scholarly journals The Fight is on in Texas

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
African American ◽  
Black Churches ◽  
Churches Of Christ ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Restoration Movement ◽  
African American Churches ◽  
First Time ◽  
American Churches ◽  
Growing Network

This groundbreaking work draws upon congregational histories and other primary sources to chronicle for the first time the story of African American Churches of Christ in Texas. Emerging out of the nineteenth-century Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement, the African American churches inherited from their white mentors both a Biblicist theology and a feisty spirit. Their “fight” was against religious error and in support of the true church as they understood it. Out of that “fight” emerged a growing network of congregations that by the mid-twentieth century reached throughout Texas. This book lifts out of obscurity the African American Christians who joined Ramsey’s “fight …out West” and who made black Churches of Christ in Texas what they are today.

Sacramental Shame in Black Churches

2020 ◽  
pp. 141-165
Author(s):  
Theresa W. Tobin ◽  
Dawne Moon
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Qualitative Study ◽  
White Supremacy ◽  
Black Churches ◽  
Personal Relationships ◽  
Church Members ◽  
African American Churches ◽  
Gender Minorities ◽  
Conservative Christians ◽  
American Churches

Drawing from a qualitative study of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) conservative Christians and their allies, our research names a form of spiritual violence we call sacramental shame that impacts the lives of LGBTQ members. Through this shaming dynamic, homonegative churches make constant displays of endangered belonging a requirement for sexual/gender minorities’ acceptance and even their salvation. This chapter explores how racist discourses impact sacramental shame experiences for African-American LGBTQ church members. African-American churches have long resisted the spiritual violence of white supremacy; however, with the goal of protecting an image of Blackness that defies the sexual stereotypes at the root of white supremacy, they often unwittingly instil in LGBTQ members distinct forms of sacramental shame. At the same time, many in these churches cultivate personal relationships with a liberator God who sides with the oppressed, avenges those who endure injustice, and inspires communal work for justice, promoting a life-enhancing ethos of love.

The Gospel Caravan

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert M. Marovich
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
African American ◽  
Gospel Music ◽  
The Other ◽  
Mass Consumption ◽  
African American Churches ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
American Churches ◽  
Record Company

This chapter examines the continued evolution of the Chicago gospel music in the mid-twentieth century, led by the Good Shepherd Singers, re-christened the Gospel Caravan or simply Caravans. By the 1950s, gospel music had become the predominant sound of the semi-demonstrative, as well as some deliberative, or sermon-centered, African American churches in the urban North. Recognizing the financial upside of gospel music, independent record company owners, religious disk jockeys, and promoters sought to commodify it for mass consumption. This chapter first discusses the performances and recordings of the Caravans, along with members who came and went, before turning to some of the other important figures on the gospel music circuit, including Alex Bradford and his Bradford Specials, the Maceo Woods Singers, the Staple Singers, artists under Vee Jay Records, the Duncanaires, the Little Lucy Smith Singers, Sammy Lewis, and Mahalia Jackson.

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