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“Let My People Go”: Exodus in the African American Experience

David W. Kling

in The Bible in History: How the Texts Have Shaped the Times

This chapter focuses on the Book of Exodus in the history of African-American Christians. It surveys the biblical exodus and then turns to various African-American understandings and expressions of ... More

This chapter focuses on the Book of Exodus in the history of African-American Christians. It surveys the biblical exodus and then turns to various African-American understandings and expressions of exodus themes in the context of slavery, emancipation, migration, the civil rights movement, and black liberation theology.Less

Black South African Christian Response to Afrophobia in Contemporary South Africa

Rothney S. Tshaka

in Contesting Post-Racialism: Conflicted Churches in the United States and South Africa

This chapter argues that the apologetics of black theology of liberation, evidenced by its wrestling with method, produced an obsession. This obsession resulted in the alienation of this alternative ... More

This chapter argues that the apologetics of black theology of liberation, evidenced by its wrestling with method, produced an obsession. This obsession resulted in the alienation of this alternative hermeneutics in black communities and created a rift between itself and its interlocutors. Preoccupation with method hampered black theology of liberation from dealing with burning issues. Since black theology of liberation in some instances failed to critically engage Western hegemonies and power, it was incapable of dealing with issues that could have rolled back the flight from the black self. The willingness by the oppressed to participate in their own oppression remains a painful pathology related to scandalous social ills such as Afrophobia. Violence against the black other is ill-informed and should rather be directed at the hegemonic powers of capitalism and neoliberalism. We need a theology that is willing to listen earnestly to its interlocutors.Less

Recovering Black Identity and History, Feminizing and Regenerating Black Power

Lisa M. Corrigan

in Prison Power: How Prison Influenced the Movement for Black Liberation

This chapter analyzes the poetry and prose of Assata: An Autobiography and contextualizes the memoir within the revolutionary aesthetics Black Power vernacular and the political realities of northern ... More

This chapter analyzes the poetry and prose of Assata: An Autobiography and contextualizes the memoir within the revolutionary aesthetics Black Power vernacular and the political realities of northern Blue Power in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It examines the feminized rhetorical strategies in Assata that help to circulate Black Power activism. Like Mumia Abu-Jamal, Shakur situates herself as a leader and as a martyr using nostalgia for Black Power leaders as inspiration for the activism ahead. She uses black history as a rhetorical resource for new political action and highlights the importance of cultural nationalism. In addition, she commits herself to self-defense and Third World solidarity through a gendered articulation of the Black Power vernacular. Shakur’s vernacular is mobile, flexible, and global as she uses the history of slavery in the U.S. and colonialism abroad to explain the BLA’s resistance to “law and order” culture. Finally, she explains the historical and contemporary exigencies that prompt continued action, including police brutality, the expansion of the prison-industrial complex, judicial corruption, and false accusations of cop killing. Still in print, Assata demands a place for Shakur’s narrative among the prison manifestos of the Black Power movement.Less

Race, Religion, and the Race for the White House

Dwight N. Hopkins

in The Obama Phenomenon: Toward a Multiracial Democracy

This chapter examines the controversy surrounding Obama's former, prophetic pastor Reverend Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. One of the fascinating developments in the 2008 presidential election has been the ... More

This chapter examines the controversy surrounding Obama's former, prophetic pastor Reverend Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. One of the fascinating developments in the 2008 presidential election has been the insertion of black religion and black theology into the discourse. For instance, on February 10, 2007, Senator Barack Obama announced his candidacy for the White House. Shortly after, the New York Times published an article suggesting that Obama was beginning to distance himself from his pastor, Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., and that Obama might be linked to a radical form of black Christianity. The chapter argues for a need for a nationwide conversation on black religion, the black church, and black liberation theology.Less

Conclusion: Critical Reflections on Race, Class, Empire, and the “Pains of Modernity”

Chong Chon-Smith

in East Meets Black: Asian and Black Masculinities in the Post-Civil Rights Era

This conclusion introduces Corporal Edward Chin, the American soldier who tied the noose around Saddam Houssein’s statue in Iraq. It interrogates the parable of racial magnetism within the context of ... More

