Civil Rights and Church

Civil Rights: The Role of Black Churches

The audience will understand the role that black churches played in the ongoing Civil Rights Movement.

In this speech, I will show that black churches -- through methods of advocacy, spiritual leadership and active participation -- play a significant role in the ongoing Civil Rights Movement that began in the mid-20th century and clearly continues on into today's times.

Everyone knows of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the important role he played in the Civil Rights Movement. But how many people know about or realized that King was one of many black pastors to bring black churches into the Movement, providing leadership, spiritual nourishment, and advocacy to African-Americans struggling for equality? Or that black churches continue today to be part of that ongoing struggle? Just as black churches are making an impact in cities around the country where communities are torn by racial tension and violence, so too did black churches rally to the cause in the middle of the 20th century to face and address the same issues (Dagan, 2015). It is important to understand the vital role that black churches play in the Civil Rights Movement that is ongoing because race issues, equality issues and respect for life issues still need to be addressed and can receive much-needed support from black churches around the nation working in solidarity to keep the spirit and fight alive.

Body

MLK was a great spiritual leader who, like Malcolm X, was an active participant in the struggle for civil rights. Both men came from religious backgrounds -- MLK from the Christian community and Malcolm X from the Muslim community. Both were forceful and eloquent speakers who believed passionately in what they were doing. Both, unfortunately, came to violent ends -- killed by assassins who disagreed with their aims. Their respective churches and communities lamented -- but they did not give up the fight. From Florida to New York to California, their efforts are felt. Henry (2013) of Broward County's Westside Gazette writes that "churches in African-American communities continue to play a role in changing our society. The churches are actively seeking to improve the urban communities and provide safe havens for Black children. They take on the issues of gang violence in the same way they ended slavery, with constant hope and amazing faith." Faith and conviction are the backbone of this struggle. In a violent world that hates to hear the Word of God preached, black churches refuse to back down. On the contrary, as Henry (2013) notes, they are doubling down -- insisting on the same formula that took them so far in the Civil Rights Era and advocating change at a grassroots level.

Black churches operated and still operate today as the soul of the struggle for civil rights. Some persons who object to the Movement, point to black-on-black violence or violence against police officers as a means of delegitimizing it (Horowitz, Livingston, 2016). To dispel the notion that all blacks are violent, aggressive and hostile to authorities, black churches and leaders advocate non-violent protest -- civil disobedience, ala the philosophy of Henry David Thoreau. In fact, black pastors urge civil disobedience not just for racial issues but for all issues of equality, such as same-sex marriage issues (Roberts, 2015). Black churches support equality in a number of different ways. It is their commitment to spirituality and faith, however, that really separates them from other activist groups. Their preaching, faith and acts of good works, are pillars of a support for black communities across the nation -- for all communities that are oppressed, in fact -- communities seeking to rise up out of their violent surroundings, their drug cultures, their crime cultures, their oppression, their dead-end paths. The aim of the black church is to provide a spiritual solution in a world that seeks ever-increasing legalistic means of closure. The church gives light to roads towards God -- the ultimate arbiter and equalizer. Black churches have always operated in this capacity since their formation in America during the time of slavery (African-American Registry, n.d.; Calhoun-Brown, 2000). Slaves knew oppression and turned to their preachers for support and guidance. Some, like Nat Turner, emphasized rebellion -- but others focused on long-suffering, patience, faith and later on -- following in the footsteps of Thoreau -- civil disobedience. Black churches do not always share the same faith or ideology -- but they have throughout American history served to provide downtrodden communities with spiritual support, active participation, and leadership.