Civil Rights -- Religious History
What role did religion play in sparking the call for civil
rights? Was the African American church a motivating force or a
calming eddy?
The conventional view among scholars of the period is that
religion as a source for social activism was marginal,
conservative, or pacifying.
Not so, argues Johnny E. Williams. Focusing on the state of
Arkansas as typical in the role of ecclesiastical activism, his
book argues that black religion from the period of slavery through
the era of segregation provided theological resources that
motivated and sustained preachers and parishioners battling racial
oppression.
Drawing on interviews, speeches, case studies, literature,
sociological surveys, and other sources, Williams persuasively
defines the most ardent of civil rights activists in the state as
products of church culture.
Both religious beliefs and the African American church itself
were essential in motivating blacks to act individually and
collectively to confront their oppressors in Arkansas and
throughout the South. Williams explains how the ideology of the
black church roused disparate individuals into a community and how
the church established a base for many diverse participants in the
civil rights movement.
He shows how church life and ecumenical education helped to
sustain the protest of people with few resources and little
permanent power. Williams argues that the church helped galvanize
political action by bringing people together and creating social
bonds even when societal conditions made action difficult and often
dangerous. The church supplied its members with meanings, beliefs,
relationships, and practices that served as resources to create a
religious protest message of hope.
Johnny E. Williams is an associate professor of sociology at
Trinity College in Hartford, Conn. His work has been published in
"Sociological Forum" and "Sociological Spectrum."
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