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