Himalayan Journal of Humanities and Cultural Studies Open Access

Research Article The Contribution of the Us in Shaping Racial Equality

Birane Sene American and Caribbean Studies Laboratory Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar, Senegal

*Corresponding Author Abstract: Religion will provide African-American political activists confronted with racial Birane Sene segregation a solid philosophy for the search of a solution. After slavery and the segregation organized by "Jim Crow" laws, it was inevitable that some form of resistance would emerge.

Article History The collective spirituality of the Black Church facing repression, helped spawn a civil rights Received: 20.02.2021 movement that sought to achieve its goals by peaceful means. The movement for civil rights Accepted: 30.02.2021 will then takes shape, structure itself and engage in the fight with legendary determination Published: 10.04.2021 and courage. The Baptist pastor Martin Luther King has asserted himself as the leader of this movement. He relies on the egalitarian message advocated by the Bible and the Citations: philosophy of nonviolence to lead this fight under the banner of the SCLC an association of Birane Sene (2021); The pastors activists for civil rights. The Black church demonstrates in that occasion its ability to Contribution of the Us Black Church get together and deal successfully with social issues affecting the Black community. in Shaping Racial Equality; Hmlyn J Human Cul Stud, 2(2) 25-30 Keywords: Black, Church, Equality, Fight, Segregation, Race, Religion, Rights

INTRODUCTION Religious freedom is one of the most prized liberties of the American people, a fact that strikes some people as incongruous if they think of the United States as a secular society. That very phrase however is misleading, in that it implies a society in which religion and religious ideals are absent, and secular values alone govern daily conduct. In the contrary, religion is not absent from daily life in the United States, rather, the constitution has created a system in which each individual and religious group can enjoy the full freedom to worship, not only free from the government but from the other sects as well. One of the great social revolutions that accompanied America‟s rebellion from England and the adoption of the constitution and bill of rights was the formal separation of church and state, first by former colonies and then by the federal government.

This notion of full freedom of religious exercise in the constitution has made of it a protected right. In the case of black people, former slaves who are now Christianized, white slave owners, to make them easier to control stripped African slaves of their cultural heritage and turned them into Christians. The church became then the only way to survive spiritually and to keep the bonds of tradition and connection within the black community. As a center of community life, black churches would hold a leadership role in the civil rights movement. Their history as a key element for the black community and as the link between the black and the white world, made them natural for the purpose. The role of the church was not merely to serve as a place for religious practice, but a place for decisions involving the resolution of the black community matters. This is so very true that one of the most important struggles the world has ever known in terms of civil rights had been led from 1955 to 1968 by a black American Baptist pastor Martin Luther King Jr.

The improvement of the black people‟s conditions in all, is to a large extent the result of a great contribution of religious organizations. This article intends to shed light on this particular period of the history of American where religion, mainly the black church, had a great contribution to racial equality. The first part of this work will lay the emphasis on the historical context which has favored the development of religion and the founding of the black church. The second part is devoted to the religious view of the philosophy of nonviolence; a successful tool in the civil rights movement. The last part focuses on the multiplication of churches and the creation of religious organizations leading the fight against racial segregation.

THE ROOTS OF FREE RELIGIOUS PRACTICE The achievement of free religious practice, which has led to the setting of black churches, has been the result of a long process and a historical favorable context. This quest for religious liberty drew the Pilgrim Fathers from England to America. Once settled in America, the pursuit of this free religious exercise will not die out. They got their independence from England and passed a bill to guarantee religious freedom. After so many years under white people leadership, the former slaves will see in religion a way of liberation and decide to step aside from white churches and create their own. These churches will be then turned into flowering places of protest, with the birth of religious organizations fighting for civil rights.

