2023-08-24 01:39:06
The 1963 March on Washington is remembered primarily for Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, and thus for being a high point of long-term civil rights activism of what is sometimes called “Black Church”.
At the march, King certainly represented numerous black clergymen who were his colleagues in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). But the march was the product of sustained activism by a broader coalition. Black and white union leaders, as well as white clergy, played pivotal roles for many months leading up to the event.
Furthermore, the Black Church was not monolithic then, nor is it now. Many black pastors and their congregations did not engage in civil disobedience and other nonviolent confrontational tactics in the civil rights era, just as some today remain aloof from the Black Lives Matter movement and avoid to progressive black pastors who stand up for abortion rights and the rights of LGBTQ+ people.
“The issues are multiracial. Today it’s too simplistic to say ‘black church/white church,’” said the Rev. William Barber, who in 2018 became co-chair of a national anti-poverty initiative called The Poor People’s Campaign. This name was inspired by a movement created by King and other SCLC leaders in 1968, shortly before King’s assassination.
Barber, now director of the Yale Divinity School’s Center for Public Theology and Public Policy, admires King immensely. However, he is critical of those who “reduce the March on Washington to one man, one speech.”
“That is a political strategy to undermine the purpose of the mass protest,” he said. “It must be a mass movement, not just a mass moment.”
Barber noted that the new Poor People’s Campaign rally has drawn the active support of thousands of clergy of various races and religions.
“There are Jews, Quakers, some predominantly white congregations that are pro-civil rights, and the LGBT community, who are concerned about the rights of immigrants and women and the right to vote,” he said. “Today, any An initiative that does not address these issues on a daily basis is not really moving forward in the spirit of the March on Washington.”
In the decades before and after 1963, black churches and denominations have had different priorities and political approaches.
Many black religious leaders in the early years of the 20th century supported Booker T. Washington’s demand that black progress be brought about through education and economic self-sufficiency, rather than through direct challenges to segregation laws. In later decades, the Nation of Islam promoted autonomy as part of its defense of Black Nationalism. Other black pastors—particularly Father Divine and Reverend Ike—were enriched by optimistic promises of earthly prosperity for their followers.
Currently, there are large numbers of black pastors in two distinct categories, according to Robert Franklin, a professor of moral leadership at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology in Atlanta. Some of them, he points out, are vigorously involved in social justice activism, envisioning themselves as “prophetic radicals” in the King tradition.
Others have a more conservative and individualistic approach, he says. “They’re a little soft when it comes to activism and risk taking,” she said.
“In many ways, they have declared themselves victorious, they have bought their own facilities,” he said. “There are fewer prescient sermons and more concern for the upkeep of the institution. They wonder, ‘How do we keep the lights on and pay the bills?’”
A notable trend in recent decades has been the increase in the number of multiracial congregations across the country. King’s former church in Atlanta, Ebenezer Baptist Church, is among them, attracting more and more white and Hispanic parishioners.
Barber hinted that King would be pleased by that.
“Dr. King was fighting for the beloved community that included all people, regardless of race,” Berber said. “He included everyone, from different religions and traditions.”
In New York City, one of the oldest Protestant churches, Middle Collegiate Church, is now a politically progressive and thoroughly multi-ethnic congregation. Her chief minister, the Rev. Jacqui Lewis, is a black woman, proud to carry on her family’s tradition of civil rights activism.
“There is something in our blood that will never release us from our responsibility to build heaven here on earth,” he shared.
The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s “wasn’t just black male clergy from the South,” he said. “It also included women who chose to march and not ride the buses (during the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955 to 1956). It was white people who decided to put black people in their cars and take them to work. All the ordinary, ordinary people who participated in this movement for the freedom of the south.
Lewis agreed that the term “Black Church”—as a general concept—might be of limited use today.
“Let’s talk about ‘black faith’ instead. It is inside and outside the church. ‘The Black Church’ implies standing in the streets in favor of the right to abortion, of the rights of migrants. If there are two black people on the street chanting ‘We will win,’ that is the Black Church.’”
Perhaps it is a sign of the times that there is no single faith group among the organizations co-chairing the 60th Anniversary of the March on Washington, which will take place on August 26. Among those they chair are the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the National Urban League, the Anti-Defamation League, and Asian Americans Advancing Justice, a nonprofit organization that advocates for rights of Asian Americans.
However, the nation’s six historically largest black denominations—partners in the National Conference of Black Churches (CNBC)—will participate in the anniversary events.
“The Black Church was the foundation of the Civil Rights Movement, and that is why we are determined to play a continued role in the fight for equality,” said the CNBC board of directors. “While we have made progress over the decades, recent events have threatened to disrupt voting rights, the quality of education, and good-paying jobs. The COVID-19 pandemic was a reminder that we have a long way to go, in many aspects of life, as we fight for equality and justice.”
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