Gobbets 1930-1950 (Q3) Flashcards
What is the historical significance of Du Bois siding with Clarence Darrow over the Church in Postscript to the Crisis in 1928?
The Crisis was the NAACP’s official publication featuring commentary on current affairs and thus significant in the lives of African Americans
What is Du Bois siding with Darrow over the Church in Postscript another example of?
His confused religious stance and relationship with God
What does Du Bois admire about Darrow in Postscript?
His defence of the rights of poor whites and disenfranchised African Americans
Why does Du Bois believe Darrow deserves respect in Postscript?
For his honesty and for his respect of other people’s beliefs
What is Du Bois criticism of the Church in Postscript?
He is critical of their lack of political activism
How does Du Bois portray the Church in postscript?
As primarily social institutions and as religious institutions secondarily
Why does Du Bois argue that the Church is primarily a social institution in Postscript?
Because they are spaces where the “race problem” is under continuous discussion
Why does Du Bois argue that the particulars of fantastical biblical stories do not matter?
Because the ethics at the heart of Christianity are what is important deserve focus
What ethics does Du Bois argue are important and deserve focus in Postscript? (3)
Justice, mercy, and peace
What kind of ministers does Du Bois criticise in Postscript?
Those who spouted creeds without living out true Christianity
What is the historical context/significance of Du Bois Postscript being published in 1928? (7)
Harlem Renaissance Rising secularism Rising Black Freethought KKK Membership peaked in 1925 Social Gospel Darrow debate Pickens debate
Who was Gunnar Myrdal and what was his profession?
A Swedish economist/sociologist
What did Gunnar Myrdal being a white intellectual mean for his view on education?
He believed education would change people and that with greater education, rationality will occur
What is the historical significance of An American Dilemma’s 1944 publication date?
It is just before the end of WWII
It prefigures the large-scale challenge of desegregation
Who funded Myrdal’s study of American Race Relations?
The Carnegie Corporation of New York
Why did the Carnegie Corporation of New York choose Myrdal to write their study?
They believed as a non-American his opinion would be unbiased
How does Morey (2017) conclude that Myrdal’s prior work as an economic theorist, population expert and politician in Sweden biased his study?
It informed his analysis esp. defined his target audience (white liberals) and the extent of his policy programme recommendations
What does Myrdal’s American Dilemma call for?
Black rights to match American rhetoric
Why does Myrdal see the American Dilemma as a vicious cycle?
Whites oppress AAs and then cite their poor performance as a reason for their oppression
What does Myrdal claim are the two ways out of the vicious cycle?
1) Cure whites of their prejudice
2) Improve the circumstances of Blacks
Why does Myrdal argue improving the circumstances of Blacks is a way out of the vicious cycle?
This would disprove white preconceived notions and remove their prejudice
Myrdal believed schisms and splits in the Black Church rarely occurred because of theological divergences: what did he believe were the causes? (2)
1) Greed and self-interest of ministers wanting to lead their own denominations/churches
2) A lack of engagement in politics and pandering to white patroange
How does Myrdal counter arguments in favour of segregation?
By factually disproving assumptions
What does Myrdal acknowledge sex as?
The principle around which segregation is organised
What does Myrdal brand northern whites as?
Ignorant
What does Southern’s (1987) assessment of the influence of Myrdal’s study on scholarship and public policy conclude?
That it was alluded to in Supreme Court decisions and played a significant part in motivating the social changes occurring
What is the significance of Myrdal’s the American Dilemma selling 100k copies?
It was clearly very popular and shows that there was rising sentiment against segregation leading up to the civil rights era mass desegregation
What does the popularity of Myrdal’s book suggest?
A positive outlook for the future of race relations in the US
Who’s speech is the Negro: the Hope or Despair of Christianity?
Reverdy C Ransom
What is the historical significance of the Negro: the Hope or Despair’s 1935 date?
During Black Social Gospel
Harlem Renaissance
Where did Revery C Ransom give his speech The Negro: the hope or Despair?
At the Second International Congress of the World Fellowship of Faiths in Chicago
What does Ransom say American democracy is modelled from in The Negro?
Spirit, inspiration and teachings of Jesus
When does Ransom say the practical application of Christianity is tested in The Negro: the Hope or Despair of Christianity?
When confronted by AAs
Under what circumstances does Ransom say the “case for Christianity seems hopeless” in The Negro: the Hope or Despair of Christianity?
If Christians cannot under common religious faith
Why does Ransom say all Christians should strive for social salvation in The Negro: the Hope or Despair of Christianity?
Because of Jesus
What does Ransom say whites have done to AAs in The Negro: the Hope or Despair of Christianity?
