African American Studies Commons^™

A Profile Of The Reverend Michael E. Haynes Of Twelfth Baptist Church In Roxbury, Massachusetts, Kimberly R. Moffitt

Trotter Review

The hand-clapping of "happy souls" stops. The singing of the choir's songs of Zion ceases; and the minister no longer stands in the pulpit conducting his sermon. Sunday morning worship service is now over at Twelfth Baptist Church; but the work of the church's senior minister, Reverend Michael E. Haynes, is not. For approximately forty years Reverend Haynes has made himself available in a variety of capacities to his congregation, his friends and family, and especially, the young people of Roxbury, Massachusetts. At times when it seemed others "threw in the towel," he has simply stood steadfast, as his scriptures …

Religious Institutions And Black Political Activism, Frederick C. Harris

Trotter Review

During the modern Civil Rights Movement religious institutions provided critical organizational resources for protest mobilization. As Aldon Morris' extensive study of the southern Civil Rights Movement noted, the Black Church served as the "organizational hub of Black life," providing the resources that fostered—along with other indigenous groups and institutions—collective protest against a system of white domination in the South.

The Sacred As The Basis For Human Creativity And Agency In The Black Church, Cheryl Townsend Gilkes

Trotter Review

Religion is, I believe, the most important site for human creativity, innovation, and agency. In the world of the sacred in any social context, one is able to find the widest variety of human constructions of meaning. Indeed, the true understanding of human diversity may be found in the study of religion and the processes through which people sustain and renew their religious organizations and their religious world views. It is important, I think, to apply these new insights to the study of the African-American religious experience. The Black church, or the collective experience of African-American Christians in the United …

An Interview With Dr. Robert M. Franklin, Jr., President Of The Interdenominational Theological Center Atlanta, Georgia, Harold W. Horton

Trotter Review

In 1996 the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, Georgia named Dr. Robert M. Franklin, Jr. as its sixth president of the seminary. Previous to this appointment, Dr. Franklin was Program Officer for The Ford Foundation. He is a graduate of two theological seminaries, The Evangelical Lutheran Theological Seminary in Columbus, Ohio and the McCormick Theological Seminary at the University of Chicago.

Black Church Politics And The Million Man March, William E. Nelson Jr.

Trotter Review

October 16, 1995 will be recorded as one of the most important days in the political history of African Americans in the United States. This day witnessed the largest mass political demonstration in the history of this nation—the assemblage of more than 1.2 million African-American men in Washington, D.C. under the banner of the Million Man March. Both the size and the overt political objectives of the march set it firmly apart from the pallid, feeble demonstrations in Washington led by the NAACP in the 1980s; in its size and character, the march echoed the focus on power and system …

Burning Hate: The Torching Of Black Churches, Salim Muwakkil

Trotter Review

Nearly 100 predominantly Black churches have been torched since 1990, their congregations forced to watch in horror as the very centers of their communities were consumed by the flames of racial hatred. Americans of all races have recoiled in shock—and often with genuine shame—as the attacks have escalated in past months. But despite President Clinton's call for interracial solidarity and the belated appeals of white evangelical Christian leaders for racial reconciliation, many African Americans are left wondering whether white America grasps the meaning and significance of this reign of terror.

Public Sector And Black Church Partnerships: A New Public Policy Tool, Marjorie B. Lewis

Trotter Review

Since the mid-sixties, local, state and federal policies and their resulting agencies have been involved in an ongoing war on poverty. The goals of this effort have been to eradicate poverty through exogenous motivators, which include "work fare" programs, "head start" programs, and welfare "reform" initiatives. As well-intentioned as these efforts may have been, results have proven less than successful, particularly for inner-city African-American youth. In his paper, "The Rich Get Richer and the Black Poor Get Poorer," Samuel Myers reiterates this assessment, and shows that the plight of the inner-city dweller who is poor, uneducated, and African American has …

Strengthening Black Churches: A Collaborative Approach, Sylvia R. Johnson

Trotter Review

Throughout United States history the Black Church has played a significant role in the Black community. As one of a few truly African-American institutions, the Black Church, led by skilled, committed pastors and lay leader, has served as an anchor for the survival and achievement of the African-American community. Black churches bring to their social ministries and neighborhood revitalization efforts a wealth of strengths and assets including a set of values, a self-help philosophy, an emphasis on leadership development, and human resources which are all brought to bear on the myriad of social, economic and moral issues confronting Black people. …

