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RELIGION IN THE AFRICAN AMERICAN EXPERIENCE:
A HISTORICAL SURVEY,
RELPOL/AFAS 260, RelSt/History/AMCS 2600
History, as nearly no one seems to know, is not merely something to be read. And it does not refer merely, or even
principally, to the past. On the contrary, the great force of history comes from the fact that we carry it within us, are
unconsciously controlled by it in many ways, and history is literally present in all that we do. It could scarcely be
otherwise, since it is to history that we owe our frames of reference, our identities, and our aspirations.
—James Baldwin, Ebony, 1965
Washington University in Saint Louis
Time: Monday & Wednesday, 1 to 2:30pm
Umrath Hall, 116
Spring 2016
Professor Lerone A. Martin, PhD
Danforth Center on Religion and Politics
Umrath 120
Office Hours: By Appointment
[email protected]
314.935.4344
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course is a historical survey of religion in the African American experience. The course is intended to
introduce students to important themes in the history of African American (thus American) religious
experience (i.e. slavery, emancipation, migration, urbanization, the black freedom struggle, consumer
culture, class, gender, sexuality, race, politics, media technologies, etc.) through a rich engagement of
primary and secondary source materials. Primary attention is given to Afro-Protestantism in North America
and the cultural, social, and religious practices and traditions of these black communities. However,
throughout the course attention is directed to specific expressions of religious diversity and varying religious
traditions/practices of African Americans.
By the end of the semester students will be expected to possess a working knowledge of major
themes/figures/traditions in the religious experience of African Americans as well as key questions that have
shaped the study thereof.
COURSE OBJECTIVES:
Students will:
1.) Gain an introductory knowledge of religion in the African American experience.
2.) Be able to identify some of the pertinent themes, persons, and organizations critical to the history and
study of black religious experience.
3.) Gain skills that will enable them to critically analyze the dialectical relationship of race, class, gender, and
religion to African American identities.
4.) Develop the ability to think historically, reflexively, and critically about the study of religion, African
American experience, religious practices, and the ability to write thoughtfully, respectively, and critically
about (black) religious experience.
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COURSE REQUIREMENTS
1.) CLASS PARTICIPATION: (30% of final grade=300). This course will be conducted with lecture and
discussion sessions. Therefore, in order to fully understand the concepts and themes expressed within
the course, attendance is expected of every student. Regular attendance is required in order to
pass this class. You may have only two unexcused absence. Please bear in mind that
subsequent absences will significantly affect your final grade.
Given the importance of in-class discussions, ALL students are expected to go beyond the role of the
“active observer” and merely attending lecture/discussions. Rather, students must work towards
critical engagement with their peers and the instructor. Therefore, it is imperative that students
complete assigned readings on time and come to class ready to critically engaged the subject matter and
share their reflections and insights. Each student will be evaluated according to how they contribute to
a dynamic and engaging learning environment. Therefore, this portion of the student’s grade will assess
how well you prepare for each class meeting (i.e. staying on top of assigned readings) and most
importantly, how your contribution to each class discussion displays informed and thoughtful
engagement (not necessarily a quantity of comments) with course materials and concepts. It might help
you to think about the evaluation of your class participation as follows: Attendance (10%),
Attention and Articulation (10%), and Short Written Responses (10%).
Several themes discussed throughout the course can possibly foster controversial conversations and give
rise to deeply personal experiences. Each person is entitled to their respective views, however, as a
collective unit it is important that we maintain an environment grounded in respect, tolerance, and
sensitivity to each person’s view and opinions. The class environment is an intimate, vulnerable, and
personal space where students are constantly asked to share opinions. Students and instructors must
show respect for one another at all times. You may not agree with another’s position, you may not
even respect some of the viewpoints offered by others, but you must respect the person as a
contributing member of the class. Given a pedagogical commitment to establishing an active learning
environment, you are encouraged to be flexible as you engage one another; that is to say, give your
peers space and opportunity to wrestle with their responses. As the semester progresses, if the
professor sees fit to make changes to the course structure/readings in effort to better fit students’
needs, he reserves the right to make any necessary alterations.