Disinherited them politically, socially, and economically
When does Ransom say there is hope for AAs despite white disinheritance in The Negro: the Hope or Despair of Christianity?
If Christ stands at their side
What type of source is Ransom’s Lynching and American Public Opinion?
A written source? An essay and an article?
What is the historical significance of the need/want of Ransom to publish Lynching and American Public Opinion as a piece in 1926?
Harlem Renaissance
Black Scepticism and Freethought
KKK Membership peaks in 1925
What does Ransom see lynching as in Lynching and American Public Opinion?
A means of social control for white supremacists
What does Ransom say is used to justify lynching as a mean of social control in Lynching and American Public Opinion?
The beasts narrative
Why is Ransom critical of the silence of the pulpit to lynching in Lynching and American Public Opinion?
They should be the ones speaking out
What does Ransom say “our appeal is for” in Lynching and American Public Opinion?
“The supremacy of civilisation over barbarism and savagery”
What does Ransom point out inconsistencies between in Lynching and American Public Opinion?
Lynching and claims that AAs are the ones that are beastly, barbaric savages
How does Ransom disprove the rape myth in Lynching and American Public Opinion?
80% of cases of lynching rape isn’t even alleged
What does Ransom question in Lynching and American Public Opinion and why?
How the US can be a Christian state when the conscience of the nation is no longer horrified by lynching
How does Ransom stress the political influence element of lynching in Lynching and American Public Opinion?
By pointing to the example of the “Jewish vote”
Why/how does Ransom blame AAs for lynching in Lynching and American Public Opinion?
He suggests that they aren’t being considered or taken seriously by officials because they have lost or given away their right to retaliate or call them to account at the ballot box
What idea does Ransom refute in Lynching and American Public Opinion?
That the government cannot control lynching
What does Ransom advocate for AAs because of lynching in Lynching and American Public Opinion?
Self-defence
What was Mays and Nicholson’s The Negro’s Church in 1933?
The first sociological study of the Black Church in American
Under what circumstances do Mays and Nicholsons suggest a positive future for the Church in The Negro’s Church?
If the leadership/pulit is educated and preapred
What do Mays and Nicholson encourage the pulpit to do in The Negro’s Church?
Improve their churches
What are the four epochs of growth detailed in Mays and Nicholson’s The Negro’s Church?
1) Slavery Epoch
2) Civil War Epoch
3) New Century Epoch
4) Migration Epoch
What do Mays an Nicholson account for in each epoch of growth and why in The Negro’s Church?
The rise in the number of churches in each period to see which themes are important to encourage a revitalisation
Under what circumstances did Mays and Nicholson the Church could achieve its potential to become the greatest spiritual force in The Negro’s Church?
If it were prepared to tackle the forces retarding Black advancement
What do Mays and Nicholson consider to be the forces retarding Black advancement in The Negro’s Church? (3)
1) Otherworldliness
2) Conformity
3) Uneducated pulpit
What do Mays and Nicholson highlight in their discussion of the origins of the AA religion in The Negro’s Church?
How it becomes a means of coping for AAs
What do Mays and Nicholson credit the Church for being even before emancipation in The Negro’s Church?
A place where AAs had opportunities for leadership and liberties such as self-expression
What influence do Mays and Nicholson state the Church has on AA lives in The Negro’s Church?
Economic, social, and political influence
What do Mays and Nicholson say the Church needs a greater understanding of in The Negro’s Church?
How life struggles are impacted economically and politically
Though noting many issues and areas for improvement, what do Mays and Nicholson argue the Church’s power is in The Negro’s Church?
It is invested in what it allows AA population to do
What does the Church allow AA population to do according to Mays and Nicholson in The Negro’s Church?
1) Stimulate pride
2) Serve as a home and social centre
What does Mays The Negro’s God as Reflected in his Literature provide insight on (historiographically)?
Provides insight on AA doctrines of God and humanism within cultural production
What does Mays argue in The Negro’s God as Reflected in his Literature made space for humanist interpretations?
The increase in alternate responses to oppression
What does Mays argue the literature of the Harlem Renaissance provides in The Negro’s God as Reflected in his Literature? (2)
1) Insights that inform theological reflection BUT ALSO
2) Challenges to ideas of religious normality within Black communities
Why was The Negro’s God as Reflected in his Literature highly innovative for its time in 1938?
It fussed theological texts and contemporary literature - it was interdisciplinary before this was even a term
What does Mays note the tendency to do in The Negro’s God as Reflected in his Literature?