The Black Church: The 'Cocoon' For The Black 'Butterfly' And The African-American Music Idiom, Hubert Walters

Trotter Review

An interesting phenomenon takes place in the world of nature when the larvae of the Monarch butterfly goes through the period of metamorphosis in the protective cover of the cocoon, and emerges as one of the most beautiful butterflies in North America. This phenomenon seems to be an appropriate metaphor to use in our discussion of the African-American Music Idiom. This idiom was developed and nurtured in the "cocoon" of the Black Church, while undergoing the "metamorphosis" of slavery, second-class citizenship, and segregation and emerge as the beautiful Black musical, "Butterfly," which stands at the very foundation of the only …

Introduction, James Jennings

Trotter Review

In order to understand and appreciate the critical importance of the Black Church in the empowerment of Blacks and, indeed, other communities of color in the United States, I am pleased to introduce the Spring 1997 issue of the Trotter Review. As noted above, we begin this issue with a reprinting of an essay by George E. Haynes, originally published in 1928, as part of a report issued by the Commission on the Church and Race Relations and sponsored by the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America. Haynes described the involvement of the Black Church in …

Contemptus Mundi Means "...Bound For The Promised Land...": Religion From The Site Of Cultural Marronage, Vincent L. Wimbush

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

The basic assumption behind this project is that all humanistic inquiries more or less explicitly involve self-discovery. I have chosen to try to be more rather than less explicit. I have realized for some time now that I am both a problem and a promise for the primary field in which I was academically socialized: biblical (New Testament) studies as defined and practiced by the guilds of biblical scholars in North America. I have provided enough evidence that I can “play the game” that the guilds require in terms of publications, research projects, and general scholarly orientation. And as such …

Past As Present, Present As Past: Freedom To Read The Self And The World, Vincent L. Wimbush

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

Historical inquiry of the sort that seeks, in its different but necessarily naive ways, merely to "establish the facts," or merely to "defend the race," or "my people," or "my religion/denomination," or "our position," simply to accuse the other as source of current problems, needs to be identified for what it is and renounced. Such "history" is problematic, not so much because it has no insights or tells no truths, but because it cannot generally even adequately, or critically, problematize the "facts" and "truths" it discovers and engages. Put another way, this type of history seems unable to address the …

African Americans And The Bible, Vincent L. Wimbush

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

Rationale for a History of "Readings": The history of the engagement of the Bible among African Americans is dramatic and complex and has important implications for biblical interpretation. It provides the student of the Bible not only a conceptual window onto a dramatic and complex history of self-definitions and worldviews among those in the modern world who now call themselves African Americans, but also the opportunity to rethink the basic hermeneutical assumptions about biblical interpretation, especially its focus upon the ancient text and/or ancient historical situation as the starting and end point of interpretation. The critical juxtaposition of the Bible …

Ua12/2/2 Xposure - Fall 1995, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

1995 Xposure yearbook.

• Contributors
• Meese, Ray. Ethnic Harmony – International Festival
• Frazier, Stephan. The Unspoken Me – Scott Foster, Musicians
• Thomas, Kim. From the Front Page to Fruit Loops – College Heights Herald
• Shain, Kimberly. Politics? Who Cares!
• Hutchins, Chris. Live, Learn & Intern – Chris Daniel, Lisa Vaught
• Hutchins, Chris. The Power of Prayer – Eastside Church of Christ, Newman Center
• Meese, Ray. Cutting Up on Campus
• Gamblin, Joe. Comic Craze – Comic Books
• From the World of Art – Paintings
• Noel, Anthony. Achieving Greatness – Theatre & Dance
• Noel, Anthony. Precious Moments with the Duke – Duke Orsino, …

Samuel, Patrick And Cato: A History Of The Dallas Fire Of 1860 And Its Tragic Aftermath, William R. Farmer (1921-2000)

Perkins Faculty Research and Special Events

In this unpublished work, William R. Farmer (1921-2000), former associate professor of New Testament at Perkins School of Theology, recounts the story of the Dallas Fire of 1860 and the events that followed: the hanging of three innocent African American men and the whipping of many local slaves. Farmer’s work explores the causes of these acts of racial terrorism by presenting and discussing numerous primary resources. Accompanying the book manuscript is a related work: “A Reader for the Study of the Dallas Fire of 1860.” Both documents were created in the late 1990s.