2) MIDTERM EXAM (30% of final grade=300).
3) CLASS DISCUSSION LEADER/ Précis (10% of final grade=100)
Each student will lead discussion for one class session. Respective leaders will be expected to summarize
the core argument(s) of the assigned reading(s) and to enhance class discussion by raising at least two
thought-provoking questions to kick off our discussion. Students are encouraged to offer a critical
analysis of the author’s arguments and to employ creative ways to engage the class. A written copy of the
2-3 page Précis is due on the day of the presentation.
4) TAKE HOME EXAM (30% of final grade=300).
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CRITERIA FOR COURSE EVALUATION
---Attendance and timely completion of all assignments
—Accuracy and precision of verbal and written contribution to the course
—Creativity, critical judgment, and imagination in course work
Grading Scale
• 94-100 = A
• 90-93 = A• 87-89 = B+
• 84-86 = B
• 80-83 = B• 77-79 = C+
• 74-76 = C
• 70 -73 = C• 67- 69 = D+
• 60 -66 = D
• 59 -0 = F
REQUIRED TEXTS:
1. Fauset, Arthur. Black Gods of the Metropolis: Negro Religious Cults of the Urban North. Philadelphia: University
of Pennsylvania Press, 1944.
2. Martin, Lerone Preaching on Wax: The Phonograph and the Shaping of Modern African American Religion. New
York and London: New York University Press, 2014.
3. Raboteau, Albert J. Canaan Land: A Religious History of African Americans (Oxford and New York: Oxford
University Press, 2001).
4. Sernett, Milton. African American Religious History: A Documentary Witness 2nd edition, Durham, NC: Duke
University Press, 1999.
5. Walton, Jonathan L. Watch This! The Ethics and Aesthetics of Black Televangelism Religion, Race, and
Ethnicity. New York: New York University Press, 2009
ALL REMAINING MATERIALS WILL BE AVAILABLE ON BLACKBOARD
COURSE SCHEDULE
(Subject to change) Students are advised to read the materials each week in the order presented:
WEEK 1: Introduction to the Course/Studying Religion and Race in the African American
Experience
Wednesday, Jan. 20
Introduction to Course
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WEEK 2: The Formation of African American Religious Cultures
In what ways did the cultural milieus of Africa shape African American religious Cultures?
Monday, Jan. 25
Caanan Land, Chapters 1-2
Wednesday, Jan. 27
Michael Angelo Gomez, Exchanging Our Country Marks: The Transformation of African Identities in the Colonial and
Antebellum South (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998), Chapter 4.
WEEK 3: Slavery, Religion, and Resistance
In what ways did slavery shape the perceptions and practices of African American religion?
Monday, Feb 1
Caanan Land, Chapter 3
Sernett, #7 Peter Randolph, “Plantation Churches: Visible and Invisible,” pgs. 63-68.
Wednesday, Feb.3
Sernett, #12, Frederick Douglass, “Slaveholding Religion and the Christianity of Christ,”
Sernett, #16, Jarena Lee
Sernett, # 18, David Walker
WEEK 4: Emancipation, Reconstruction, and The Nadir
How did religion shape black cultural politics (gender, decorum, etc.) and black institutions (schools etc.) following
Emancipation?
Monday, Feb. 8
Caanan Land, Chapter 4
Wednesday, Feb. 10
Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women's Movement in the Black Baptist Church, 1880-1920.
Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1993, Chapter 7, “The Politics of Respectability,” pgs. 185230.
WEEK 5: Urban Migration
In what ways did the great migration alter the nature of church work?
