The Black Church and the Black Power Movement in Cairo, Illinois, 1969-74

SOUL POWER: THE BLACK CHURCH AND THE BLACK POWER MOVEMENT IN CAIRO, ILLINOIS, 1969-74 BY KERRY LOUISE PIMBLOTT DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2012 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor Clarence E. Lang, Co-Chair Associate Professor Mark H. Leff, Co-Chair Professor James R. Barrett Associate Professor Sundiata Keita Cha-Jua Associate Professor Angela Dillard, University of Michigan Professor David R. Roediger ii ABSTRACT While scholarship on the modern Civil Rights Movement has emphasized the centrality of the Black church, popular and scholarly accounts of Black Power portray a movement marked by a profound de-Christianization. Soul Power upends this prevailing narrative, arguing that the Black church played a sustained and pivotal role in the Black Power Movement at its central flashpoint, Cairo, Illinois, a city identified by contemporaries as the site of the nation’s “longest protracted struggle” for racial justice. This dissertation explores how activists working within Cairo’s leading Black Power organization, the United Front, reworked the religious discourses and institutions that had anchored earlier civil rights struggles and provided access to the Black church’s tremendous organizational resources. Seizing upon emergent trends in Black Theology, the United Front developed a distinctive spiritual philosophy that legitimized the organization’s political program and unified movement participants. In turn, prominent Black clergy assisted the United Front in leveraging much needed resources from mainline denominations and ecumenical organizations operating at the state and national level. As support for traditional civil rights organizations waned and faith in the War on Poverty dwindled, this dissertation shows that churches became a significant, albeit overlooked, source of coalitional support for the Black Power Movement. However, as conservative political agendas established their dominance in the early 1970s, this heavy reliance upon church revenues, particularly that of predominantly white denominations, left Black Power organizations acutely vulnerable to state repression and shifting sentiments within the church itself. iii To friends and allies. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Writing this dissertation has been a solitary endeavor, but one in which I have incurred many debts. Financial support came from a number of sources, including the University of Illinois Graduate College, the History Department, the Department of African American Studies, the Doris G. Quinn Foundation, the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, and the Illinois State Historical Society. Staff at the History Department, including Tom Bedwell, Jan Langendorf, and Elaine Sampson, also provided invaluable administrative support. My research also benefited significantly from the guidance of librarians and archivists at the African American Research Center and the Illinois History and Lincoln Collections at the University of Illinois, the Special Collections Research Center at Southern Illinois University, the Cairo Public Library, the Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature at the Chicago Public Library, the Chicago Historical Society, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, the Illinois State Archives, the General Commission on Archives and History of the United Methodist Church, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the National Archives, and the Library of Congress. Special thanks are due to the staff at Cairo City Hall who graciously allowed me to use their facilities during numerous research trips to the city. For the privilege of engaging in intellectual labor I am indebted to many excellent teachers. During the early years, Max Keen inspired a passion for learning and history while Sarah O’Flynn instilled self-confidence and hope. At King’s College London, I had the honor of working under the supervision of John Howard whose excellence in teaching and scholarship set a high bar to which I continue to aspire. Since arriving at the University of Illinois in 2005, I v have also benefited from the patience and guidance of my dissertation committee: Clarence Lang, Mark Leff, James R. Barrett, Sundiata Keita Cha-Jua, Angela Dillard, and David Roediger. During my first semesters, Dr. Barrett imparted a deep appreciation for the value and power of “bottom-up” social histories that continues to guide my work. It was Dr. Cha-Jua that pointed me toward the Cairo case study and in his introductory Black Studies course that I began to explore the scholarship on the relationship between Black Theology and Black Power for the first time. Having spent periods of their