Digital Commons Network^™

Sacred Music Of African American Catholics: Understanding Usage In High Liturgy, William S. Harrison

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

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Despite steady progress toward honoring cultural identity in liturgy, the Roman Catholic Church has historically ignored the vast musical contributions of African Americans in the celebration of the Holy Mass. This study explores the historical, theological, and cultural application of music from the African and African American diaspora in urban Catholic churches that employ high liturgy as a practice in corporate worship. While many post-Vatican II documents govern culturally inclusive liturgical practices, little is known about the challenges in implementing and maintaining authentic Catholic African American corporate worship traditions in these spaces. The universality of the Roman Catholic faith is …

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Community Formation And Effective Leadership In African American Churches In High-Poverty Communities, Kevin Laron Moore

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

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African American church traditions were reputable for serving “the least of these" (Matthew 25:35 - 46) (TLOT) through intentional, Bible-based community fellowship and relationship. However, African American churches are moving away from community ministries to inside worshiping that does not fulfill God's agenda. As a result, the phenomenon of serving in isolation versus serving through community formation is incrementally deviating from the biblical worldview. This qualitative phenomenological study explores, community formation and effective leadership in African American churches in high-poverty communities in the aggregate city of Newark, NJ. This research aims to explore community formation and effective leadership in African …

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A Phenomenological Study Of The Perception Of Racial Unity In Evangelical Churches In Chicago, Amber L. Harvey

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

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“Racism in the United States is part of a much older and global phenomenon” that has effects that are seen “today in hearts, minds, and institutions” (Lovelace, 2021, p. 67). Regarding the African American population, housing discrimination continues to be an obstacle to families (Burke et al., 2018), racist systems have led to collateral damage in the health of adults (Bleich et al., 2019), and African American men constitute approximately 25% of police shooting victims (Schwartz, 2020). This study seeks to examine if racism has infiltrated into the local church. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore …

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Police Brutality: The Nexus Between Historical Injustices, Police Culture And The African American Experience, Claude M. Rhone

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

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This study focused on the harassment, maltreatment, and brutality of African Americans by police officers. The recent widespread condemnation and social justice protests in response to incidents of police brutality point to historical injustices inherent to the culture of policing. Slavery provides the overarching backdrop; however, Jim Crow laws cultivated the structural adaptations necessary to fulfill segregation between African Americans and Whites. The American policing model, which evolved from slave patrols to public entities, continued as an apparatus in the marginalization and disenfranchisement of African Americans. The narrative of “defunding the police” suggests that the past’s cultural proximity renders the …

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Just What They Have Been Looking For: The Significance, Importance, And Journey Of The Negro Motorist Green Book In The State Of South Carolina And The City Of Columbia In The Twentieth Century, Justice Iyana Briscoe

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

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Travel and tourism in the United States had become an essential pastime for all social classes by the end of the nineteenth century going into the twentieth century. Due to segregation, however, only whites were able to thoroughly enjoy this glorious luxury openly. African Americans during this time had to find ways to enjoy this pastime while avoiding the constant discrimination, humiliation, and embarrassment that came with traveling. From this need were created black travel guides such as the highly successful Negro Motorist Green Book produced by African American businessman and entrepreneur Victor Hugo Green. From 1936 to 1966, Green’s …

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Antislavery White Supremacists And The Mistreatment Of African Americans In Indiana, 1787-1870, Mark A. King

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

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Conventional wisdom holds that Indiana was always predominantly antislavery because it had begun as a territory of the United States under the Northwest Territory Act of 1787, which prohibited slavery; however, this is incorrect. This northern state had about as much proslavery sentiment as most states in the South. The state wrestled with the issue in the legislative session after the legislative session and court case after court case for decades during the antebellum period. Prominent settlers and state organizers petitioned Congress to allow the Indiana Territory to become a slave region. After statehood, proslavery forces continued to push for …

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“And So My Soul Shall Rise”: Enslaved And Free African American Christianity Before Emancipation, Holly J. Lawson

Montview Journal of Research & Scholarship

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The Christianity of enslaved and free African Americans in the years immediately following the first Great Awakening through the end of the Civil War (roughly 1750-1850) evidences a complex cultural fusion and a complicated theological depth. There were many different aspects of the religious and spiritual practices of these African American Christians, including preaching, baptism, ecstatic spiritual experiences, evangelism, violent and non-violent forms of resistance to slavery, and, possibly the most prevalent of all, music and singing. The hundreds of thousands of African people unwillingly brought to America brought with them their African heritage, but the survival of their African …

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With Or Without The Table, We Gather: Reinforcing Innate Resiliencies In The African American Family, Jessica L. Stevens-Eddy

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

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This quantitative study aims to determine whether food-sharing (gathering to eat) can be considered a suitable medium to facilitate increased cohesion within African American families. This study focuses on informal food-sharing as an extension of formal meal-sharing. Previous research links consistent formal meal-sharing to positive and secure identity development, better familial attachment, and improved family cohesion. These practices leave a lasting, detrimental impact on the African American family model. Additional barriers to some African American family meal-sharing practices include working extended and atypical work hours, food insecurity, and poor familial communication. There is a lack of research concerning the impact …

