Andrea C. Abrams
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814705230
- eISBN:
- 9780814705254
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814705230.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter examines what the leaders of the First Afrikan Church taught the members about “who they were and whose they were,” with particular attention to the relationship between blackness and ...
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This chapter examines what the leaders of the First Afrikan Church taught the members about “who they were and whose they were,” with particular attention to the relationship between blackness and the Bible. In addition, it examines the contradictions between racial understandings of the self through an Afrocentric reading of the Bible and racial understandings of the self when considered in secular contexts. There is a significant shift in how blackness is defined and understood among the members when considered in everyday settings as compared to biblical contexts. In the secularized definitions of blackness, the church members' middle-class status becomes particularly salient.Less
This chapter examines what the leaders of the First Afrikan Church taught the members about “who they were and whose they were,” with particular attention to the relationship between blackness and the Bible. In addition, it examines the contradictions between racial understandings of the self through an Afrocentric reading of the Bible and racial understandings of the self when considered in secular contexts. There is a significant shift in how blackness is defined and understood among the members when considered in everyday settings as compared to biblical contexts. In the secularized definitions of blackness, the church members' middle-class status becomes particularly salient.
Andrea C. Abrams
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814705230
- eISBN:
- 9780814705254
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814705230.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter focuses on how Afrocentrism is defined and integrated into understandings of self and enacted through bodily and linguistic behaviors by the members of the First Afrikan. It describes ...
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This chapter focuses on how Afrocentrism is defined and integrated into understandings of self and enacted through bodily and linguistic behaviors by the members of the First Afrikan. It describes the conversion rituals of the First Afrikan members and the ways in which these rituals are engaged to signal membership to outsiders, to nurture the bonds between those in the community, and to remind the convert of her more authentically African blackness. Importantly, the same act of Afrocentric blackness may be interpreted differently by observers and among practitioners. Thus, a consideration of these rituals provides insight into how Afrocentrism is performed and demonstrates the varied meanings of blackness embedded within those performances.Less
This chapter focuses on how Afrocentrism is defined and integrated into understandings of self and enacted through bodily and linguistic behaviors by the members of the First Afrikan. It describes the conversion rituals of the First Afrikan members and the ways in which these rituals are engaged to signal membership to outsiders, to nurture the bonds between those in the community, and to remind the convert of her more authentically African blackness. Importantly, the same act of Afrocentric blackness may be interpreted differently by observers and among practitioners. Thus, a consideration of these rituals provides insight into how Afrocentrism is performed and demonstrates the varied meanings of blackness embedded within those performances.
Colleen McDannell
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300104301
- eISBN:
- 9780300130072
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300104301.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter tells the story of Irene and Jack Delano, who took at least nineteen photographs of an African-American congregation in Heard County, Georgia. The series began with a picture of four ...
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This chapter tells the story of Irene and Jack Delano, who took at least nineteen photographs of an African-American congregation in Heard County, Georgia. The series began with a picture of four women, one carrying a child, walking down a dusty road toward the church. Other photographs show the gathered men dressed in suits and hats, chatting with one another. In one picture, Delano creates an elegant composition by filming the men underneath a massive tree bounded by a car and the church. Eventually, Jack Delano took a group picture of the deacons and minister, lined up against the side of the church. Moving inside, he filmed the “fellow with a booming voice,” prayers and preaching, and the attentive congregation. Three photographs are of the church's minister. Delano explains in his captions that this man lived in an old converted schoolhouse with his wife and two grandchildren, while his children had moved out of Heard County. Delano posed the couple underneath framed portrait photographs taken of them twenty years earlier.Less
This chapter tells the story of Irene and Jack Delano, who took at least nineteen photographs of an African-American congregation in Heard County, Georgia. The series began with a picture of four women, one carrying a child, walking down a dusty road toward the church. Other photographs show the gathered men dressed in suits and hats, chatting with one another. In one picture, Delano creates an elegant composition by filming the men underneath a massive tree bounded by a car and the church. Eventually, Jack Delano took a group picture of the deacons and minister, lined up against the side of the church. Moving inside, he filmed the “fellow with a booming voice,” prayers and preaching, and the attentive congregation. Three photographs are of the church's minister. Delano explains in his captions that this man lived in an old converted schoolhouse with his wife and two grandchildren, while his children had moved out of Heard County. Delano posed the couple underneath framed portrait photographs taken of them twenty years earlier.
Christopher B. Strain
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813032399
- eISBN:
- 9780813038919
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813032399.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
In the 1990s, churches across the south-eastern United States were targeted and set ablaze. These arsonists predominately targeted African American congregations and captured the attention of the ...
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In the 1990s, churches across the south-eastern United States were targeted and set ablaze. These arsonists predominately targeted African American congregations and captured the attention of the media nationwide. Using oral histories, newspaper accounts, and governmental reports, this book gives a chronological account of the series of church fires. The book considers the various forces at work, including government responses, civil rights groups, religious forces, and media coverage, in providing an analysis of the events and their fallout. Arguing that these church fires symbolize the breakdown of communal bonds in the nation, the text appeals for the revitalization of united Americans and the return to a sense of community.Less
In the 1990s, churches across the south-eastern United States were targeted and set ablaze. These arsonists predominately targeted African American congregations and captured the attention of the media nationwide. Using oral histories, newspaper accounts, and governmental reports, this book gives a chronological account of the series of church fires. The book considers the various forces at work, including government responses, civil rights groups, religious forces, and media coverage, in providing an analysis of the events and their fallout. Arguing that these church fires symbolize the breakdown of communal bonds in the nation, the text appeals for the revitalization of united Americans and the return to a sense of community.
