights demonstrations, Foner writes;
It failed to see its obligation as a participant in the fight for equal rights. ‘We are the policemen of the negroes,’ a southern colored preacher observed in 1941. ‘if we did not keep down their ambitions and divert them into religion, there would be upheaval in the south.[48]
The similarity to the Antebellum churches of the pre-Civil War era, discouraged those who started to mobilize a widespread movement for social justice. The conservatism of black churches did very little to advocate for mass social change.
Fettered by a strain of fundamentalism and emotionalism, and weakened by the diffusion of denominations, the negro church had little appeal for the younger generation. In the 1930’s and 1940s it struggled without success to find a vehicle for its latent power, and its leadership had lost touch with the material and moral issues of the day.[49]
Dissatisfaction with the conservative black church was widespread among black civil rights activists. Martin Luther King jr. at one point denounced the ability of traditional Christian beliefs to incite positive racial change. A frustrated King stated, “we are gravely mistaken if we think that religion protects us from the pain and agony of mortal existence…the church that overlooks this is a dangerously irrelevant church.”[50] The lack of strong support from the black church caused a secularization of much of the movement’s supporters. Non-religious freethinkers separated themselves from the church-based movements, which prevented them from taking the traditional path to leadership – through ministry.[51] The affect of this separation is debated. Some argue that the fragmentation helped the movement because it provided non-religious activists access to social change leaders. However, the prevalent argument supports the idea that the fragmentation hindered the movement by weakening the cohesiveness of the civil rights platform. In conclusion, as Maguire states, the diversity of the black church was politically skewed toward conservatism due to the history of unsuccessful social change. The rare churches that preached and advocated for social change were offset by the cementation of the conservative church to its devotion to traditional values and conformity to established social hierarchies.
The progressive black church is the vital institution to be analyzed with regard to the civil rights movement. As an institution, the progressive black church was indispensable in its value to the promotion of community activism. The progressive black church was most important in the following two ways. First, it connected the public to the progressive church’s advocacy of civil rights activism. The black public found the “courage to resist oppression and racism through the influence of the black church’s prophetic voice.”[52] The prophetic preachers, headed by the Reverend Martin Luther King jr., emerged as the leaders and figureheads of the movement. Second, it provided a “decentralized arm of the black church”[53] that connected activist secular organizations (CORE, NAACP, SNCC) to the religious leaders of the movement who resided in the church and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. “These clergy preached a social gospel that encouraged joining and participating in civil rights organizations such as the NAACP and they encouraged the formation of auxiliary organizations as a viable way to address problems in the black community.”[54] The progressive black church increasingly became more radical as time went on and supporters grew in numbers. Furthermore, as victories were won and momentum was gained, the demand and impatience for equality grew. The radicalized church, although criticized for being more violent and disruptive, displayed a tenacity that motivated those who were losing enthusiasm.
The Black Church – Evolution Through King
The key to understanding the progressive black church’s origins is to understand the chronological evolution and contemporary separation from the conservative black church in the beginning years of the civil rights movement. The primary factor that influenced the separation of the two churches was the leadership of the progressive black church breaking away from the traditional church. The evolution of the post World War II progressive black churches radicalization paralleled the evolution of many churchgoers from a religion-based position of non-activism, to a position of religion-based activism.
The biography of MLK exemplifies the evolution of a not only preacher, but that of a traditional conservative member of the black church developing into a progressive leader. The polarization of the black church had begun previous to king’s rise to leadership. As mentioned above, the factors such was WWII, growing student youth conscious, and demographic migration began the division of the black church before MLK became known. MLK’s subsequent rise to leadership is useful to understanding the rapid birth of the movement. As explained by Maguire, there is a belief that king “lit the fire and suddenly all these massive black churches across the southland joined him and just, we shall overcome! Not so.”[55] Instead, King’s rise to power was a gradual rise through the black religious community. Furthermore, there is a common misconception that the black religious movement had an army – again, not the case. At the turn of the decade of the 1960’s, when King became a household name, the pastors, such as Abernathy, Shuttlesworth and Lowry who also shared the vision and led their own churches were part of a small few.[56] As mentioned earlier, at the onset of the movement the progressive church was a minority. It is evident when looking at the black church’s leaders that the few pastors who MLK worked with were unique and strategically assembled.
