Beyond a Simple Case of Black and White: Searching for the White Male Effect in the African-American Community

This chapter assesses the importance of spirituality among African Americans. More specifically, it examines the extent to which respondents in a large, multiyear national survey view themselves as a “spiritual person.” Four sets of comparative analysis are offered: (1) racial differences among black and white members of various evangelical Protestant traditions, (2) racial differences among black and white members of various mainline Protestant and Catholic traditions, (3) denominational differences specifically among African Americans, and (4) racial differences among blacks and whites who view themselves as “spiritual but not religious.” The findings reveal significant interracial and intraracial differences in how spirituality shapes one’s personal identity. Because organized religion has historically been so central to African American community life, the implications for the growth in noninstitutional spirituality are considered.

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Art as Black and White: examining interactions between race in the 20th century through Black artist experience.

Journal of Student Research ◽

10.47611/jsr.v10i1.1183 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Tucker Collins ◽

Shannon Davis

Keyword(s):

African American ◽

20Th Century ◽

Cultural Production ◽

American Art ◽

African American Community ◽

African American Art ◽

Black And White ◽

The Arts ◽

Aaron Douglas ◽

White Majority

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between African-American art throughout the 20th century and mainstream art critics’ perspectives of the African-American community. Aaron Douglas’, Jacob Lawrence’s, and Jean Michel Basquiat’s experiences as artists spanned the 20th century. The study examined approximately 40 primary documents written by White individuals who played a role in the mainstream art world during the 20th century. The analysis determined that there was no change in the perspectives of the White majority towards the African-American community in response to Aaron Douglas’, Jacob Lawrence’s, and Jean Michel Basquiat’s art. Two main themes emerged regarding White response to these artists. First, the White majority seems to have felt threatened by the African-American community and utilized its power to keep African-American art confined to its own community. Second, the White majority commodified African-American art in order to keep it outside the mainstream. Therefore, the key contribution of this study is to document one important way that racism seeped into the arts. Not only can the findings be applied to other methods of cultural production, but the construction of this study can provide a model for other studies dealing with similar qualitative materials.

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A Newspaper Joins the Movement

Newspaper Wars ◽

10.5622/illinois/9780252041228.003.0003 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Sid Bedingfield

Keyword(s):

African American ◽

Civil Rights ◽

Civil Rights Movement ◽

African American Community ◽

Deep South ◽

Public School Teachers ◽

Equal Pay ◽

Black And White ◽

State Capital

This chapter details the rise of McCray’s Lighthouse and Informer newspaper. It chronicles the role of civil rights activists Modjeska Monteith Simkins and Osceola E. McKaine in persuading McCray to link his newspaper to the NAACP and the push for civil rights. McCray moves the newspaper to the state capital of Columbia and uses its statewide distribution to rally support for the NAACP and overcomew cautious accommodationism in the African-American community. The chapter provides a detailed look at the early days of the Lighthouse and Informer, when McCray’s paper pushed the boundaries of what a black newspaper could publish in a Deep South state. By 1945, the civil rights movement had gained traction and won a resounding victory: a court decision demanding equal pay for black and white public school teachers.

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Bureau Clergyman: How the FBI Colluded with an African American Televangelist to Destroy Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Religion and American Culture A Journal of Interpretation ◽

10.1525/rac.2018.28.1.1 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 28 (1) ◽

pp. 1-51 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Lerone Martin

Keyword(s):

African American ◽

Civil Rights ◽

Civil Rights Movement ◽

Martin Luther ◽

White Male ◽

Black Liberation ◽

Black Clergy ◽

Cooperative Relationships ◽

Black And White ◽

Martin Luther King

AbstractThis article explains how the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) partnered with African American minister Elder Lightfoot Solomon Michaux to discredit and neutralize Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. The Elder, the nation's first minister (black or white) to have his own weekly television show, colluded with the Bureau to shape public opinion against King and cast doubt upon King's religious commitments and activities. Michaux was, what I call, a Bureau Clergyman: a minister who was an FBI “Special Service Contact” or on the Bureau's “Special Correspondents Lists.” Far from secret informants, black and white male clergy in these official Bureau programs enjoyed very public and cooperative relationships with the FBI and were occasionally “called into service” to work in concert with the FBI. The FBI called upon Michaux and he willingly used his status, popular media ministry, and cold war spirituality to publically scandalize King as a communist and defend the Bureau against King's criticisms. In the end, the Elder demonized King, contested calls for black equality under the law, and lionized the FBI as the keeper of Christian America. The story moves the field beyond the very well known narratives of the FBI's hostility towards religion and reveals how the Bureau publicly embraced religion and commissioned their clergymen to help maintain prevailing social arrangements. Michaux's relationship with the FBI also offers a window into the overlooked religious dimensions of the FBI's opposition to King, even as it highlights how black clergy articulated and followed competing ideologies of black liberation during the civil rights movement.

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