The Bible And African-American Culture, Vincent L. Wimbush

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

The history of the influence, uses, and functions of the Bible among African Americans is dramatic and complex, and reflects the different, sometimes conflicting, sociopolitical and religious self-understandings, orientations, and aspirations of a dominant segment, if not the great majority, of African Americans.

Reading Texts As Reading Ourselves: A Chapter In The History Of African American Biblical Interpretation, Vincent L. Wimbush

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

Literature, especially religious literature, ideally aims to trigger degrees of empathy in readers who share a particular universe of meaning, with the goal of entertaining, provoking, challenging, and persuading. The literary text that has achieved something of the status of a "classic" is one that has consistently--that is, "beyond its time...beyond its space"--proved to be engaging and empathetic, consistently challenging and inspiring the spirit, provoking thoughts and arresting the imagination of those generally sharing a universe of meaning, or culture. But such texts, precisely because of their empathy-producing qualities, should also inspire among readers again and again over time a …

Book Review: Conjuring Culture: Biblical Formations In Black America, Vincent L. Wimbush

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

American Christianity And Its Role In The Denigration Of The African-American Identity As Found In African-American Literature, Zelda Lockhart

English Theses & Dissertations

The positive effects of American Christianity on the African-American from slavery to present day are often analyzed in African-American literature, which depicts black characters who are grateful to God, mostly for giving them the strength to endure the many social and psychological abuses inflicted by American institutions. African-American literature, however, also depicts characters whose relationship with Christianity subordinates them in American society.

The following chapters will explore the downfalls and ironies of an African-American/Christian dichotomy, and show how the historical events of America have influenced African-American Christianity.

Chapter One gives a historical account of America's involvement in the Transatlantic slave …

Foreword To Old Ship Of Zion, Vincent L. Wimbush

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

Walter F. Pitts died July 20, 1991. I did not know him personally; I came to know only a part of him through the manuscript-obviously an important part of his life-that has been transformed into the book now before the reader. If that which is created is in the image of its creator, I suspect that had I met Walter Pitts I probably would have liked him very much; I know I would have been impressed by him, and would have learned a great deal from him.

At first, when I was asked by Oxford University Press to review Pitts's …

African American Traditions And The Bible, Vincent L. Wimbush

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

Introduction: Reading the Bible = Reading the Self and the World. African Americans' engagement of the Bible is complex and dynamic. It is a fascinating historical drama, beginning with the Africans' involuntary arrival in the New World. But as sign of the creativity and adaptability of the Africans and of the evocative power of the Bible, the drama continues to the present day, notwithstanding the complexity and controversies of intervening periods. Thus, there is in African Americans' engagement of the Bible potential not only for an interpretive history of their readings as a history of their collective self understandings, visions, …

General Index To Research Notes For: A History Of Blacks In Kentucky, Part Iii, Marion B. Lucas

Kentucky History

This index, general in nature, is organized under seventeen larger topics:

• Camp Nelson
• Slavery
• Slave Hiring
• Free Blacks
• Underground Railroad - Fugitives
• Post-Civil War Living Conditions
• Society & Culture - Medical Care
• Professions - Employment
• Freedmen's Bureau
• Civil Rights
• Politics
• Recreation
• Population
• Segregation- Changes in the 1890s
• Civil War
• Education
• Religion

Under these general headings, there are numerous subtopics. The research notes are numbered and presented in numerical order, and they are searchable by note numbers, names, dates, events, and topics (occasional hand-written numbers may not appear in searches). There are no missing notes, but there are occasional missing numbers, …

General Index To Research Notes For: A History Of Blacks In Kentucky, Part I, Marion B. Lucas

Kentucky History

This index, general in nature, is organized under seventeen larger topics:

• Camp Nelson
• Slavery
• Slave Hiring
• Free Blacks
• Underground Railroad - Fugitives
• Post-Civil War Living Conditions
• Society & Culture - Medical Care
• Professions - Employment
• Freedmen's Bureau
• Civil Rights
• Politics
• Recreation
• Population
• Segregation- Changes in the 1890s
• Civil War
• Education
• Religion

Under these general headings, there are numerous subtopics. The research notes are numbered and presented in numerical order, and they are searchable by note numbers, names, dates, events, and topics (occasional hand-written numbers may not appear in searches). There are no missing notes, but there are occasional missing numbers, …