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A Word Fitly Spoken Is Like Apples Of Gold In Settings Of Silver: Removing The Veil From Inspirational Historical Fiction, Laura Louise Milcarzyk

Masters Theses

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This thesis is about the importance of inspirational historical fiction writers to pen literary works that are more reflective of the diverse Kingdom of God on earth and the trials and tribulations the diverse community of followers of Christ endure in this life. The thesis also defines three literary techniques that will, if applied correctly, help lead a writer in creating novels that bring God, His love, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ to life. The artistic statement explains how the novel originated and its process, as well as the novel’s literary and biblical significance. The critical paper is the …

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Leadership Development In The African American Church, Barbara S. Houston

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

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If the Church successfully fulfills its mission, it must have skilled and effective lay leadership. This research intends to examine the Christian organization's enhancement through discipleship and leadership development. Leadership development and discipleship are vital to every church organization. However, research shows that many historically African American denominations are challenged perhaps more than others to find and educate new religious leaders for their congregations (Johnson, 2017, kindle, loc. 179). What most African American pastors have discovered is that aging leadership is prominent in all denominations. The reality is that many African American churches are on life support; they are clinically …

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Arlington’S Freedmen’S Village: Becoming Untethered, Gavin Gerard Harrell

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

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This investigative study will discuss how the Freedmen's Village was designed as a community for the formerly enslaved to demonstrate what they could achieve with freedom. However, residents arriving at the Village found that they still had many restrictions placed on them and their labor, like de-facto slavery. The Freedmen’s Bureau was in charge of the Freedmen's Village. The Freedmen’s Village refused to allow able-bodied individuals to go without work, demonstrating the importance of employment. Furthermore, private agencies collaborated with both Freedmen's Village and the Freedmen’s Bureau to provide job opportunities outside of the Village for some residents. Many of …

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A Strategy To Transition A Traditional African American Church To A Multicultural Church Where All People Are Welcome To Worship, Darold A. Ingram Jr

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

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The purpose for this action research thesis is to develop a strategy to transition the MHBC from a traditional African American church to a multicultural church. Looking at the temperature of our country, civil unrest has reached an all-time high. Our society has been separated by every aspect of life and this is not how God intended for us to live out our lives. While the battle amongst cultures thrives, the only thing that can change this climate is Christ, by way of His church. In the following pages you will be exposed to a strategic plan that will help …

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From Perpetual Struggle To Liberation And Freedom: An Analysis Of Two Predominately African American Churches, Stanley Bernard Baldwin Ii

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

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African American Church Music has a unique and robust history dating back to the era of the African Slave Trade. This project will focus on African American Church Music and its effect on the African American worship experience in the 21st century. The creation of spirituals and gospel music helped shape the doctrine and identity in the African American Church. However, its message of suffering and “longing to go home” has limited the worship experience of the African American demographic. Musical style, historical significance, and racial issues have played a significant role in shaping the African American worship experience. These …

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The Messiah, The Mandate, And The Mission To Implement Multicultural Evangelism Through Intentional Racial Reconciliation Among African Americans And Caucasian Christians, Panisha Levern Stigger

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

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Paste or Type Your Abstract *

African Americans and Caucasian Christians were created as one race and must become revolutionary, re-emerge, and re-engage through a 911 effervescent perspective to share the gospel message to one another, juxtaposing to all people. God’s creation of humankind extends to God’s beloved church as the established community of believers encapsulating doctrine that notably and unapologetically symbolizes all believers represent the body of Christ whom Christ died for (1 Corinthians 12:27) (2 Corinthians 5:15). This project echoes biblical Scriptures and elaborates upon a bonified message that says, racial reconciliation is crucial for African Americans and …

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The Impact Of Sunday School Participation On Spiritual Formation In African American Baptist Churches In North Carolina, Christopher Eugene Harris

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

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The purpose of this correlational quantitative study was to determine a relationship between Sunday School participation and spiritual formation upon participating congregations of the General Baptist State Convention of North Carolina (GBSCNC). The process of spiritual formation comes through the spiritual disciplines being practiced. The spiritual disciplines were measured through the study sample of GBSCNC churches in this study using four spiritual development modes from the Christian Spiritual Participation Profile: growing through a relationship with God, growing through the Word, growing through critical reflection, and growing through relationships with others (Thayer, 1996). The research findings were based on a sample …

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Biblical Hermeneutics For The Twenty-First Century African American Church: Introducing Seven Key Solutions Promoting Higher Education, Jacqueline Montague

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

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Despite the fact that education builds knowledge, higher learning through Seminary is preached from many African American pulpits as having little merit. The author's hope is to channel broader understanding on how the seminary experience can make a difference in accomplishing the assignment commissioned by Jesus to a postmodern society. To achieve this goal, the author divulges the importance and necessity of seminary studies from a semiotic approach. Research includes a study of the hermeneutic circle and its three parts: text, messenger, and listeners; collected data from culture analyses and statistical reports to comprise three pastoral interviews. The objective is …

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