To abandon the idea of God “as a useful instrument” in social adjustment
What does Mays note people are feeling about God? (3)
1) Doubts over God’s value to AAs struggle
2) Described as having outlives his usefulness
3) His existence is denied
What is the cause of this tendency to abandon the idea of God “as a useful instrument” according to Mays in The Negro’s God as Reflected in his Literature?
The “breaks” seem against the Negro and authors are unable to harmonise this fact with the god pictured by Christianity
Who’s work does Mays refer to in The Negro’s God as Reflected in his Literature?
James Weldon Johnson and George Schuyler
What does Mays argue about both Weldon Johnson and Schulyer in The Negro’s God as Reflected in his Literature? (4)
They believe God is necessary for the many
They shouldn’t be ridiculed if they find comfort in that belief
They are critical of institutionalised religion
But still show profound appreciation for the Church
What does Mays say about The Messenger in The Negro’s God as Reflected in his Literature?
He labels it “an outstanding critic of the Negro Church and religion” whose editors believed ministry should focus less on Bible and more on economics, history, sociology and science
Where was Southern AA Preacher Howard Thurman ordained?
In the Baptist Church
What was Thurman academically?
The First Dean of Rankin Chapel at Howard in DC in the 1930s until 1944
How was Thurman’s theology influenced by Quaker Rufus Jones?
He developed an appreciation for the inward, personal relationship with God every person had
How was Thurman’s theology influenced by Ghandi?
He adopted a doctrine of non-violence following meeting him in 1934
What was Thurman a strong proponent of education as a means for?
Overcoming racial discrimination
What did Thurman combine non-violence and an interior life with and to what ends?
He combined non-violence and interior life with a deeply religious sense of protest vs institutional segregation
Who did Thurman’s stance influence?
A generation of civil rights activists
Who was Thurman a key mentor to?
MLK Jr and other civil rights leaders
What did Thurman found?
The first interracial interfaith congregation in the US: the Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples
Where did Thurman found the Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples and when?
In San Francisco in1944
Who did Thurman found the first interracial faith congregation in the US with?
Dr Alfred Fisk - a white minister
Why did Fisk and Thurman Found the Church for All Peoples?
To encourage participation in spiritual life
What did Thurman become in his life?
A prolific author, TV host, and popular speaker
What was Thurman’s The Negro Spiritual Speaks of Life and Death?
The 1947 Ingersoll Lecture
What is the significance of the Ingersoll Lectures?
It was presented annually at Harvard to a predominantly white audience
What was the purpose of The Negro Spiritual Speaks of Life and Death given that it was an Ingersoll Lecture?
To enlighten a white audience on the significance of spirituals and to challenge the negative stereotypes of AAs as lacking reason/intelligence
What is The Negro Spiritual Speaks of Life and Death a philosophical reflection on?
Time and immorality
What does Thurman argue for about Negro Spirituals in his lecture?
He argues for the deeper meanings of negro spirituals, particularly in relation to the Black slaves from whom they originated
What does Thurman say Negro Spirituals are typically associated with at this time and in what context?
They are typically associated with Southern services and criticised as overly emotional
Thurman argues spiritual reflect deeply through which common themes in The Negro Spiritual Speaks of Life and Death (6)?
1) Life
2) Death
3) Struggle
4) Community
5) Hope
6) The indomitable spirit of the enslaved AAs they represent
What does Thurman say is significant about Negro spirituals?
The way they portrayed the black experience of suffering
What type of purpose does Thurman say spirituals have in The Negro Spiritual Speaks of Life and Death?
A dual purpose
Why does Thurman say spirituals are essential to survival and resistance?
The otherworldliness offers strength to cope with slavery
Though it is often dismissed, why does Thurman believe the spiritual is a very deep form of resistance?
The singer is tired and weary but is reminded of their promise that they’ll continue to the end of their life due to God’s strength
Why does Thurman say death is not a negative thing in Negro spirituals?
It is a release, influenced by the experience of life
What did Charles S Johnson note one year following The Negro Spiritual Speaks of Life and Death in his Spiritual Autobiography? (2)
1) That there is a vast unchallenged beauty in the religion of the folk Negro welling up from deep flowing rivers of sorrow
2) AND only recently had they been able to admit the power of the music and religious expression of the enslaved and newly free.
What is RR Wright’s Overcoming Racial and Religious Prejudices?
One of the speeches at the 1934 World Fellowship Address
How does Wright say in Overcoming that religious and racial prejudices complicate and make issues in every facet of life? (4)
1) Political difficulties
2) Economic barriers
3) Suffering
4) Persecution
Why does Wright in Overcoming suggest that racial and religious prejudices are bigger than other problems being faced?