own lives in Cairo, Dr. Cha Jua and Dr. Roediger provided helpful insights into the community and local organizing traditions. During the research phase, Dr. Dillard encouraged my exploration of Black Power’s church-based donors, directing me to the IFCO records as a potentially fruitful resource. Drafts of chapters were also presented to the History Department’s dissertation writing workshop, including Sally Heinzel, Ryan Jones, Bruce Levine, Megan McLaughlin, Joel Miyasaki, Martin Smith, and Troy Smith. I am especially beholden to my co-advisors – Clarence Lang and Mark Leff - whose intellectual rigor and breadth of knowledge continues to both inspire and challenge me. Dr. Leff brought me into the history profession, encouraging me to apply for graduate school and serving as my mentor and friend for almost a decade. Dr. Lang’s courses solidified African American Studies as my intellectual home and grounded me in the scholarships that inform this dissertation. Both spent countless hours reading over drafts and providing regular and extensive feedback. Equally as important, both avidly supported my own participation in local struggles for racial and social justice viewing the relationship between scholarship and activism as a generative one. As I labored over this dissertation, I gained support and guidance from many other excellent friends, allies, and colleagues who are similarly committed to putting their intellectual vi labor into dynamic conversation with contemporary struggles. Back home in London, I am particularly indebted to a cohort of dynamic and like-minded women, including Jo Burgin, Sophia Khan, Clare McLeish, Althea Legal-Miller, Adeola Sheehy-Adekale, and Claudine Vega. At Illinois I was fortunate to be welcomed into a number of different intellectual and activist communities that helped mentor and sustain me over the long haul. Early on, Ken Salo served as a bridge between campus and community offering important lessons on the responsibility of activist scholars. It was in Dr. Salo’s class that I was introduced to members of the Champaign- Urbana Citizens for Peace and Justice who provided me with a second education on building movements for racial change. Particular thanks are owed to Carol and Aaron Ammons, Deacon Clayborne, Brian Dolinar, Belden Fields, and Martel Miller. An invaluable component of this second education came from my brothers and sisters in the local labor movement. There are too many folks here to list, but special mention is due to Treva Ellison, John Gergely, and Natalie Havlin for bringing me into the struggle and grounding me in a radical tradition of democratic grassroots unionism. I am extraordinarily blessed in that my closest intellectual peers were also my strongest political allies. My cohort in African American History at the University of Illinois is a dynamic, radical, and loving community that I leave with great sadness. We have shared the wonderful experience of studying and building social movements together. Much love and appreciation to you David Bates, Heidi Dodson, Ashley Howard, Anna Kurhajec, Stephanie Seawell, and Alonzo Ward. Lastly, I would like to thank my family. Writing a dissertation is a transformative experience, but not always in positive ways. While I grew in some areas, I regressed in many others. Behind the scenes, I wasn’t always interesting, funny, or attractive. In fact, most of the time I was positively a pain to live with. Yet, I am blessed with a family that completely vii understands and supports me all the same. Thank you to my parents – Kevin and Ann Pimblott – for encouraging me to walk my own path, ask difficult questions, and be “obnoxious,” as someone once put it. Finally, thank you to Raymond Mitchell who has been my best friend and tireless partner throughout this process. Writing this dissertation has truly been a team effort. Over the past year, Ray has been forced to listen to me read entire chapters out loud ad nauseam. He always follows up with a series of irritating (pertinent) questions and an onslaught of savage criticism from which this dissertation has greatly benefited. When things got really bad, Ray locked me in my affectionately titled, “isolation chamber” for hours at a time refusing to let me leave until “the chapter is finished!” I am happy to say that it is now officially “finished” and we can finally talk about something else for a change. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ………………………………………………...……………………………...1 CHAPTER 1: ON JORDAN’S BANKS: THE ORIGINS OF COMMUNITY, FAITH AND STRUGGLE IN CAIRO, ILLINOIS………………….……………………………...………….29 CHAPTER 2: REDEMPTIVE LOVE, VIGILANTE TERROR AND REBELLION: CAIRO IN THE CIVIL RIGHTS CAULDRON……………………………..………………….76 CHAPTER 3: FROM

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