General Index To Research Notes For: A History Of Blacks In Kentucky, Part Iv, Marion B. Lucas

Kentucky History

This index, general in nature, is organized under seventeen larger topics:

• Camp Nelson
• Slavery
• Slave Hiring
• Free Blacks
• Underground Railroad - Fugitives
• Post-Civil War Living Conditions
• Society & Culture - Medical Care
• Professions - Employment
• Freedmen's Bureau
• Civil Rights
• Politics
• Recreation
• Population
• Segregation- Changes in the 1890s
• Civil War
• Education
• Religion

Under these general headings, there are numerous subtopics. The research notes are numbered and presented in numerical order, and they are searchable by note numbers, names, dates, events, and topics (occasional hand-written numbers may not appear in searches). There are no missing notes, but there are occasional missing numbers, …

Ascetic Behavior And Color-Ful Language: Stories About Ethiopian Moses, Vincent L. Wimbush

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

The characterization of the fouth-century Black (Ethiopian) monk named Moses in late ancient Christian hagiographie narratives opens wide a window not only onto particular understandings of, and propaganda about, ascetic piety and religious orientations to the world, but also ancient (non-black) Christian sensitivies to racial/color differences. Four ancient sources— Palladius' Lausiac History, Sozomen's Ecclesiastical History, the anonymous Apophthegmata Patrum, and Acta Sanctorum—are analyzed on the basis of a recent translation.

General Index To Research Notes For: A History Of Blacks In Kentucky, Part Ii, Marion B. Lucas

Kentucky History

This index, general in nature, is organized under seventeen larger topics:

• Camp Nelson
• Slavery
• Slave Hiring
• Free Blacks
• Underground Railroad - Fugitives
• Post-Civil War Living Conditions
• Society & Culture - Medical Care
• Professions - Employment
• Freedmen's Bureau
• Civil Rights
• Politics
• Recreation
• Population
• Segregation- Changes in the 1890s
• Civil War
• Education
• Religion

Under these general headings, there are numerous subtopics. The research notes are numbered and presented in numerical order, and they are searchable by note numbers, names, dates, events, and topics (occasional hand-written numbers may not appear in searches). There are no missing notes, but there are occasional missing numbers, …

A Study Of African American Women And Their Perceptions Of Life In Utah, Jennifer Caye Demayo

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine, through the use of the ethnographic interview (Spradley, 1979), residential preferences, as well as the stated reasons for relocation of African American women who live in a predominantly White, Utah Mormon culture. The "push and pull" factors that impacted the women's decisions to come to and/or remain in Utah were qualitatively analyzed in some detail. The end goal of the research was to determine whether Utah was perceived as a desirable residence by and for African American women.

Residential preference is a complex issue which requires an in depth explanation. The prominent …

African Americans And The Bible: Outline Of An Interpretive History, Vincent L. Wimbush

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

Since every reading of important texts, especially mythic or religious texts, reflects a "reading" or assessment of one's world, and since the Bible has from the founding of the nation served as an icon, a history of African Americans' historical readings of the Bible is likely to reflect their historical self-understandings—as Africans in America.

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald, Vol. 65, No. 36, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

WKU campus newspaper reporting campus, athletic and Bowling Green, Kentucky news. This issue contains articles:

• Green, Travis. 3 Areas Targeted for More Lighting
• Overby, Carol. New Group Gets Up Early for Worship – Prayer Warriors
• Lawson, Jamie. Physical Plant Turnover Rate May Go from Bad to Worse
• Associated Student Government Spring Election Dates Set
• Student Video Contest Taking Entries
• University Center Board Hosts Comedian at Niteclass – Alex Cole
• Windows Will Stay Shut at Pearce-Ford Tower
• Carter, Tricia. Topperettes Will Perform Here Tonight
• Master Plan Organizing Bright Future
• Chattin, John. Editorial Cartoon – Big Red with Campus Plan
• Presidents Seeking …

God Doesn't Look At Skin Color, Oral Roberts

Chapel AV & Transcripts

This is a transcript of the September 26, 1989 chapel service held on the campus of Oral Roberts University in which Oral Roberts delivered a message entitled, "God Doesn't Look at Skin Color."

Roberts shares that when the university opened, a member of the federal government called him to ask about his racial policy. He replied, "ORU is established in three ways, first, to be international. Second, to be interdenominational, and third to be interracial."