Because they are not logical or coming from a place of reason
What does racial and religious prejudices being emotional mean according to Wright in Overcoming?
It makes combatting their effect difficult
How does Wright say science helped to level racial and religious prejudices in Overcoming?
Because they are based on empirical fact
Why does Wright believe religionists from different backgrounds are as likely as scientists to agree if they actually spoke in Overcoming?
Because there is not a different reaction to the divine between different groups, they just discuss their reactions and explain them differently along racial lines
What does Wright say has fostered racial prejudice and intolerance within religion in Overcoming?
People have become so attached and emotionally invested in their specific understandings of the divine
What do people think they are serving and what are they really serving according to Wright in Overcoming?
“People think they are serving God when they are serving race prejudice.”
According to Wright, there is a difference in what and not what? (Overcoming)
Difference of theology not religion
What does Wright say in Overcoming religion should be about?
Brotherhood not domination as it has been in past
Why does Wright question whether the purpose of Christianity/Church is to bring Greek-Roman theology to all the races of the world in Overcoming?
Because close contact with other countries helped Christian attitude in US to evolve
Why does Wright say missionary work within the US needs to be done as much as, if not more than, internationally, in Overcoming?
Because the goings on in America are going vs social teachings missionaries trying to impress on those in foreign lands
What does Wright say is a better expenditure in Overcoming for the Church and that they should be doing?
Spending money to spiritualise and morally lift those from our own race and country
Who was Mary Church Terrell’s father?
The South’s 1st AA millionaire
What does MCT reveal about her mixed-racial ancestry and light skin?
Admits she sometimes took advantage of light skin but never attempted to “cross the colour line” as others did
What is the significance of Oberlin College in MCT’s life?
1) She was one of the 1st AA women to graduate with a Bachelor’s degree (4 years) rather than two-year ladies degree
2) She graduated alongside AJC
3) Also earned a master’s degree there
In the 1880s/90s, MCT had a prolific career as a journalist, where did she publish?
She published under the pseudonym Euphemia Kirk in the Black and white press
What did MCT promote during her journalist career?
The AA Women’s club movement
Where did MCT teach?
1) At Wilbeforce before moving to DC
2) At M Street High School in DC
When did MCT have to resign from teaching?
When she married
What was the significance of MCT’s appointment to the DC School Board for the District of Columbia?
She was the first AA woman appointed to a Washington DC School Board
Who were the only two AA women invited to sign the “call” and attend the first organisational meeting of the NAACP?
MCT and IBW
What sparked both MCT and IBW’s activism?
The 1892 lynching of Tom Moss in Memphis
What did MCT found in 1892 in DC?
The Colored Women’s League
What is the significance of MCT helping to found the NACW in 1896?
First national black club woman’s org
What were MCT’s words that became the motto of the NACW?
“Lifting as we Climb”
Who was the first president of the NACW?
MCT from 1896-1901
What did MCT view woman’s suffrage as essential to?
Elevating the status of AA women and consequently the entire race
Which White House did MCT picket and with who?
The Wilson White House w members of the National Woman’s Party
What was MCT involved in during WWI?
The War Camp Community Service
What did MCT aid issues relating to in the interwar period?
The demobilisation of AA servicemen
What was the turning point within MCT’s activism journey to a broader focus on civil rights?
The 19th Amendment’s passage in 1919/20 (Women’s suffrage)
What did MCT do in 1950 aged 86?
Challenge segregation in public places by protesting a restaurant in Washington DC
What did the SC rule in 1953, making MCT’s protest victorious - a major CR breakthrough?
Ruled segregated eating facilities unconstitutional
How do we know that MCT’s m-c privilege was important to her?
1) Evans notes when picketing in DC she was often “dressed to the nines”
2) Her autobiography is filled with grandiose language, celebrating her activism and detailing her impressive international travel, with chapters titled ‘Distinguished people I met abroad’
Why did MCT and McLeod Bethune have a dispute over social settlement versus a political lobby?
Bethune wanted NACW to be more progressive and internationally focused
Who was MCT in the same spheres of activism as in DC?
AJC
What was A Colored Woman in a White World?
MCT’s self-published autobiography
When in her life was MCT often the sole AA voice standing up for her race and appealing to whites better nature? (5)
1) School board
2) White women’s suffrage movements
3) Lecturing in schools
4) Only child of colour amongst classmates most of the time
5) Only AA speaker at Berlin Intl Congress of Women 1904
What is the purpose of A Colored Woman for MCT?
She detailed her life experiences and achievements to act as a testament to the abilities and morality of AA women
What did MCT’s determination to make a good impression for her race as the only AA speaker at the Berlin Intl Congress of Women lead her to do?