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Religious freedom: a long standing right remonstrance against religious assessment, even if As we have already mentioned above, the first divided among all religions, nonetheless remained an settlers in America were religious dissenters, they left establishment of religion and should therefore be England not only for economic reasons, but to enjoy opposed, no matter how mild or beneficent it appeared. their religious freedom. This does not mean that In addition the first amendment to the Unites States religious freedom as we know it today, fully existed at constitution says the following: “Congress make no law that time, but the seeds had been planted. The history of respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting its Western Europe from whence came the early settlers of free exercise...” (Claude, J. B. 2003 : 27) the American colonies was marked by religious conformity from the fourth century, until the protestant The argument made over centuries ago still ring reformation with the Catholic Church. We might think very strongly nowadays. It is then clear, for both that the protestant reformation would have led to some Jefferson and Madison, that religion is so important and toleration; in fact, one can find in the writings of Martin its free practice so essential to mankind‟s happiness and Luther and John Calvin some passages that plead for well-being that it must be fully protected from the State. tolerance and freedom of conscience. But in those areas People should not be taxed either for an established where Protestants gained control, they established their church that they do not support, or even for support of own churches. This should not be surprising because for their own church. Religion for them is better when it is Luther, we cannot consider that there is only one true let to the devotion of its followers. It is in this context faith and that all others need to be eradicated, or that in of religious liberty that the African Americans who any state there can only be one church. were slaves would set up their churches and start a new life. The Protestants reformation split the religious unity of Europe and in some countries, religious differences The founding and mission of the Black Church led to bitter civil wars. Carl Anderson said that in the At first, slaves learned about christianity by case of the United States, James Madison, one of the attending services led by a white preacher or supervised founding fathers had this story in mind when he wrote by a white person. In such settings whites used the bible that “torrents of blood have been split in the world in stories that reinforced the sense of place that each group vain attempts of the secular arm to extinguish religious had in society, urging slaves to be loyal and to obey discord, by proscribing all differences in religious their master. During the nineteenth century, they used opinion” (Anderson, 2005: 12) Although formal stories such as the curse of Ham (The Holy Bible: establishment lasted until 1776, in fact the colonies had Genesis 9.20-29 ) to justify slavery. (Cf Arthur de to allow some degree of religious toleration without Gobineau). They promoted the idea that loyal and being clear about the separation between the Church hardworking slaves would be rewarded in the after life. and the State. This situation raised a problem in Sometimes slaves established Sabbath schools to talk Virginia involving the establishment of full religious about the scriptures and in some cases, those who were freedom, and the settlement of this issue by two of the literate taught others to read, as Frederick Douglass did great fathers of American nation Thomas Jefferson and while enslaved as a young man in Maryland. Slave James Madison, Will be the birth of religious liberty. revolts in the early 1800‟s, were often inspired by Thomas Jefferson, author of the declaration of passages in the bible promising deliverance from independence, and James Madison, known as the father slavery, as with the exodus out of Egypt, or by blacks of the constitution. Both would later serve as president preachers and assembly of blacks in group unsupervised of the United States. by whites. A Presbyterian pastor, Cary Allen, proclaimed to the slaves: “The blessed Savior is dead Thomas Jefferson had written a bill for religious and shed his blood for you as well as for your master. freedom which provided that “no man shall be He has opened the door to heaven wide for you and compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, invites you all to enter it.” (Grenouilleau, 2004: 81) place or ministery whatsoever”. (Urofsky, 2003:14) This bill was passed to the Virginian legislature and the Slaves organized underground churches and hidden problem was settled. He believed that religion is a religious meetings, where slaves were free to put personal matter between an individual and god, and together evangelical christianity with African beliefs therefore, beyond the reach of civil government. He did and African rhythms and turn traditional hymns into not limit this freedom to Protestants sects, or even to spiritual. The underground churches provided Christians, but all groups, and he considered this psychological refuge from the white world. The freedom not to be the gift of legislative session, but one spiritual gave the church members a secret way to of the natural rights of mankind. Jefferson left for Paris communicate and in some cases to plan rebellion. In as an American minister to France, and the fight for 1831 Nat Turner a slave and Baptist preacher killed religious liberty fell upon his friend and disciple James about 50 white men, women and children in an armed Madison, who wrote also one of the key documents in rebellion in Virginia. The building process of the Black American religious history. The memorial and Church will not be interrupted despite the hostility of