MLK’s beginnings at the Dexter Avenue church in Montgomery AL, which is now famous for being ground zero of black church activism, had non-activist intentions. At Dexter in 1949, King’s predecessor Vernon Johns proclaimed that he would preach on the subject ‘Segregation After Death’. “Local leaders found it mildly unnerving that a Negro minister planned to address so volatile and worldly a topic as segregation in the first place.”[57] The sermon depicted the sin of segregation in heaven. He told the story of Dives, a rich white man, asking Abraham to segregate himself from Lazarus a beggar and send him to hell. John preached of the cruelty of segregation. However, his all black congregation did not universally agree with his sermon. “his sermon that Sunday brought mixed comfort at best to his own congregation as he made it clear that is not only whites who sought to segregate themselves.”[58] This was only a small part of John’s goal of confronting segregation and inequality head on. Vernon John’s time at Dexter was characterized by a controversial commitment to change.
Following the resignation of Vernon Johns, Dexter Avenue desired a “more traditional pastor – an educated and trained one, to be sure, in the Dexter tradition,[59] but someone more conventional than Johns in dress, manner, and behavior, someone less controversial, perhaps a younger and less established man who could not give the deacons such a battle.”[60] “King was hired because he could preach the old style. Well!” [61],[62],[63] During his time at Dexter, King was contacted by the Montgomery Improvement Association, a non-religious civil rights group led by E.D. Nixon, a civil rights activist who separated from the black church because of its failure to demand radical change. MIA needed a charismatic leader who could inspire the quiet, but oppressed black population. King was subsequently recruited because, again, he could speak, not because he had the vision of change.[64],[65]
King’s involvement with MIA and leadership of the 385 day Montgomery Bus Boycott led to an amplified popularity and increased following of supporters. Through MIA, King made connections to other social institutions of change and social change leaders. With Ralph Abernathy, Fred Shuttlesworth, Joseph Lowry, and C.K. Steele, all fellow activist ministers, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, led by King was established.[66] From this point forward, King’s prominence and involvement only heightened. Soon King established himself as the leader of the religious black community. Using religion as a mental tool of unification and the church as a physical tool, King mobilized a social movement based on racial equality and discriminatory justice. With the legislative victory of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the movement triumphed. By the end of the modern civil rights movement in 1968, and tragically Kings life, his evolution from an ordinary Christian preacher to a radical social activist was complete. King’s path to activism mirrored the black church’s evolution and emergence as an institution of social change
The Black Church Since – Legacy:
The black church following the civil rights movement continued to fight for equality, however with its leader gone, organization began to deteriorate.[67],[68] Like King’s growing evolution to radicalism, the church continued to splinter into more violently radical groups such as the Nation of Islam and the Black Power Movement. Maguire questioned King’s future as a non-violent civil rights leader if his assassination was not executed. He notes King’s increasing radicalism and impatience, and attributes it to King’s anxiety of not accomplishing his dream of full equality before his inevitable assassination.[69] Maguire understandably claims that the possibility of a more radical black coalition endorsed by King would co-opt the black church’s foundation of non-violent demand for social justice. The second question to bring up is the impact of religion on King. Like the strong secular activists of Dubois and Randolph, if King did not enter ministry, which almost happened, would the civil rights movement still have occurred? Or was King the key piece that broke the stagnation and inspired the movement?
