“A Church Where Jesus Is Real”: Race, Religiosity And
“A Church Where Jesus Is Real”: Race, Religiosity and the Legacies of Protest Activism in the Church of God in Christ, 1968-1989 By Thom Finley Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts In the Department of History at Brown University Thesis Advisor: Françoise Hamlin April 4, 2014 2 3 In memory of Bob Paine, 1921-2013. Never just another fish in the sea. 4 Table of Contents Introduction 5 Chapter One: “What’s Mine Is Yours” COGIC Political History, Protest and the Passing of the Guard 18 Chapter Two: Building Jerusalem Power, Property and Racial Justice in Memphis 45 Chapter Three: Dreaming of a Church Without Rebellion The Saints and Cultural Politics 1968-1989 70 Chapter Four: Toward a Pentecostal Theology of Liberation COGIC Higher Education, Marginal Voices and the Intellectual Legacies of 1968 96 Conclusion: Salvation, Testimony, Freedom 116 Bibliography 121 5 Introduction In March 1968, mere weeks before his death, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stood in front of striking sanitation workers and their supporters at Mason Temple in Memphis, Tennessee. At a pulpit surrounded by banners bearing Bible verses and the faces of long- dead ministers, he began the first of a series of speeches that would culminate fourteen days later in his famous and final “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” address. King’s words in Memphis encompassed Biblical parables, boycott strategies, and stirring exhortations to nonviolent direct action. On that first March day, however, the preacher began with a simple celebration of black religious unity. “We have Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, members of the Church of God in Christ and members of the Church of Christ in God,” he proclaimed, greeting the packed crowd in the 3,000-seat Christian Temple.
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