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Birane Sene.; Hmlyn J Human Cul Stud; Vol-2, Iss- 2 (March-April, 2021): 25-30 some white preachers but will develop into a strong his struggle to win civil rights for African Americans. gathering place for worship and contention. After In the 1960‟s, Cesar Chavez organized a campaign of emancipation, northern churches founded by free black, nonviolence to protest against the treatment of farm as well as those of predominantly white domination, workers in California. These three leaders, to name a sent missions to the south to teach the newly freed few, proved that people can bring about change without slaves, including to teach them to read and write. using violence, as Chavez explained “nonviolence is not inaction, it is not for the timid or the weak, it’s hard In 1870, the southern based Colored Methodist work it is the patience to win” ( Santayana, 1951: 203). Episcopal (CME) church was founded. The National Baptist Convention which is now the largest black In addition to that, it is a common sense that just religious organization in the United States was founded means are the most likely to lead to just ends. When in 1895. Bruno CHENU said however in his book Le Gandhi said: “The means may be likened to the seed, Grand Livre Des Negro-Spirituals that: the end to a tree”, he expressed the philosophical kernel of what some refer to as a prefugurative politics, and “These churches, despite early efforts to integrate the embodiment of his notion of “Satyagraha”. “The freed slaves in American society, racial segregation end justifies the means”. (Santayana, 1951: 204). quickly became the norm in many states. Black Martin Luther King, a student of Gandhian nonviolent preachers provided then leadership, encourage resistance concurred with this concluding that education and economic growth and address also nonviolence demands that the means we use must be as social issues.” (Chenu, B. 2000: 77) pure as the ends we seek. Proponents of nonviolence reason that the actions taken in the present inevitably The black churches held a leadership role in the re-shape the social order in like form. They would argue American civil rights movement and witnessed the birth for instance that it is fundamentally irrational to use of a philosophy and religious doctrine known under the violence to achieve a peaceful society. Furthermore the name of nonviolence and led by black pastors among leaders of the American civil rights movement were whom Reverend Martin Luther King Jr, Ralph David aware that black people were politically powerless at Albernathy,Bernard Lee, to name a few. that time, and that using violence to achieve their goal, will not only give the oppressor legitimate reasons of RELIGION AND THE PHILOSOPHY killing innocent people, but also will alienate society from their cause. OF NONVIOLENCE AS A WEAPON Based on common sense and religious belief, In addition, retaliation is a vicious circle which is in nonviolence conveyed some guiding principles and full contradiction with the principles of forgiveness and meaning to the activity of its followers. Both religion love. This point of view is also supported by many and common sense disapprove the use of violence as a religions, advocating respect and love for opponents. solution. Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr among This principle is most closely associated with spiritual others have found in their religions principles of love or religious justification of nonviolence. This can be and justice advocating to return good for evil and not to seen in the Sermon on the Mount, when Jesus urges his apply a tit for tat policy. Nonviolence promoters shares followers to love their enemies. (The Holy Bible, secular and religious values according to which Mathew 5:44) In the Taoist concept of “Wu Wein”, violence cannot but create violence, and American civil effortless action of the Aikido martial art, and in the rights activists, as Christians, will put forwards their Buddhist principle of “Metta”, or loving kindness faith and personal conviction to reach their goal. towards all beings, and the principle of “Ahimsa” in Jain religion, a Hindu reform movement of the sixth Nonviolence a religious and common sense issue century B.C. This philosophy of respecting and loving Nonviolence is a philosophy and strategy for social the opponent shared by christianism, Buddhism and change that rejects the use of physical violence. As some forms of Hinduism, has a pragmatic justification such, nonviolence is an alternative to passive in that the technique separating the deeds from the acceptance of oppression and armed struggle. doers, allows for the possibility of the doers changing Practitioners of nonviolence may use diverse methods their behavior and perhaps their beliefs. in their campaigns for social change, including civil disobedience, direct actions, or targeted communication Martin Luther King Jr. and the others believed that through the media. The term nonviolence is often linked the power of love “Agape”, which was essential to with pacifism and in modern times, it has been a nonviolent resistance, could be the most effective powerful tool for social protest and a leitmotiv of many weapon against the social ills of society. Throughout religious leaders. Mohandas Gandhi for example, has the civil rights movement he promoted nonviolent led a long nonviolent struggle against British rule in resistance based on his personal conviction, but also his India, this movement helped India win it‟s Christian beliefs. In the end, it proved to be the most independence in 1947. And about ten years later, Martin successful method against an unjust system of racial Luther King Jr adopted Gandhi‟s nonviolent methods in segregation. 27