Although the presence of the church in today’s black community is still incredibly relevant, it has seen a decline in attendance since the 1960’s.[70],[71] As desegregation policies and affirmative action policies were implemented in the 1970, black standard of living has improved. As a result, a reversed great migration has occurred and the return of middle-class blacks to rural southern suburbia has emerged as a trend.[72],[73] The modern diversification of socio-economic status of the black population is one of the most critical challenges facing the black church today. Unlike the pre-civil rights era, the black population is not forced into a single social stratum; instead the ability to increase social stature discourages the need for an expressive outlet such as the church. When looking at church decline, one also needs to take into account a national decline in religiosity of the baby-boomer generation.[74]
Another issue not presented in this essay, but that should be taken into account is the hypocrisy of the black church that has remained until today. Sexism and homophobia are two extremely prevalent concerns in the black church.[75] The discouragement of these behaviors is profoundly contrary to the moral values of freedom, liberty, and equality fought for during the 1960’s. Through its disapproval of homosexuality and gender equality black church perpetuates the discrimination it struggled to abolish for centuries.[76]
Further research relating to this topic could include the value and influence of other social institutions of change during the civil rights movement. Such institutions could include, but are not limited to, economic institutions such as the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters Union, or social institutions such as black beauticians, which served an underappreciated position of communication and female involvement in a male dominated movement.
[1] Farber, David R., and Beth L. Bailey. The Columbia Guide to the 1960s. New York: Columbia UP, 2001. Print.
– Meaning “of law” and “of custom,” respectively.
[2] Logan, Rayford Whittingham. The Negro in American Life and Thought: the Nadir, 1877-1901. New York: Dial, 1954. Print.
- The term was coined in this book written by historian Rayford Logan.
[3] “Remember History: An Interview with John Hope Franklin.” Interview by Margo Hammond. Summer 2007. Web. 2 Dec. 2011.
– Franklin emphasizes the early 1900’s as the time having most severe discrimination. He cites the widespread popularity of books such as Charles Carroll’s, The Negro, A Beast and Negro, A Threat to Civilization and states, “So it’s no surprise that you had the strictest segregation laws, the strictest miscegenation laws, the strictest definition of race in the early 1900’s.”
[4] Morris, Aldon D. The Origins of the Civil Rights Movement: Black Communities Organizing for Change. New York: Free, 1986. Print.
[5] Maguire
[6] Morris, conclusion
[7] Benedict, R. 1961. “The Growth of Culture”. in Man, Culture and Society, HL Sharpiro (ed.) 4th edition, Oxford University Press
[8] Morris
[9] Ling, Peter. “Social Capital, Resource Mobilization and Origins of the Civil Rights Movement.” Journal of Historical Sociology Vol. 19.2 (2006). Web. 13 Nov. 2011.
[10] Morris, 278
[11] Foner, Eric. “Free Blacks In The Antebellum North.” America’s Black Past: A Reader in Afro-American History. New York: Harper and Row, 1970. 163. Print.
[12] Ling
[13] Ling
[14] Morris
[15] Morris
[16] Morris
[17] “World Since 1492,” Segal, Daniel
[18] Segal, Daniel
[19] McKether, Willie. “Roots of Civil Rights Politics in Northern Churches: Black Migration to Saginaw, Michigan 1915 to 1960.” Critical Sociology (2011).Crs.sagepub.com. Sage, 20 June 2011. Web. 13 Nov. 2011.
[20] Maguire
Full Quote: “If I were going to name the vital conditions that led to the beginnings of the movement, one of the most important would be that there were so many black G.I’s that had experienced desegregated life to some extent all over the world. Then to come back to Alabama and be pushed into the box was more than they could do”
[21] Branch, Taylor. Parting the Waters: Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement 1954-1963. London: Macmillan, 1988. 13. Print.
[22] Parting the Waters, Branch, 13
[23] Morris, xii
[24] Morris, 279
[25] Douglas, Kelly B., and Ronald E. Hopson. “Understanding the Black Church: The Dynamics of Change.” The Journal of Religious Thought. Journal of Religious Thought. Web. 13 Dec. 2011.
[26] Maguire
[27] Swain, Randall D. “Standing on Promises That Cannot Fail: Evaluating the Black Church’s Ability to Promote Community Activism Among African Americans in Present Day Context.” Journal of African American Studies. Springer Science and Business Media B.V., 5 July 2008. Web. 13 Nov. 2011.
