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Himalayan Journal of Humanities and Cultural Studies The Himalayan Journal of Humanities and Cultural Studies Open Access Research Article The Contribution of the Us Black Church 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 philosophy of nonviolence to lead this fight under the banner of the SCLC an association of Citations: 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. 25 Birane Sene.; Hmlyn J Human Cul Stud; Vol-2, Iss- 2 (March-April, 2021): 25-30 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”.
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