This conclusion introduces Corporal Edward Chin, the American soldier who tied the noose around Saddam Houssein’s statue in Iraq. It interrogates the parable of racial magnetism within the context of U.S. empire, the story of where Asian Americans fit into the logic of white supremacy in relation to class relations within and between racial minorities, and how it constitutes the subjectification and denial of Black liberation. This condition, in and of itself, constitutes the whole system of hegemony that relies upon racial hierarchy, in such a form as racial magnetism, in order to maintain cross-racial hostilities and cross-racial alienation and ultimately the “pains of modernity”—the alienation of modernity’s underbelly—the working-class peoples and peasants who show the social death associated with poverty, dispossession, and invisibility.Less

Making the Women's Liberation Movement

Carol Giardina

in Freedom for Women: Forging the Women's Liberation Movement, 1953-1970

The chapter traces the journey of the formation of the Women's Liberation Movement. When the movement was initiated many questions arose such as whether men should be included in the revolt or ... More

The chapter traces the journey of the formation of the Women's Liberation Movement. When the movement was initiated many questions arose such as whether men should be included in the revolt or whether they should be categorized as women's oppressors. “Sisterhood is Powerful” and “Consciousness-Raising” were some of the major ideas influencing the movement. The debate over the need for a political program for the movement gave rise to the program for feminist consciousness-raising. Consciousness-raising and black women's liberation are closely knitted together. The ideas of “Sisterhood is Powerful” and “Consciousness-Raising” found many favorable social conditions for stirring and organizing a Women's Liberation Movement.Less

“Ethiopia Shall Stretch Forth Her Hands unto God”: The Problem of History in Black Theology

in In a Shade of Blue: Pragmatism and the Politics of Black America

The black theological project was an extraordinary but flawed effort on the part of theologians such as James Cone to recast Christianity as essentially a religion of black liberation. This chapter ... More

The black theological project was an extraordinary but flawed effort on the part of theologians such as James Cone to recast Christianity as essentially a religion of black liberation. This chapter addresses what it calls the “problem of History” informing much of the work of black liberation theologians, beginning with a brief sketch of three trends within black theology, with a particular focus on the work of Cone. It then examines ways in which the historical experiences of African Americans are used to ground some theological claims and the problems that arise from this use. More specifically, the book locates black theology in its historical moment as a response to the secular rants of black power, arguing that black theology has constituted a form of apologetics insofar as it has sought to justify its relevance to various forms of black militancy. The chapter also contends that its version of pragmatism offers the most appropriate way to answer the problematic invocations of history by some black theologians.Less

Black Liberation Theology, Black Power, and the Black Arts Movement at Trinity United Church of Christ

Kymberly N. Pinder

in Painting the Gospel: Black Public Art and Religion in Chicago

This chapter examines the Black Mural Movement in the context of religious imagery by focusing on the evolution of Joseph W. Evans Jr.'s art. In 1986 Evans illustrated the motto of Chicago's Trinity ... More

This chapter examines the Black Mural Movement in the context of religious imagery by focusing on the evolution of Joseph W. Evans Jr.'s art. In 1986 Evans illustrated the motto of Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ (TUCC), “Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian” with a painting of a Jesus with dark brown skin and tightly curled black hair, his arms outstretched around a smiling African American family. This image of a black Christ was Evans's vision of being black and Christian. In the 1970s Evans joined TUCC, where the pastor, Jeremiah Wright Jr., promoted Black Liberation Theology and recommended specific texts and sermons for the artist to study that transformed his conception of Christ. This chapter first considers black theology and pan-Africanism at TUCC before discussing the influence of the Black Arts Movement and the muralist William Walker on Chicago. It also assesses the impact, in terms of style and content, of the murals on Chicago's South Side on Evans's work and concludes with an overview of TUCC's stained glass program.Less

Re-envisioning Black Power

Joyce M. Bell

in The Black Power Movement and American Social Work

This chapter presents the historical context of the black liberation movement in the United States, beginning with a brief history of the civil rights movement, followed by the social science ... More