Monday, Feb. 15
Caanan Land, Chapter 5
Sernett, #38 & #39
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Wednesday, Feb. 17
Wallace Best, Passionately Human, No Less Divine: Religion and Culture in Black Chicago, 1915-1952 (Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 2005), Chapters 3 & 6.
WEEK 6: Religion and Black Urban Commercial Culture
How did black religious institutions shape/were shaped by the emergence of black commercial and popular culture?
Monday, Feb. 22
Martin, Preaching on Wax, Chapters 2-3
Wednesday, Feb. 24
Martin, Preaching on Wax, Chapters 4-5
Week 7: The Rise of New Black Urban Religions
How did the rise of new black religions shape the way black people understood themselves as racialized subjects?
Monday, Feb. 29
Weisenfeld, Judith. New World A-Coming: Black Religion and Racial Identity during the Great Migration, (New
York: New York University Press, November 2016), Introduction and Chapter 3.
Wednesday, March 2
Arthur Huff Fauset, Black Gods of the Metropolis: Negro Religious Cults of the Urban North (Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press, 1944), pgs. 1-12, Chapter of your Choice, and Summary of findings, pgs. 107-10.
Week 8: MIDTERM EXAM
Monday, March 7
MidTerm
Wednesday, March 9
NO CLASS
Week 9: Spring Break
HAVE FUN AND BE SAFE!
WEEK 10: Religion and Competing Ideas of the Church and Civil Rights Activism
What roles did black Christianity play in the modern civil rights movement?
Monday, March 21
Caanan Land, Chapter 6
Wednesday, March 23
Sernett, #53 & #54
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WEEK 11: Black Religion, Black Power, and Black Nationalism
What is the relationship between religion and black power?
Monday, March 28
Paris, Chapter 5: “Malcolm X”
Wednesday, March 30
Malcolm X, “Message to the Grassroots,” November, 1963
Sernett, #57
WEEK 12: Church and State Collaborations in the Post Civil Rights Era:
What roles have black faith communities played in the shaping of public policy in the post civil rights era?
Monday, April 4
Michael Javen Fortner. “‘Must Jesus Bear the Cross Alone?’ Reverend Oberia Dempsey and His Citizens
War on Drugs.” Journal of Policy History 27, no. 1 (January 2015): 118–156.
Wednesday April 6
Michael Leo Owens, “Social Services and the Policy Roles of African American Churches,” in Smith, R. Drew. Long
March Ahead: African American Churches and Public Policy in Post-Civil Rights America. Durham [N.C.]: Duke
University Press, 2004.
WEEK 13: The Rise of the Black Mega Church
What are the themes, possibilities, and limits of the Black Mega Church phenomenon?
Monday, April 11
Jonathan L. Walton, “The African American Megachurch Phenomenon,” in The Encyclopedia of African
American Religious Culture edited by Anthony Pinn.
Jonathan L. Walton, Watch This! The Ethics and Aesthetics of Black Televangelism. New York:
New York University Press, 2009, Chapters 4 & 6.
Wednesday, April 13
NO CLASS
WEEK 14:Televangelism
What are the themes, possibilities, and limits of black televangelism?
Monday, April 18
Jonathan L. Walton, Watch This! Chapters 7-8
Wednesday, April 120
Marla Faye Frederick, Between Sundays: Televangelism and the Shifting Discourses of Progress,” pgs.131-159
and “Loosed Women pgs. 160-165.
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WEEK 15: Contemporary Perspectives on Religion, Gender, and Sexuality
How does faith shape the way black people understand themselves as racialized, gendered, and sexualized subjects?
Monday, April 25
Marla Faye Frederick, Between Sundays: Black Women and Everyday Struggles of Faith
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003), “Sexual Politics,” 186-220.
Wednesday, April 27
Carolyn Moxley Rouse, Engaged Surrender: African American Women and Islam. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 2004. Chapter, 7 pgs.152-173 and Chapter 9 pgs. 210-218.
TAKE HOME EXAM DUE ON EXAM DATE