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Christian religion principles and nonviolence THE ROLE OF CHURCHES AND Promoted by other religions and experienced successfully by Mohandas Gandhi for the independence RELIGIOUS ORGANISATIONS of India under the British domination, nonviolence will Throughout the US history, religious preferences be used by the civil rights movement activists under the and racial segregation has favored the development of direction of their religious convictions. As Gandhi will separated black churches as well as black churches with refer to Hinduism, likewise the American civil rights white denomination. Freed black people will organize a activists will refer to Christianity and to the message of new life by creating independent black churches. These Jesus to overcome racial segregation. Nonviolence is churches with various branches, will all serve as deeply rooted in Christian principles of love, justice, important sources of social cohesion and a shield peace and reconciliation. Jesus has taught them through against racial segregation. Preachers will turn these the Bible that God loves all human beings without religious congregations into civil rights organizations to discrimination, and demands that his children love each challenge segregation. Among these organizations led other as he loves them. (The Holy Bible, Luke 10: 27) by churchmen, the SCLC among others as the In addition, Jesus said that a good tree is to be watershed of the modern civil rights movement played a recognized by its fruits, that is to say that violence key role to overcome injustice and racism. solves no problem, in the contrary it creates problems. An American black theologian took the example of the The involvement of the church in the desegregation Big Bang theory to explain the Incongruity of messing process everything to get order. He said: Formerly churches in general, and black churches in particular, were led by white persons. The situation will “How can you believe that we can have ordered change when black followers decide to step aside from things out of disorder? The world is so very well white domination. The first of these churches was the organized and so very well set to be the result of an African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME). In the late explosion. Can you imagine a building to be more 18 century, , a former slave, was an organized after the devastating effects of a bomb?” influential Deacon and elder at the integrated and It is in natural law that disorder cannot generate affluent St George‟s Methodist church in Philadelphia order.” (Battle, 2009:8) founded the All- black Bethel AME church in 1787. After white members of St George‟s started to treat his The Bible made it clear in Mathew 7:17 “likewise, people as second class citizens. White members had every good tree produces fine fruits, but every rotten become so uncomfortable that they relegated black tree produces worthless fruits”. For the activists of worshipers to the balcony. Over time, growing numbers nonviolence under christian influence, the establishment of African American withdrew from the Methodist of justice in society requires just means, and since Jesus Episcopal Church. Later, an offshoot of the AME is on the side of justice, he will not fail to support the church will appears under the name of African movement. “This movement will not stop because god Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in . is with the movement”. (Morris, 1984: 6) King This group built Zion chapel and began further responded with what was the essential theological separation from the AME church. reason for his involvement in social issues as a Christian minister saying that: “ I can see no conflict By seeking to install black preachers and elders, between the devotion to Jesus and our present action, in they created a debate over whether black could be fact, I see a necessary relationship. If one is truly ministers. This debate ended in 1822 with the devoted to the religion of Jesus, he will seek to rid the ordination of Abraham Thompson, Leven Smith and earth of social evils. The gospel is social as well as James Varick, The first superintendent of the personal”. (Morris, 1984: 7) AME Zion Church. The national Baptist convention was first organized in 1880 as a foreign mission Baptist Above all, the sermon of the mount which is the in Montgomery, Alabama Its founders including Elias foundation of social justice and truth, stressed on the Camp Morris Stressed the preaching on the gospel as an theme of returning good for evil. “However I say to answer to the shortcomings of the segregated church. you; do not resist him that is wicked, but whoever slaps According to John Franklin and Hope Staar in their you on your right cheek, turn the other to him”. (The book The Negro in Twentieth Century America, Holy Bible, Mathew 5:39) They knew that the tit for tat “Morris moved to Atlanta, in Georgia in 1895, and policy promoted by some people would create a founded the National Baptist Convention, as the merger toothless and blind society, and that religious principles of the foreign mission convention, the American would have a fundamental role to play on black National Convention and the Baptist National liberation from racial segregation. Convention.”(Franklin & Hope, 1967:18) The National Baptist Convention is now the largest African American religious organization. In 1907, formed the after his Baptist church expelled him. The headquarters of this 28