This chapter presents the historical context of the black liberation movement in the United States, beginning with a brief history of the civil rights movement, followed by the social science literature and historiography of Black Power. Black Power is not the only sort of political formation that is called to mind when visualizing groups such as the Black Panther Party. The chapter discusses how Black Power has transformed into a political form that is captured in the movement's call for “blackfaces in higher places.” This black political strategy signaled in new racialized norms within organizations and reinforced class divisions within the black community, in hopes of creating new institutional space for African Americans. This aspect of Black Power shaped the development of black mayoral and congressional politics and black convention politics, and then generated a sort of black radical march through the institutions.Less

“You Remember Dien Bien Phu!”: Malcolm X and the Third World Rising

Sohail Daulatzai

in Black Star, Crescent Moon: The Muslim International and Black Freedom beyond America

This chapter outlines the history and development of the concept of the Muslim International by analyzing various political and cultural histories. It explores the history of Black Islam in the ... More

This chapter outlines the history and development of the concept of the Muslim International by analyzing various political and cultural histories. It explores the history of Black Islam in the post-World War II era through the figure of Malcolm X and the ways in which the Muslim Third World became both a literal and an ideological backdrop to his unfolding narrative of resistance and internationalism. From Cairo to Harlem, Mecca to Bandung, Algiers to Palestine and beyond, the Muslim Third World played a central role in shaping Malcolm’s political vocabulary and grammar of resistance as he crafted an imaginative geography that connected Black liberation struggles in the United States of America to decolonization in Africa and the Muslim Third World.Less

Introduction: History Moving Fast

Rob Waters

in Thinking Black: Britain, 1964-1985

Many people in Britain between the mid-1960s and the mid-1980s—mostly people of color, but also white people—demanded that British society needed to start “thinking black.” In this demand, they ... More

Many people in Britain between the mid-1960s and the mid-1980s—mostly people of color, but also white people—demanded that British society needed to start “thinking black.” In this demand, they indicated a practice of identifying, confronting, and overturning the racism that they saw not only structuring British society and politics from top to bottom but also upholding all manner of other inequalities. This chapter shows thinking black as a project that brought together a diverse constituency and that encompassed a range of practices from political organization to cultural expression. It proposes that we can read thinking black as an extensive and important project in the effort to decolonize Britain and build a fairer, more equal, and more democratic society out of Britain’s imperial past.Less

Visualizing Christ Our Redeemer, Man Our Brother

Kymberly N. Pinder

in Painting the Gospel: Black Public Art and Religion in Chicago

This book explores the visualization of religious imagery in public art for African Americans in Chicago between 1904 and the present. It examines a number of case studies of black churches whose ... More

This book explores the visualization of religious imagery in public art for African Americans in Chicago between 1904 and the present. It examines a number of case studies of black churches whose pastors have consciously nurtured a strong visual culture within their congregation. It features examples of religious art associated with some of Chicago's most historically significant black churches and art in their neighborhoods. It considers how the arts interact with each other in the performance of black belief, explains how empathetic realism structures these interactions for a variety of publics, and situates public art within a larger history of mural histories. It also highlights the centrality of the visual in the formation of Black Liberation Theology and its role alongside gospel music and broadcasted sermons in the black public sphere. Finally, the book discusses various representations of black Christ and other black biblical figures, often imaged alongside black historical figures or portraits of everyday black people from the community.Less

Narrating Black Theology

Kristopher Norris

in Witnessing Whiteness

Employing the theology of James Cone as a representative of black liberation theology, this chapter analyzes the narrative basis of his ecclesiology as a vision of the church untethered from ... More

Employing the theology of James Cone as a representative of black liberation theology, this chapter analyzes the narrative basis of his ecclesiology as a vision of the church untethered from whiteness. The analysis demonstrates the ways Cone’s ecclesiology contrasts and refines Hauerwas’s. It attends specifically to the ways his narrative theology offers more promising resources for rightly telling the story of white Christianity and offering better witness to our whiteness. This chapter identifies the three conceptual elements of an ethic of responsibility in his thought—memory, particularity, and concreteness. Then, drawing on womanist engagement with his work, argues that Cone offers the concept of “narrative blackness” that invites white theologians and Christians to a form of conversion he calls “becoming black.”Less