Speak in German, French, AND English
Why is MCT’s autobiography historiographically significant?
It broadens our understanding of how AA women involved themselves in political fight for racial and gender equality outside the church
Why did MCT’s father disapprove of her uplift work
He wanted her to settle down and live a life of leisure
How did MCT’s father die?
He was shot in the Memphis race riots of 1866
Who did MCT name her daughter after?
The 18th century AA poetess Phyllis Wheatley
Was MCT paid for her work on the DC School Board?
no it was an unpaid position
When was MCT’s NAWSA speech?
1898
What does MCT recognise?
Debt owed to the church
What did MCT fear?
the youth of race would lose faith in religion unless Church took more of an active role
What did MCT believe faith was?
key to helping AAs endure suffering of slavery and since emancipation
What is the source A Discussion: ‘The Religion of the American Negro’ (1931)?
Debate proposed by DuBois on AA Religion published in The Crisis
In ‘A Discussion’ why does Darrow argue AAs would experience less oppression and have greater opportunities if they were less religious? (2)
1) Religion stifled development of race and Black independence
2) Religion bankrupted AAs as tried to donate at same rate as whites
In A Discussion what does Darrow say in relation to whether or not there is a God?
1) If there is - what reason is there for AAs to praise him?
2) If there is - he is White - what more can AAs expect from a white God?
Who responds to Darrow in A Discussion?
Reverend Bishop Jones
Who is Reverend Bishop Jones?
An AA ME Church Minister, Educated, Editor of Christian magazine
What is Jones’ response to Darrow in ‘A Discussion’?
A Defence of AA Church and Religion
According to Jones in ‘A Discussion’, the AA Church is what?
The only institution and leadership devoted to Black uplift and well-being
Why does Jones say AAs shouldn’t turn away from the Church in ‘A Response’?
Because the unfaltering optimism AAs gain from faith and Church would lead to success
Why did Reverend Bishop Jones found a Methodist AA retreat on Gulf of Mexico?
To give AAs access to facilities previously prohibited bc of segregation
How does Jones retreat prove Darrow’s point?
Money not being used to help poorest
What was Reverend Bishop Jones involved in in the late 1920s?
A movement to integrate ME Members
What did southern opposition to the movement to integrate ME members in the late 1920s mean happened instead?
A separate jurisdiction of ecclesiastical authority was created
Who was George Schuyler?
An AA conservative author, journalist, and social commentator employed by the Messenger
What was Schuyler’s religious stance?
He was an atheist with an innate scepticism of Christianity and organised religion
Where is Schuyler’s innate scepticism of Christianity and organised religion clear?
In Black No More, published in 1931, a year before the gobbet piece
What was the turning point for Schuyler from socialist to conservative in the late 1920s?
Observations in South during a tour for The Pittsburgh Courrier stimulated belief socialists were frauds who didn’t care about AAs welfare
What did Schuyler come to believe was the only way AAs could succeed?
Democratic cooperation with whites towards mutual economic gain
How in 1930 did Schuyler attempt to put his black success beliefs into practice?
He established The Young Negroes Cooperation
What led to the increased criticism of Schuyler’s work in the Black press?
He became Increasingly critical of New Deal liberalism and Communist Party during 1930s
What CR landmarks did Schuyler oppose?
MLK winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964
The 1964 CR Act
Why was Schuyler Anti-white Christianity?
He viewed it as pro-slavery and pro-racism
What was Schuyler’s affiliation to Garveyism?
He Initially lived in a hotel ran by UNIA and attended meetings
Dissented from Garvey’s Black Nationalism
Where was Schuyler’s Black America Begins to Doubt published in 1932?
The Mercury - a literary magazine cofounded by Mencken famous for its satirical commentary on American life
What is the historical significance of the place of publication of Black America begins to Doubt?
White satirical audience
What criticisms of the Black Church does Schuyler draw attention to in Black America Begins to Doubt?
Clergy poorly educated and criminal
What does Schuyler conclude are the effects of rapid accumulation of scientific knowledge in Black America Begins to Doubt?
Rise in iconclasts and atheists
What does Schuyler argue about questions of Biblical authority and effects of urbanisation in Black America essay?
Urbanization means people have become more enlightened and their leadership comes from intellectuals rather than clergy
How according to Schuyler in ‘Black America’ essay, has education played a role in the decline of the Church?
1) Increased intellectualism leads to questioning of church and increased religious scepticism
2) Educated people ask why God would allow JC seg
What does Schuyler point to as evidence of the Church’s decline?