Birane Sene.; Hmlyn J Human Cul Stud; Vol-2, Iss- 2 (March-April, 2021): 25-30 church is mason temple in Memphis, and it is the site of When serving as a pastor, King was known as the head Dr Martin Luther King‟s final sermon; “I’ been to the of the MIA, the leading organization of this successful mountaintop” delivered the day before he was Montgomery Bus Boycott. This event led to the assassinated. foundation of the SCLC in 1957, which gathered many victories in the fight. Among these churches The Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church in Montgomery Alabama is American civil rights movement, along with other very specific. It is where Dr Martin Luther King Jr organizations like the National Association for the pastured from 1954 to 1960 and began his quest for Advanced of Colored People (NAACP), the Student civil rights. In this historical landmark, is the modest Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the pulpit where reverend Martin Luther King Jr first Congress for Racial Equality (CORE) to name a few. preached his message of hope and brotherhood. This Over time, some of these organizations moved away church was also a central point of the Montgomery bus from nonviolence or, took different strategies, but this boycott. A Large Mural in the Church depicts King‟s did not prevent them from pursuing their common civil rights crusade from Montgomery to Memphis. The objective which was the black people‟s liberation and Dexter King Memorial Baptist Church was founded in equality. In 1951 and 1962, SCLC joined the SNCC in 1877 in Slave trader‟s Pen, located on Dexter Avenue, the Albany movement, a broad protest against formerly Market Street. A small wood frame building segregation in Albany, Georgia and was generally located inside, was used as a place for worship. In 1976 considered as the organization first nonviolent Montgomery added the church to its list of historic campaign. On July 2nd 1963, the leaders of these sites. The church‟s first name Second Colored Baptist different organizations met for a massive demonstration was later changed to Dexter Avenue Baptist church in Washington DC to protest for new civil rights when Market Street became Dexter Avenue in honor of legislation to outlaw segregation. This has resorted to a Andrew Dexter founder of the city in 1978. The name huge success with no violence and a high number of was changed to Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist participants. The peak of march was Dr King‟s famous Church, in memory of its twentieth pastor Dr Martin “I have a Dream” 1 in which he stress on hopes and Luther King Jr. who had the idea of involving the aspirations of the civil rights movement. churches in the fight for black people s‟ rights. CONCLUSION Togetherness and commitment of religious organizations The African Americans fight for civil rights has The birth of most of the more influential civil rights been a long and tedious way. One may think about the organizations was to be led by Churchmen or persons situation as a kind of Boomerang effect. Enslaved and having some religious belongings. The SCLC (Southern belittled under the name of religion, they will use this Christian Leadership Conference) of Dr Martin Luther very religion to untie the bonds of slavery and injustice. King and affiliated movements, as the name suggests With the favor of free religious exercise, which was the intended to draw its strength from leaders of the black basis of the American founding fathers, Black people church in the South. By the same token, in 1966 a group after emancipation will establish separate church of 51 black pastors calling themselves The National facilities. They will also set up congregations to create Committee of negro churchmen, (NCNC) bought a full their own culturally distinct ways. Within the black page in New York Times to publish there “ Black churches, they will build strong community power statement”, which proposed a more aggressive organizations and hold positions of spiritual and approach to fight against racism, using the Bible for political leadership. It is in this context that Black inspiration. Formally the SCLC was composed of people got together around some religious organizations affiliated churches and some community organization to demand fair treatments and the end of discrimination. such as the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), and Alabama Christian Movement for Human Most of the greatest victories, either the adoption of Rights, rather than individual members. Civil Rights Act in 1964, or the Voting Rights Act in 1965, had been the result of these organizations‟ The Afro-Americans‟ fight was then deeply linked pressure on the federal government. But if religion must to religious places. All the decisions which have be left to the conviction and conscience of every man as contributed in re-shaping the black people‟s conditions the Bill of religion stated centuries ago, and that had been taken in churches. The SCLC which was the government should not be mingled with religious most influential owed his position through the fame of practice, the fact remains that there is a problem of how its well known leaders Dr King and Ralph David

Albernathy, but also the number of affiliated 1 organizations engaged in the nonviolent direct action “I have a Dream” is the name given to the speech program across the South. The movement originated given on August 28, 1963 by the American pastor and from Montgomery Bus Boycott, after Rosa Parks was activist Martin Luther King, at the Lincoln Memorial in arrested for refusing to give her bus seat to a white man. Washington, D.C., during the March on Washington for civil rights . 29

Birane Sene.; Hmlyn J Human Cul Stud; Vol-2, Iss- 2 (March-April, 2021): 25-30 to reconcile the government keeping totally neutral in 5. Franklin, J., & Staar, H. (1967). Isidore, The Negro religious matters, with the strong role religion has in Twentieth Century America : A Reader on the played in American civil rights movement. Despite struggle for Civil Rights, New York , Vintage these victories in the 20th century, Black people „s Books. precarious situation is still under fierce debate in the 6. Grenouilleau, P.O. (2004). Les Traites Négrières, United States. The movement “Black Lives Matter” Paris, Gallimard Folio Histoire. created in 2013 to fight against police violence a 7. Michael, B. (2009). « Le Genie de l‟Eglise Noire systemic racism is the telling example. »Libres enfin : le mouvement des New York, New American Century. REFERENCES 8. Morris, A. (1984). The Origins of The Civil Rights Movement , New York, Free press. 1. Anderson, C. (2005). « Religion et politique dans 9. Santayana, G. (1951). Dominations and Powers: l'esprit américain » giovedi, Année I N.2 Reflections on Liberty, Society and Government, Septembre. New York, Vintage Book. 2. Chenu, B. (2000). Le Grand Livre des Negro- 10. Urofsky, M. (2003). Right of people :Individual Spirituals, Paris, Bayard. Freedom and the Bill of Rights, New York, 3. Claude, J.B. 2003). «Le Premier Amendement : un Washington Ed. mythe », transatlantica revues N 27. 4. Cottret, B. (2010). Histoire de la Réforme protestante, Paris, Perrin Tempus.

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