The black church has always played a vital role in urban black
communities. In this comprehensive and insightful history, Clarence
Taylor examines the impact of this critical institution on city
life and its efforts to provide support and leadership for urban
African-American communities. Using Brooklyn as a national example,
Taylor begins with the history of mainline (Baptist, Episcopal,
Presbyterian, and Methodist) churches of the nineteenth century,
which modified the practices of "white" churches to meet the needs
of their growing congregations. These churches brought culture to
their members as a mode of resistance by establishing church
auxiliaries and clubs such as art and literary societies,
traditionally reserved for white churches. In addition, they
endorsed the education of the clergy, thereby demonstrating to
American society at large that African Americans possessed the
sophistication and the means to pursue and to promote culture. More
exuberant and less formal than the "elite" churches,
Holiness-Pentecostal churches formed the next group to influence
community life in Brooklyn. By providing a stable space in which
people could network, organize church and community groups, and
simply socialize, they offered a myriad of activities and programs
for entertainment as well as moral uplift. In short, despite the
existence of firm denominational lines, the church as an
institution actively answered the educational, religious, and
social needs of African Americans while remaining fully involved in
the general cultural and political events that affected all
Americans. On a more controversial note, the book charts the
successes and failures of prominent ministers, who led
Brooklyncommunities through McCarthyism, the civil rights movement,
Johnson's War on Poverty, and the ghettoization of
Bedford-Stuyvesant, the largest African-American community in the
borough. With an eye on the future, Taylor analyzes the black
clergy's response to the problems endemic to urban life throughout
the country, including the exodus of the black middle class to the
suburbs, the erosion of government support programs, drug abuse,
and the AIDS epidemic. Taylor concludes by assessing the careers of
contemporary, sometimes outspoken, black ministers of Brooklyn,
such as Reverend Al Sharpton, who has gained national attention.
Richly illustrated with photographs, The Black Churches of Brooklyn
is an eloquent evaluation of the institution that has contributed
so much to the development of viable, cohesive African-American
communities. Taylor brings long overdue attention to its valiant
two-hundred-year-old struggle to "alter the secular while
maintaining the sacred".
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