- Standstill in terms of membership
- Prestige has waned - look shabby due to lack of funds
What is the historical significance of Schuyler’s suggestion that women, especially AA are more disposed to being members of churches?
Misogyny!!!!! grrr
What does Schuyler say contributed to the lack of funds in Churches?
prioritise collecting money>curing souls
What does Schuyler say JC forced Blacks to do?
Create their own churches
What does Schuyler say press contributed to?
decline of people being wed to the church
what did the rise of other pastimes do according to Schuyler?
contribute to decline of the church
What does Schuyler link ?
southern church membership and the kkk
why according to Schuyler do people remain church members?
for sentimental reasons
how does Schuyler say church could slow the disillusion of AAs?
if they reformed
What does Iler say (2010) about Schuyler and Mencken?
Mdencken frequently criticised Schuyler for expressing indignation in his writing - urged hin to rely on satire to make his points
What is Cameron (2019)’s argument about Black forethought and religious scepticism?
1) The rise in Black freethought saw scepticism become a wider spectrum and a dialogue open between intellectuals and the church.
2) Not all those who questioned God rejected religion or spiritualism, and in fact many remained members of the church.
Who was Henry Mencken?
A white journalist, essayist and cultural critic
What was Mencken’s relationship to black intellectuals?
Many had an affinity with him, arguably he was was one of the most important influences on AA writers in this century
What is Mencken’s 1930 Treatise on the Gods?
A survey of the history and philosophy of religion
In Mencken’s 1930 Treatise on the Gods what does he argue the “irrational” elements within Christianity do?
Make it more reliant on “supernaturalism” than many other religions
Despite its “supernaturalism” why do the majority still believed in Christianity according to Mencken?
Because of the comfort and collective belonging it provided despite the fact many did not know exactly what they believed
What does Mencken’s criticism of the irrational, contradictory, absurd attributes of religion in 1930 Treatise on the Gods include?
“Facile tales” told to justify the suffering of man
What does Mencken claim about elements of the Christian faith including the Holy Trinity?
they are interpolations to solve and answer debates and queries that questioned validity of the religion
Despite recognising that religion could improve mortality, what does Mencken argue? (2)
1) That common decency is separate to religion and evolved with humans AND
2) Religion engendered a “smugness” - not true benefaction
Why does Mencken think attempts to reconcile science with religion are born out of cowardice?
It is people’s inability to depart from what so deeply ingrained in society
Why does Mencken believe World peace is only possible if all religions either cease or join together?
Because religions an impediment to progress
Who was Miles M Fischer?
AA Professor of Church History and Pastor of White Rock Baptist Church
What is Fischer’s argument in his 1935 Report Organised Religion and the Cults?
1) Cults should be included in Census of Religious Bodies 1936
2) Organised religion could learn a lot from cults
Why does Fischer think organised religion could learn a lot from cults? (3)
Because they tended to be:
1) Desegregated
2) More gender equal
3) Engaged in more social work
What religious persuasion was Father Divine until his 1907 turning point?
Baptist
How was Father Divine influenced by Baltimore Storefront Churches?
1) Intensified his religious commitment
2) Gained leadership training
3) Refined evangelistic skills
What was the turning point in Father Divine’s life?
Sermon by Samuel Morris - he became his first follower
What did Divine’s pseudonym the Messenger parallel?
Christ like figure to Morris’ God the Father (Father Jehovia)
Who joined Divine and Jehovah to make a 3-man ministry?
John Hickerson - John the Vine
Why did Divine’s 3-man ministry collapse in 1912?
JTC denied M’s monopoly on Godhood citing 1 John 4:15 - God in everyone
Why was the collapse of the 3-man Ministry in 1912 the birth of Father Divine? (3)
1) He refutes JTV’s claim God in everyone
2) Denies Father Jehovia is God
3) Declares himself God and only expression of God’s spirit
What is Father Divine the Leader and Founder of?
The International Peace Mission Movement
What is the historical significance of Divine establishing his permanent base in NYC after 5 years if circuit preaching?
Larger trend of AA migration
Where did Divine isolate his entourage?
In a rented apartment in Brooklyn where more affluent and conservative AAs made their homes
What is the historical significance of Divine’s move to Long Island in 1919? (3)
1) could hold weekly banquets
2) began to attack as many white followers as Black
3) enabled him to further isolate his entourage and ensure their protection from the temptation of highlife
What is the significance of the 1930s for Divine’s popularity?
He reached 40k disciples
In the summer of 1931, Divine held banquets for as many as 3000 people, why is this significant?
He was arrested for disturbing the peace, increasing his popularity
Why did the Justice who sentenced Divine’s death via heart attack days later increase Divine’s popularity?