[28] Foner, 162
[29] Foner, 163
[30] Foner, 158
[31] Maguire
[32] Litwack, Leon F. North of Slavery; the Negro in the Free States, 1790-1860. [Chicago]: University of Chicago, 1961. 187. Print.
[33] Foner, 344
– Again, Foner’s speculation of the black church should not be taken as fact but as a perception. Maguire supports this particular perception.
[34] Conyers, James L. Black American Intellectualism and Culture: a Social Study of African American Social and Political Thought. Stamford, CT: JAI, 1999. 220. Print.
[35] Foner, 403
[36] Brink, William, and Louis Harris. Introduction. The Negro Revolution in America What Negroes Want, Why and How They Are Fighting, Whom They Support, What Whites Think of Them and Their Demands. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1964. 100. Print.
– The information presented and analyzed in this book was heavily reliant on a series of 1963 Newsweek polls and interviews of 100 influential black civil rights activists. Full statistics can be found here: pgs. 167-243. Full list of participants can be found here 243-246.
[37] Maguire
[38] Parting the Waters, Branch, 16
– The title of the sermon is “Money Answereth All Things”
[39] Douglas and Hopson
[40] Gadzekpo, Leonard.
[41] Gadzekpo, Leonard. “The Black Church, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Future.”Journal of Religious Thought. Web. 13 Nov. 2011.
[42] Swain
[43] Maguire
[44] Swain
[45] Maguire
[46] Maguire’s description of the two types of churches (the progressive and conservative) purposely does not focus on the presence of a diverse spectrum of churches. This is done to emphasize the split personality and lack of unity of the church. Maguire’s description of the progressive and conservative church is concurrent with description presented in writings by Branch, Foner, Eisenstadt, Morris, Swain, Douglas and Hopson, Gadzekpo, and an interview with John Hope Franklin.
[47] Maguire
[48] Foner, 404
[49] Foner, 403
[50] Parting the Waters, Branch, 695
[51] “Famous Black Freethinkers – We Would like to Thank the American Atheists for Their Large Contribution to This Page as Well as Other Contrib – Blog.” Thinking Above The Standard – The Infidel Guy Show. Web. 5 Dec. 2011. <http://www.infidelguy.com/article75.html>.
– Such freethinkers include: such as A. Philip Randolph, the influential leader of the Sleeping Car Porters, James Foreman, the former Executive Secretary of the SNCC, Bayard Rustin, an openly gay political advisor to MLK and organizer of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, W.E.B. Dubois, a black academic and co-founder of the NCAAP, Richard Wright, a black author whose works helped redefine racial relations and Langston Hughes, a socially active black poet and author.
[52] Swain
[53] Morris
[54] Swain
[55] Maguire
[56] Maguire
[57] Branch, Taylor. Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years, 1963-65. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 1998. 12. Print.
[58] Pillar of Fire, Branch, pg. 12
[59] The origin of the Dexter avenue church is very interesting. The First Baptist Church (colored) was established in 1867. Ten years later, “a dissident faction of the First Baptist Church marched away in a second exodus that would forever stamp the characters of the two churches.” The Second Baptist Church was built on a lot purchased for $250 on Dexter Avenue. It was thus titled Dexter Avenue Baptist Church
[60] Parting the Waters, Branch, 25
[61] Maguire
[62] Morris, 9-11, 54-56, Conclusion
[63] Parting The Waters, 25-28
[64] Maguire
[65] Morris
- Morris attributes his knowledge of charisma to Max Weber. Weber attributed a large proportion of the success of a social movement and protest to the charisma of the leader.
- “Max Weber.” Encyclopedia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopedia Britannica Online. 20 April 2009.com
[66] Morris, 77-90, 100-112
[67] Maguire
[68] Swain
[69] “I’ve Been to the Mountain Top” (Martin Luther King jr.)
[70] Putnam, Robert D. Bowling Alone: the Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York, NY [u.a.: Simon & Schuster, 2007. Print.
[71] Swain
[72] Swain
[73] Maguire
[74] Putnam
[75] Douglas and Hopson
[76] Douglas and Hopson
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