The Panthers in Winter, 1971–1981

Sean L. Malloy

in Out of Oakland: Black Panther Party Internationalism during the Cold War

This chapter considers how the leaders of the BPP, the international section and Revolutionary People's Communications Network (RPCN), and the Black Liberation Army (BLA) were unable to formulate an ... More

This chapter considers how the leaders of the BPP, the international section and Revolutionary People's Communications Network (RPCN), and the Black Liberation Army (BLA) were unable to formulate an effective response to the changed international and domestic landscape that they confronted in the age of détente and late-Cold War stagnation. As Aaron Dixon lamented, most of the party's rank and file who returned to their communities battered and bruised from their confrontations with police repression and party infighting found that “there would be no cheering crowds, no open arms, no therapy, no counselling.” Their efforts however, left a rich and contested legacy that remains relevant in the twenty-first century at a time when white supremacy, colonialism, and the ongoing effects of neoliberalism and deindustrialization continue to haunt the world.Less

On the Compatibility/Incompatibility of Pentecostal Premillennialism with Black Liberation Theology

Frederick L. Ware

in Afro-Pentecostalism: Black Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity in History and Culture

This chapter explores the conflict between Pentecostal premillennialism—the pervasive conception of eschatology in Pentecostal churches—and black racial consciousness and suggests that the former is ... More

This chapter explores the conflict between Pentecostal premillennialism—the pervasive conception of eschatology in Pentecostal churches—and black racial consciousness and suggests that the former is not sufficiently compatible with black liberation theology. It first provides an overview of eschatology in black religion before discussing the shift from postmillennialism to premillennialism that accompanied the emergence of Pentecostalism from the Holiness movement. It then examines the compatibility/incompatibility of Pentecostal premillennialism with eschatology in black religion and argues that Afro-Pentecostalism falls short of restoring primitive Christianity and of renewing the Black Church by not articulating a sound eschatology. In order to reconcile Pentecostal premillennialism and black liberation theology, the chapter calls for a shift in Afro-Pentecostal theological discourse toward a conception of eschatology rooted in black folk sources and black millennialism.Less

 The Burden of Political Resistance

Lisa Tessman

in Burdened Virtues: Virtue Ethics for Liberatory Struggles

This chapter examines the way that liberatory movements—including both feminist movements and Black liberation movements—offer praise for their best members, holding them up to model the character ... More

This chapter examines the way that liberatory movements—including both feminist movements and Black liberation movements—offer praise for their best members, holding them up to model the character traits that enable political resistance. This praise appears strange given a eudaimonistic ethics in which character traits that are morally praiseworthy are usually conducive to or constitutive of flourishing, for the character traits recommended for resistance often disable resisters themselves from flourishing. Based on Aristotle’s discussion of “mixed actions,” a description is given of the political resister as displaying “mixed traits” that are routinely unlinked from flourishing and thereby burdened. The problematic traits of the politically resistant self include those such as anger that contribute to maintaining a hard resolve against the oppressors, those such as courage that help resisters take risks and accept loss and sacrifice, and those that resisters must display in their relationships with one another, such as loyalty coupled with an openness to criticism and self-criticism. The chapter includes an extended analysis of one of these questionable virtues, namely anger.Less

Meeting Beyond These Shores: Black Pentecostalism, Black Theology, and the Global Context

Dale T. Irvin

in Afro-Pentecostalism: Black Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity in History and Culture

This chapter examines the intersection between black Pentecostal theology and black liberation theology within a global context. It laments the lack of a fuller dialogue between black theology and ... More

This chapter examines the intersection between black Pentecostal theology and black liberation theology within a global context. It laments the lack of a fuller dialogue between black theology and Afro-Pentecostalism, suggesting that the discourse between the two disciplines is still in its infancy because the potential benefit of such dialogue often has been overlooked. It argues that both black Pentecostalism and black liberation theology have something specific to offer, not only to each other but also to the global Christian community. The chapter outlines several ways that black Pentecostal theology and black theology can serve to mutually critique and correct each other, while highlighting the specific contributions each makes to contexts that are “beyond the shores” of Western theology. It insists that such a discourse need not be physically located in spaces outside North America, and in fact can be carried out in geographical terrains within the West.Less