Press enhanced idea this was divine retribution - failed to report on Justice’s prior heart problems
What is the historiographical significance of International Peace Mission Movement getting 250k signatures on an anti-lynching bill?
Still helping in terms of Black issues and black advancement and anti-racism and civil rights
How was Divine influenced by the religious ideology of New Thought? (4)
1) Idea that God exists in all people
2) The channeling of God’s spirit eradicated problems
3) Unity with God guarantees salvation
4) Speaks for his egalitarian/optimistic beliefs
Why was Divine’s refusal to acknowledge his biological family significant?
Members also had to break from their biological families
Why was Divine’s message in direct opposition to the Social Gospel?
When you relax and cease to struggle or prevent certain conditions THEN God will work for you
What happened to the Peace Mission Movement following Divine’s death? (3)
Mother divine took over PM after his death
Convinced he would rise again
Always set a palace for him at banquets
Where is The Realness of God 1936 from?
It is a message at the Banquet Table in NYC in the Summer of 1936 at one of the Peace Mission’s Hevaens in Harlem
Who is the Audience for The Realness of God 1936?
Members of the commune who bought into Divine’s message of communitarianism, celibacy, and positive thinking
Why was it not good enough according to Divine to believe in God as a spirit?
Because must believe in him as a reality on Earth
How could people according to Divine make mental and spiritual contact with God?
By relaxing/releasing their conscious mentality
What songs did Divine’s followers sing about him?
“FD is Real … I cannot live without him”
What characterises Divine’s God in me/God in you metaphysics? (6)
Think positively – having a personal connection with God
But has to be done through him
Combined socialist thought with religious ideas
White and black people
New Thought – but more religious
Product of 1920s North
What was Theodore Bilbo’s political significance? (3)
He was a White Southern Democrat politician
2x Governor of Mississippi
US Senator 1935-47
What was Bilbo’s racial bibliography?
He was a KKK member and white supremacist
Why was Bilbo attracted to the ideas of Black separatists?
Saw it as a Potentially viable method of maintaining segregation
Proposed resettling 12m Blacks to Africa
Where does the extract in Bilbo’s Take Your Choice: Separation or Mongrelisation (1947) come from?
It is a chapter titled “False Concepts of the Christian Religion”
The previous chapters give scientific and democratic arguments for segregation
What is Take Your Choice’s overall argument? (2)
1) Segregation necessary bc impossible for multi racial society to have true equality, just hostility
2) Race mixing catastrophic for all races
What does Bilbo attempt to do in Take your Choice?
Refute religious arguments of desegrationists
What does Bilbo equate religious equality with?
Miscegenation
What does Bilbo argue miscegenation leads to?
Mongrelisation
Why does Bilbo say miscegenation and mongrelisation are both unchristian?
Because God sought to maintain the racial purity of America
What does Bilbo suggest is sacrificed by desegregating?
The racial purity of America God sought to maintain
How successful is Bilbo’s Take Your Choice?
2 years later Federal Council of Churches officially denounced segregation
BUT most Southern churches didn’t follow through for years
Who was Carter G Woodson?
An AA historian and journalist born to former slaves
What 2 things related to history did Woodson found?
1) Founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History
2) 1916 founder of the Negro Journal of History
What made Woodson believe in the need for research into the neglected past of AAs?
He was convinced that the role of his own people in American history and in the history of other cultures was being ignored or misrepresented among scholars
Was Woodson an NAACP member?
Yes
Where does Woodson’s Things of the Spirit come from? (1930)
It was published in his book The Rural Negro
Though he sought scientific objectivity, what did Woodson conduct his research with?
A passionate devotion to racial advancement
What is the Thing of the Spirit?
A portrait of the religious culture of the black peasantry
What they are doing/what they should be doing
What does Woodson think the urban church is?
Social uplift agency
Why does Woodson say the Church is important?
because it is the only institution controlled by the race
What is the historical significance of Woodson’s line ‘Losing one’s religion, too, is an easy matter in this Puritanic atmosphere’?
Historical context
Why does Woodson refer to the “mystic shrine of the rural church”?
1) Preachers are morally clean
2) ‘They do well to read and write intelligently’
3) But the best youth go to be ministers in the cities
4) Spirit>understanding
5) Not progressing
‘He has not changed and never intends to do so’
Who was Rosa Young?
An AA teacher, missionary, and promoter of education and religious institutions
Why did Young feel a sense of duty to the race?
Because of her education at Selma
When does Rosa Young become a Lutheran?
1915
Why is Rosa Young’s work different to club women? She is a church women duh!
