African-Americans and Religion

When black slaves arrived from Africa, they were not Christian. Today, American African-Americans may well be among the most fervent Christians in the United States. The charismatic leaders of Black American Christians- from Frederick Douglass and Thurgood Marshall (who preached but where not ordained ministers) to Martin Luther Kind, Ralph Abernathy and Jesse Jackson, among others, have been the spearheads of finding affirmative action and greater equality for all American blacks. This is proof that churches play a vital role in African American culture, and not just as houses of worship. They also stand at the center of the political, educational and social lives of black Americans. What is different about black theology? It is "due exclusively to the failure of white religionists to relate the gospel of Jesus to the pain of being black in a white racist society." (Cone 1970 23) "For nearly three hundred years, enslaved houseworkers had been listening to their owners' prayers and Bible readings....they were able to interpret their own inexplicable situation and give themselves reasons to stay alive." (Proctor 1995 4) Slaves and the blacks who were freed during and after the Civil War literally had nothing but faith to sustain them. "They fixed their trust in God and began the journey up the road to equality." (Proctor 1995 6)

From earliest times to the Emancipation Proclamation, Negro slaves (when they were permitted to do so) worshipped with their masters in the masters' churches. Since most of the whites were Baptist in the South, this was the beginning of the large percentage of African Americans who began, and continue, to consider themselves "Southern Baptists". While worshiping together was often permitted, "some Negro preachers led in the organization of separate churches, so they could sing their own hymns, offer their own prayers, and give expression to their feelings of sadness or joy uninhibited by the overshadowing presence of their white masters." (Armstrong 1979 237)