Focused on religious instruction not just education
What is Light in the Dark Belt (1951)?
Young’s autobiography
What did Young devote her life to?
Encouraging and facilitating an intellectual, moral, and religious education in rural South
What is Young critical of?
1) excessive emotionalism
2) Black rural churches
3) immoral and uneducated clergy
What is Young’s historical significance?
Instrumental in founding and promoting development of Lutheran schools in Alabama’s Black Belt
Mother of Black Lutheranism in central Alabama
Why did Young set up the Rosebud Literary and Industrial School in 1912?
Witnessed shortage of competent Black teachers in Alabama as a teacher so set up own school
How did Young set up the Rosebud Literary and Industrial School in 1912 and sustain it? (4)
1) Spent her life savings
2) After 2 years reached out to donors for funding
3) Directed by Booker T Washington to Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod
4) Lutheran Church took over management, provided money/materials and added Lutheran-based religious instruction to curriculum
What did Young combat? (3)
The emotional “false doctrine”, lack of discipline and morality she saw in rural churches and their exploitation by absent minister
Who was Nannie Helen Burroughs?
A prominent churchwoman,
Daughter of a Baptist preacher
What was Burroughs told she was “too dark” to do?
Be a teacher
What did Burroughs concentrate on during her time as President of NACW (1896)?
Educational forums
Where did Burroughs meet AJC and MCT who influenced her massively?
M Street High School as a student
What was the significance of Burroughs 1900 How the Sisters are Hindered from Helping?
It encouraged the formation of the Women’s Auxiliary to the Baptist Church
What were the 3 B’s important to Burroughs?
Bed, Bath, Broom
Who did Burroughs often vocally express criticism of and why?
The middle-class leadership of the baptist church for its neglect of the working class
Why did Burroughs combine both industrial and classical education in NTSWG est. 1909?
She believed while it important for girls to work also equally important they learn to read and write
Why does Sharon Harley argue we need to reimagine Burroughs as a dangerous radical?
Wilson administration had her surveilled by FBI bc of her strong criticism of his silence on lynching
Burroughs views on suffrage in Report on the Work of Baptist women are consistent with what?
Her remarks in 1915 Crisis symposium
How did Burroughs support the political mobilisation of AA women?
advised women on how to use their vote
What did both Burroughs and AJC believe with regards to AA men?
Critical of them with relating to voting, believed black women superior
Was Burroughs otherworldly or civil rights orientated?
Both
What does Johnson (2005) state NHB and AJC both had?
A pedagogy of politics and revolution rooted in an anti-racist, anti-sexist and anti-classist struggle
What is the Report on the Work of Baptist Women (1920)?
An Address at the 20th Annual session of WC Auxillary to NBC surveying and summarising the work WC been doing
What does Burroughs report highlight?
The work of WC not limited to supporting Christian missions, conducted and supported a wide range of activities
What does Burroughs emphasise is the importance and relevance of prayer? (2)
A conversation with God
For the purposes of securing his justice and for his power to preserve
What is Burroughs in Report critical of with regards to spiritual state of the race? (2)
Critical of excessive emotionalism
Inadequate education of some ministers
What does Burroughs in Report say practical Christian living is more important than?
Practical Christian living > heaven/eschatology
What is the significance of Burroughs discussing women who were “Educated by us” going back to Africa and establishing their own training schools?
Tangible success/legacy
What is the context of the Time period Burroughs gives here report?
Great Migration
What does Burroughs advocate for to support and help domestic workers in Report?
Minimum wage law
Who does Burroughs say in Report are the largest unprotected labour group?
Largest unprotected labour group = AA women who are domestic workers
What does Burroughs say women need to with regards to the vote?
Women using their votes
Women need to organise and reenfranchise men
What is the historical significance of Burroughs discussing women and voting and suffrage in Report?
1920 19th Amendment becomes part of constitution - women enfranchised
What does Burroughs says schools are a means for in Report?
Schools are a means through which we can bless world when we are gone
What does Burroughs suggest is the cause of AA women’s exclusion in Report?
Lily-white idea - white women’s prejudice
Bad political record of AA men
Why does Burroughs in Report say men should allow women into the affairs of government?
“Better to have politics in the Church than ignorance”
What are the implications of Burrough’s distinction between “promising” and “unpromising” girls in Report?
For Burroughs it is an emphasis on character rather than class unlike the lifting as we climb approach to improve
What is Father Divine’s message a reflection of as supported by Weisenfeld?
The theology and positive thought of this era
For MCT, what is the historical significance of her work being secular rather than in the church?
Free from male-ministerial oversight and male misogyny
